Derek Carr ‘very confident’ he’ll be back with Saints, and ‘it sucks’ he couldn’t get back in time to finish this season

Derek Carr told NewOrleans.Football that he feels “very confident” he’ll be back with the Saints in 2025 and finally try to have the kind of healthy, consistent season that has eluded him and the entire team in his first two years here.

But the 33-year-old also acknowledged (and knows better than most) that there is a business side to the NFL. So “you never know” for sure.

“I will never speak for other people, but from what they tell me, what they’ve told me the past eight weeks when the (head coaching) switch was made and all that, they’ve been open and honest. Everything they’ve told me has been true,” Carr said when I caught up with him after Sunday’s season-ending 27-19 loss at Tampa. “I don’t fear anything if I’m honest. And I love being here. I think the way we were able to start playing – especially when I go back to the end of last year and how we kept going through this year – when we were out there, it was pretty freakin’ awesome.

“And the way that my wife and I were able to get involved in the community, I think that we started to show people who we really are. And I would love to continue that, but that kind of stuff comes in a few months.

“Going forward and how the business … you never know. And so, for me, I have nothing but love for them. They have nothing but love for me. And it’s been amazing. So, the feeling is mutual – but you never know how those things shake out.”

The Saints have already done one thing to signal that they’re leaning toward keeping Carr in 2025, when he is due a non-guaranteed $30 million salary and guaranteed $10 million roster bonus. If they had wanted to try and offer him some sort of bonus to reduce his salary and make it easier to cut him this offseason, they would have had to do that before Sunday’s season finale. Now they will have to absorb a cap hit of at least $50 million through June 1 if they decide to release him.

But the Saints still have major decisions to make regarding their next head coach and the direction of their franchise. So, nothing is final until it’s final.

As for the here and now, Carr said “it sucks” to have missed the final four games of this season with two fractured bones in his left hand.

But oddly enough, it feels like Carr felt the same way after watching his team finish 0-4 from the sideline as he felt at the end of last season – when the Saints finished 4-1 while Carr posted the NFL’s best passer rating during that span.

In both cases, Carr was left wondering “what might have been” if this team ever had a chance to stay healthy and find its rhythm in an extended stretch.

“It’s not an excuse, but when you deal with those many injuries, it just would’ve been nice to see what it looked like without ‘em. We got a small sample size in both years, and it was like, ‘Oh, it looks pretty sweet when we’re all healthy,” Carr said.

“I was so confident this year. Especially when I told you that I was playing my best football (after Week 11 – a feeling that was backed up by his numbers at that point). And that’s the hard part for me is that’s a tough pill to swallow. I was fully confident we’d have a chance to win the division, go to the playoffs and make a run with this team. And when there’s nothing else you can do about it, it sucks”

Carr said it’s a team sport, so the fact that they went 5-5 with him as a starter and 0-7 without him this year was obviously about more than just his absence. But he said “anytime you’re not out there, you always feel bad because you’re not helping your teammates.”

“I did everything that I could and literally just ran out of time,” said Carr, who tried rehabbing the non-throwing hand without surgery but estimated that he still needs another week and a half or two weeks for it to heal. “It wasn’t just the broken bones that hurt. Actually, that was the least of my pain. The ligaments, the muscles and all that other stuff, I just couldn’t get the strength back to just functionally be able to do my job. Like, I’ve never experienced that many injuries in my life. But it is what it is. And I tried my best to get back, and I just couldn’t.”

As for whether he feels any regrets over how he got injured – trying to leap over a pile of players to gain a first down in the final minutes of New Orleans’ Week 14 win at the Giants – Carr said no.

“I was putting my body out there for my teammates. Trying to in 4-minute get us a first down and win us a football game,” Carr said. “And so, do I wish I didn’t do it, obviously, looking back? Absolutely. I would rather be healthy and go on a run with my guys – which we were all looking forward to.

“But would I change it? No. My heart just keeps telling me I’d do it again. Because I’d do anything for my teammates. But looking back and just the struggle it was to win football games, I just wish I was out there for them.”

I also asked Carr what he thought of rookie Spencer Rattler’s growth in the starting quarterback role – which included three standout stretches in the second half against Washington in Week 15, the first half against Las Vegas in Week 17 and the first half at Tampa Bay on Sunday.

“I was so proud of him. I was so proud of both of them,” Carr said, adding in fellow young backup Jake Haener, who started the Commanders game before Rattler relieved him. “Spencer was unbelievable in asking questions and picking my brain. I would just give him little nuggets here and there, and seeing him use them to his advantage just made me so happy. I really enjoyed it.”