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Kellen Moore Details Plan for Saints Starting QB Role After Derek Carr Retirement

The Saints lost an entire line of their quarterback depth chart Saturday.

Josh Wilson

Moore is entering his first year as a head coach in the NFL with the Saints
Moore is entering his first year as a head coach in the NFL with the Saints / Stephen Lew-Imagn Images
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The New Orleans Saints were dealt a bit of a curveball with quarterback Derek Carr announcing his retirement from the NFL on Saturday morning. Carr and the Saints admitted that his shoulder injury was a major motivator in the decision to hang it up after 11 years in the pros.

Head coach Kellen Moore said that while Carr's communication was strong throughout the process, the discussion around retirement was still a recent development. So New Orleans is having to rethink its strategy, both short- and long-term, especially at the all-important quarterback decision.

Instead of having a clear veteran QB1 when healthy, they now have three young quarterbacks—Tyler Shough, Spencer Rattler and Jake Haener—with just seven starts between them (plus a tight end in Taysom Hill who has served as a starting quarterback over the years with suboptimal results).

So, who will start? Moore's answer was obvious at this stage in the offseason: The three youngsters will compete for the role.

This shouldn't be a huge shock to hear. Even before the draft, there was a hint that Carr might miss all of 2025 with the shoulder injury that has now prompted his retirement. If that were the case, a training camp battle among the remaining three quarterbacks would have likely been the outcome.

The only thing that may mix this up is if the Saints opt to look into the free agency or trade market for a veteran quarterback. So far, there has not been much noise on that front (beyond the usual jokes and unfounded fan speculation), and the Saints seem outwardly content with one of their three youngsters winning the keys to the car.

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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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