There’s going to be 32 quarterbacks starting games in the NFL this fall, but a couple of backups and injury situations make things more complicated when you try to rank them all top-to-bottom. And that quandary didn’t do Derek Carr any favors. When Touchdown Wire’s Jarrett Bailey ranked the top 36 quarterbacks in the NFL, he put the New Orleans Saints’ $150 million man all the way down at No. 26.
Which made Carr one of the game’s worst starters (not counting rookies), ahead of guys like Will Levis (No. 28), Deshaun Watson (No. 31), Bryce Young (No. 32), and Carr’s surprise replacement on the Las Vegas Raiders, Aidan O’Connell (No. 35). Here’s why Bailey is so down on Carr:
Oh dear.
Derek Carr taking a massive step backwards is such a Saints thing to happen. Raw numbers don’t tell the story for Carr. Yes his passer rating was as high as it had been since 2020, but that was an offense that had no chemistry and consistently came up short when it mattered.
Unfortunately for Carr, many of those points hit home. He experienced (and caused) a ton of frustration in 2023 especially in crunch time. When trailing inside the final two minutes, he completed just 9 of 24 passes, converting 3 first downs and throwing an interception without scoring a single touchdown. Through the first 11 games, he attempted 47 passes inside the red zone (the opposing 20-yard line) and scored only 8 touchdowns. He threw 5 of his 8 interceptions on third downs last year.
Fans made note of those chemistry issues all year long when Carr struggles to consistently hit established weapons like Chris Olave, Alvin Kamara, and Juwan Johnson in stride. We all saw him yelling at Olave and his Pro Bowl center Erik McCoy in emotionally-charged moments after bad plays. No matter how you slice it, Carr wasn’t effective enough last year, and he’s facing a ton of scrutiny in 2024.
But there’s some reason for optimism going into 2024. He did improve down the stretch and the Saints had the NFL’s best red zone scoring percentage after they doubled practice reps in that phase late in the 2023 season. They’ve since brought in a new play caller, Klint Kubiak, who installed his own offensive coaching staff. Even if Kubiak is, say, the 23rd-best play caller in the NFL that’s an improvement over Pete Carmichael at 32nd. And rookie right tackle Taliese Fuaga should do a lot to improve the blocking up front, at least on Carr’s right side.
Still, this criticism of Carr is warranted, and he has to earn back the good will he burnt through last year. Saints fans and national media writers need to see his improvement to believe it.
