The New Orleans Saints have several needs to address in this year’s NFL Draft. A league insider believes some of these position needs include offensive line, wide receiver and cornerback. There’s another spot though where the Saints need help, and that position is quarterback.
ESPN NFL insider Field Yates says the injury status to quarterback Derek Carr throws a curveball in the team’s plans. Carr is dealing with a shoulder problem.
“I would have advocated for the Saints taking a signal-caller at No. 9 even if Carr were fully healthy. So standing pat is a totally logical outcome, with Shedeur Sanders and Jaxson Dart among names to consider,” Yates wrote for ESPN. “However, if the Saints are not enamored with the top of the QB class, they strike me as a potential trade-down team.”
The Saints currently have the no. 9 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.
The Saints have new leadership this season
New Orleans is entering the 2025 season with a lot of questions, and unknowns. The team is led by new coach Kellen Moore. Moore was hired following the departure of Dennis Allen, who was fired.
The Saints finished the 2024 season with a 5-12 record. It was yet another forgettable season for a team that is used to success, with a proud tradition in the NFL.
This offseason, the news hasn’t been much better for fans of the franchise. Carr, a veteran quarterback, is nursing a shoulder injury which might require surgery. If Carr is unavailable, the Saints may go for a play caller with the ninth selection.
Some quarterbacks who might be available for the Saints include Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders. There are free agents still available for the team as well, including veteran Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers has been speaking though to several other franchises this offseason.
Saints fans are desperate to see success, as the team hasn’t made the NFL Playoffs since 2020.
Did Saints actually want to part ways with Derek Carr this offseason?
In December, whispers emerged that the New Orleans Saints could part ways with quarterback Derek Carr this offseason. However, the club restructured Carr's contract, indicating that general manager Mickey Loomis and first-year head coach Kellen Moore were committed to him through at least 2025.
That was before a recent report indicated that Carr could miss at least a portion of the upcoming season due to a shoulder injury.
On Tuesday, NFL insider Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk suggested that Carr's shoulder injury this past season is a big reason he's still with the team.
"Of his $40M compensation package for 2025," Florio explained, "Carr had $10M fully guaranteed. Another $30M was guaranteed for injury until the third day of the league year in March, when it converted to a fully guaranteed payment. The Saints could not have cut Carr in order to avoid the $30M obligation if he was unable to pass a physical before the vesting date. ...So they did the only thing they could. They exercised their right to convert all but $1.255M of his $40M pay into a guarantee, creating more than $30M in cap space for 2025 and kicking that amount to future years."
Previous stories from March hinted that the Saints-Carr saga wasn't over after he made it known in January that he wouldn't take a pay cut. On March 21, ESPN's Katherine Terrell mentioned that "Carr was open to looking elsewhere before the Saints restructured his contract." That's quite interesting, considering it's now clear the 34-year-old wasn't fully healthy at that time.
On Monday, Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated said that "the Saints knew about [Carr's] shoulder issue" but didn't "view it as something that was actually threatening his 2025 season" before the April 11 report surfaced.
"The fact that the news of the shoulder injury leaked 13 days before the draft suggests it came not from the team but the player," Florio added in his story.
Regardless of whether or not the Saints have Aaron Rodgers and/or Colorado's Shedeur Sanders in their quarterback room when training camp practices get underway, it appears there's now a realistic chance Carr has taken his last meaningful in-game snap as a member of the organization.
As of Tuesday afternoon, DraftKings Sportsbook listed the Saints as the betting favorites at -110 odds to draft Sanders on April 24.
