By Matt Moscona
Derek Carr will go down as the worst free agent signing in New Orleans Saints history. Oh, and what a dubious history it is.
The shine of the Sean Payton-Drew Brees era has made many forget the franchise’s reality for much of its nearly 60-year existence. New Orleans carries an all-time losing record (417-480-5). The Saints didn’t make the playoffs for their first 20 years and didn’t win their first playoff game for 33 years.
This is the team that drafted punter Russell Erxleben 11th overall (yes, you read that correctly). Jason David and Jarius Byrd might as well be four-letter words that need no context among Saints fans. Mike Ditka traded an entire draft for Ricky Williams–and then the two posed in a photo with Williams donning a wedding dress. Jim Everett beat up Jim Rome on live television shortly after signing with the Saints. He wasn’t quite as aggressive against NFL defenses, finishing his three-year stint in New Orleans 17-31.
There was Aaron Brooks and Jeff Blake, Heath Shuler and the Billy Joes. An over-the-hill Ken Stabler couldn’t get it done. A Kerry Collins rebirth didn’t work either. The team followed the same failed path with Jameis Winston and Andy Dalton recently with similar results.
Yet still, the Carr signing occupies its own wing in the Hall of Shame.
We can start with a four-year, $150 million contract with $100 million guaranteed for a quarterback that had been discarded by the team that drafted him and saw him work for nine years. The Raiders knew Carr’s ceiling after just two winning seasons. His statistics were almost identical to Andy Dalton’s when the Bengals cast him aside. No team was rushing to make Carr their franchise, yet the Saints were ready to throw bags of cash at a quarterback with a career record of 63-79.
Great quarterbacks don’t become free agents because they are nearly impossible to find, and they are worth their weight in gold. When you have one, you ride it until the wheels fall off, like the Saints did with Brees. If New Orleans had the option to add Carr on a similar deal as they did with Dalton or Jameis Winston, that would have been palatable. Mortgaging your future to bet on a mixed breed running in a league of thoroughbreds was short-sighted at best and reckless and worse.
And then the team compounded the issue by restructuring Carr’s deal not once, but twice, further hindering their ability to build a competitive roster in the near future.
Why is Trey Hendrickson leading the NFL in sacks with the Bengals while New Orleans keeps whiffing on pass rushers? Why is Zack Baun a finalist for NFL Defensive Player of the Year with the Eagles? Paulson Adebo just signed a free agent deal with the Giants.
The Saints front office continues to sign bad contracts and exacerbate those issues by restructuring deals. None has been more apparent or crippling than the Carr deal.
Aside from the finances, there is also the opportunity cost of signing Carr in New Orleans in 2023.
Holding the 29th pick in the 2023 draft, the Saints were not likely to enter the Bryce Young, CJ Stroud sweepstakes. But New Orleans could have ridden with Winston in 2023 and made a push for their franchise quarterback in the stacked 2024 draft. While Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels might have been out of reach, Michael Penix, JJ McCarthy and Bo Nix were certainly attainable.
Wasting time masquerading as a contender with Derek Carr also burned any chance of your veteran leaders from challenging for a title in New Orleans.
Cam Jordan is finished as an every down defender. Demario Davis is 36-years-old. Alvin Kamara will turn 30 in July. Taysom Hill’s time in New Orleans may be finished given his contract and coming off a career-threatening knee injury. Marshon Lattimore is now in Washington.
This group of all-time Saints greats should have gone out with a bang. Instead, they will see their time end in New Orleans like a deflating balloon.
All this evidence without a mention of his leadership–or lack thereof. Perhaps this is merely circumstantial, but isn’t it striking a the lack of X tributes from current and former Saints teammates? Maybe it was the deflection of blame for his on-field mishaps.
That lack of self-awareness extended beyond the field, too. While an entire organization is wondering about his future, Carr is launching a YouTube channel where he and his brother perform awful car reviews (Seriously, $100 million and you can’t spring for better production value?). And how Carr about avoiding questions for a month, only to finally speak during a church sermon while taking shots at a credible reporter and the fans who care about the team that employs him?
It would be unfair to fault Carr for his injury. It is an unfortunate but unavoidable part of football. How he handled the situation, however, further complicated the offseason.
We also learned Saturday that Carr and new Saints head coach Kellen Moore have never even met in person.
In every way conceivable, this signing has been a disaster.
As a quarterback, Carr had a low ceiling but a high floor. In New Orleans, however, he reestablished the floor as the worst free agent signing in the team’s inglorious history.
