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Derek Carr's Retirement Led to Plenty of Aaron Rodgers Jokes

Josh Wilson

Carr has retired, and Rodgers remains a free agent
Carr has retired, and Rodgers remains a free agent / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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Saturday morning, the New Orleans Saints and Derek Carr announced the quarterback will be retiring from the NFL in light of a shoulder injury that would have likely required surgery and a year off recovering for him to stay in active playing shape.

The Saints now have three relatively inexperienced quarterbacks on their roster: Spencer Rattler (six career starts), Jake Haener (one career start) and Tyler Shough (rookie). It appears as if, before drafting Shough in the second round, the Saints did not have full clarity on the situation with Carr, though it did appear likely his 2025 was in jeopardy.

With Carr off the depth chart, perhaps New Orleans may want to look at who is available in the open market, especially with some cap relief in hand after the retirement. A rebuild around a young quarterback would also be reasonable, but general manager Mickey Loomis has preferred to remain competitive in his build of the team, especially in the post-Drew Brees era. For the time being, sportsbooks don't love the chances that New Orleans will stage a very competitive team in 2025.

Aaron Rodgers, of course, remains available as a free agent after parting ways with the Jets. Fans were quickly drawing that line between a potentially available roster spot and him:

Another possibility that could be considered is Kirk Cousins, who remains a member of the Atlanta Falcons, but is firmly behind Michael Penix Jr. in the depth chart. It's long been speculated he could be available in a trade to a QB-needy team, but it's difficult (though not unheard of) to see the Falcons engaging with a division rival in the Saints to get a deal done.

One thing is for sure: The shocking news of Carr's retirement immediately makes the quarterback room in New Orleans a more interesting predicament moving forward.

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Josh Wilson
JOSH WILSON

Josh Wilson is the news director of the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in 2024, he worked for FanSided in a variety of roles, most recently as senior managing editor of the brand’s flagship site. He has also served as a general manager of Sportscasting, the sports arm of a start-up sports media company, where he oversaw the site’s editorial and business strategy. Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from SUNY Cortland and a master’s in accountancy from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. He loves a good nonfiction book and enjoys learning and practicing Polish. Wilson lives in Chicago but was raised in upstate New York. He spent most of his life in the Northeast and briefly lived in Poland, where he ate an unhealthy amount of pastries for six months.

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