By Ross Jackson
NEW ORLEANS, La. – It’s the end of an era in New Orleans as the New Orleans Saints officially process former starting quarterback Derek Carr’s retirement.
Among the official moves on today’s transaction wire: The #Saints placed Derek Carr on the reserve/retired list and the #49ers put WR Trent Taylor on IR.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) June 3, 2025
It has been known that Carr was going to be retiring since the Saints kicked off rookie minicamps and the announcement was made early in the day before practices began. His retirement is linked to a degenerative shoulder injury that would have required surgery. Instead, the 11-year veteran quarterback decided to call it a career.
The Saints waited to process this move for accounting purposes only. The delay was not indicative of any kind of waffling by Carr or the team. Waiting until after June 1 allows New Orleans to defer dead cap charges over an additional year in 2026.
For now, the Saints will recoup Carr’s remaining base salary of $1.255 million in salary cap. But next year is the big difference maker for New Orleans. The team will see $28.745 million less in dead cap than initially expected as Carr has agreed to leave the Saints his original $30 million in base salary. New Orleans did still pay out Carr’s $10 million roster bonus.
The transaction will help the Saints move into their next phase and era under new leadership at both head coach and quarterback.
Carr spent two years in New Orleans completing 68.2% of his passes for 6,023 passing yards, 40 passing touchdowns and 13 interceptions. During his 27 games of availability, the Saints were 14-13 overall.
New Orleans will now spend the offseason deciding between young signal callers Spencer Rattler and Tyler Shough to see who will lead the way for at least 2025.
