Will the New Orleans Saints be able to land Derek Carr? Would the longtime Las Vegas Raiders quarterback even be a good fit in New Orleans? Few people are positioned to answer that question better than Drew Brees, and the legendary Saints passer did just that in a wide-ranging interview with the Spun’s Chris Rosvogolou.
From where he’s standing, this looks like a great partnership. Brees endorsed the idea of Carr landing with New Orleans and gave the veteran quarterback a mulligan for some of the hurdles he experienced with the Raiders:
“I think highly of Derek Carr. I’ve always been impressed with the system he ran and his command of the system. Unfortunately, he had a couple of big games against us. He’s been a part of a tough situation with the Raiders over the last few years. It felt like just about every bad thing that could happen would happen to those guys. He caught the brunt of that – unfairly so, in my opinion. Look, I think it’d be a great thing for Derek Carr and a great thing for the Saints. We’ll see how it plays out, but this is that time of the year where you see that (quarterback) shuffle happening.”
He’s right on that last point — multiple teams are working to clear up their situations under center this time of the year, with Aaron Rodgers entering a bizarre “darkness retreat” to mull over his options while Tom Brady finally steps away from the game for good. Pending free agents like Jimmy Garoppolo, Daniel Jones, and Geno Smith are looking forward to the paydays ahead of them while Lamar Jackson continues to haggle with the Baltimore Ravens. And that doesn’t even get into the quarterbacks competing to be picked first overall in this year’s draft.
Brees also spoke about his interest in returning to NFL broadcasting and coaching football, as well as Sean Payton’s outlook with the Denver Broncos and the challenges the Saints must overcome this year. So be sure to give it a read. There aren’t many people around the league who can offer more insight to what the Saints are dealing with right now than he can. Once upon a time, he was in Carr’s shoes.
