Saints' Derek Carr Was 'Open' To Looking Elsewhere For 2025 Season

New Orleans is in an intriguing spot right now...

Nov 17, 2024; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; cc (4) rolls out the pocket against the Cleveland Browns during the first half at Caesars Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-Imagn Images | Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

The New Orleans Saints have made it clear who will be the team's starting quarterback in 2025.

General manager Mickey Loomis recently made it sound like Derek Carr would be the team's guy in 2025. The team doubled down on this by restructuring his deal for the 2025 season. He now will have a massive cap number for the 2026 season, but it's much more manageable for the 2025 campaign.

It wasn't a guarantee that Carr was going to return and there reportedly even was a time in which he was "open" to looking elsewhere if things didn't work out with New Orleans this offseason, according to ESPN's Katherine Terrell.

"Sticking with Carr didn't appear to be a certainty when the Saints initially hired (Kellen Moore), who sounded noncommittal on Carr's future in his opening news conference before affirming his commitment a few weeks later at the NFL combine," Terrell said. "Several NFL sources believe that Carr was open to testing the market in recent weeks, possibly filling a void with a quarterback-needy team before free agency, but the Saints showed no outward desire to trade or cut him.

"Multiple teams in the quarterback market were made aware of this in recent weeks, the sources said. Carr told ESPN in January that he wouldn't take a pay cut. The Saints started March with a significant amount of work to do on the cap, needing to free up at least $40 million in space. They restructured the contract of center Erik McCoy on Wednesday to free up $7.1 million in 2025 cap space."

Did the Saints make the right call?

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