Derek Carr handling more at QB

You could always hear Drew Brees talking at the line of scrimmage. You couldn’t miss it, really. He was loud.

Saints practice used to sound like this:

"Alert, alert, alert!"

"Kill, kill, kill!"

"Fifty-two is the Mike!"

But practice has been different since he retired. Quieter. Different people were doing the pointing, and it just never felt quite as organized as it should. With Derek Carr under center, things are changing. There’s a good chance you heard him before you saw him during the team’s first organized team activity open to the media.

And that’s a good thing. The past two years, the Saints relied on whomever was playing center to handle most of the protections for the offensive line. That can work, of course, but there are issues. When starter Erik McCoy misses a game or a snap, the process gets disrupted. But it always seems to run a little smoother when it's done with the help of the quarterback. That way, it’s easier to pinpoint when something breaks down.

“When you’re in control, you know where your problems are,” Carr said. “You do all that studying, all that preparation, just to break the huddle and let someone else make the decision. ... I like to be in control of the game. And I like to make the (Mike) points. And I’m not right every time, but if I’m not right this time, I know what my answers are. And with defenses, it’s so complicated, sometimes it’s not gonna be 100%. But if I’m not 100%, where’s my answer.”

Having the quarterback take command of a lot — McCoy is still part of the process — but having Carr lead should help the offensive line settle in and perform at a higher level. Not that New Orleans was bad last season. The team allowed an average of 2.2 sacks per game, just about league average. But back when Drew Brees was leading things, that number was often well below 2.0.

Can the Saints get back to that level? Probably not. No one is Brees. But when Carr is at his best, he’s usually sacked about 25 times per season. And in this offense, with this line, maybe he sees some improvement, too.

What should certainly improve are the dumb, avoidable mistakes. The protection errors, miscommunications and other details that, at times, got the offensive line in trouble last year. Carr should also do a better job of getting the team out of bad plays based on what the defense is doing.

“I think the more the quarterback can see, the more he can do, the more he can get you in better situations, better plays,” offensive line coach Doug Marrone said. “But that takes time. It takes time for the whole unit, really to be in the same place to jell with that. Obviously, he’s the type of quarterback who we can do that with.”

The jelling process sounds like it is already happening. The team has only practiced together a couple of times, but already players can feel the difference.

“I’ve been able to sit there and just talk to Derek, and like, sit there in a huddle and listen to him,” guard Cesar Ruiz said. “And you see how simple it is for like, the o-line is smooth and how quick they can do things when he’s on top of the Mike points, as well, along with Erik, taking control of everything. So, it’s definitely great to have that.”

Carr was asked what he looks for at the line of scrimmage. What are the things he’s reading? Where is he looking first, and how is he making adjustments? The quarterback took a breath and said that he could give a 12-hour dissertation on the topic and didn’t want to give up all of his secrets.

But the long and short of it is that he wants to get the team in the best positions to succeed. He wants to make the right calls based on the defense, and he will be empowered to do that in a way the Saints couldn't last year with the switches back and forth at center and quarterback.

This year, unlike the past two years, the starting quarterback should be the starting quarterback, start to finish, and the Saints should benefit from that stability in many ways.