This offseason, the New Orleans Saints went shopping for a new offensive coordinator after finally distancing themselves from Pete Carmichael Jr., the last remnant of the Sean Payton era. Carmichael had held the position since 2009.
While the search was broad, a distinct theme seemed to arise when taking a look at the candidate pool: give us someone who knows how to run a version of Sean McVay or Kyle Shanahan’s offenses. Jerrod Johnson (Houston Texans), Brian Griese (San Francisco 49ers), Shane Waldron (Seattle Seahawks) and the eventual choice for the job, Klint Kubiak (49ers), all went through the process. One person familiar with the thought process behind the decision said simply that Derek Carr needed an ally; someone or something to take his best skills and put them to proper use.
It’s early yet, but in two games with Kubiak the Saints have clubbed a pair of opponents and reemerged as one of the most exciting offenses in the league. True, those two opponents were the Carolina Panthers—the worst team in the NFL—and the Dallas Cowboys, a team that looked great in Week 1 but could have simply been preying on an offensive tackle-less Cleveland Browns team and a quarterback who has all but short-circuited. But Ejiro Evero and Mike Zimmer remain two of the most formidable defensive minds in football, and Kubiak undressed them over the course of two weeks by scores of 47–10 and 44–19.
The events of the 2024 season, combined with the Saints’ decision to hire Kubiak, make for an absolutely fascinating question now that we are able to see Carr in a different offense and put the pieces of his recent career in perspective. Put another way: Carr may have been one of the most hosed Pro Bowl–caliber quarterbacks of his time.
Think about this for a second. Last year, Carr had Carmichael, a coordinator whose offensive numbers largely fell off a cliff after the retirement of Drew Brees and the departure of Sean Payton. Carmichael now works for the Denver Broncos and re-joined Payton after his firing last year.
Before that? Carr worked for Josh McDaniels, whose numbers sans Tom Brady have been mostly horrific.
Before that? Carr worked with Jon Gruden, who, while borrowing heavily and liberally from coaches such as Shanahan and McVay, has registered just seven seasons with a top-10 passing offense in 18 years as an offensive play-caller, play-calling head coach or head coach in general.
Perhaps Carr is joining a long list of quarterbacks such as Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Stafford, Ryan Tannehill, Sam Darnold, Tua Tagovailoa, Geno Smith and more who have had their careers revived by playing in a system designed by, or inspired by Shanahan or McVay. This is significant because, at a time when our depth of quarterback play is still poor, Carr is a 33-year-old still capable of putting together a handful of quality seasons.
By the time Carr threw his interception Sunday—which, in the interest of clarity, was a tipped ball and, thus, not necessarily totally his fault—he had only thrown two incompletions. He had been sacked once despite playing against Micah Parsons and in an offense that can expose less mobile quarterbacks with deeper boot action.
It’s unfair to place the weight of the success directly on the system or systems, and we should note that each coach from these trees possesses their own background and system tweaks. Kubiak’s father, Gary, was a fundamental part of creating what we now view as the Shanahan offense, having served as Mike Shanahan’s OC for a decade. Klint Kubiak was influenced by other coaches and systems. Oddly (and probably enjoyably for Klint), he was dismissed as an offensive coach by Zimmer, whose defense he embarrassed Sunday.
But the one constant underlining of the coaches who come from the Shanahan tree is that they are remarkably thorough, detail-oriented and quarterback-centric. They have taken the best players and made them better. They have taken the worst players and made them passable.
And, in the case of Carr, they have taken players who we may have gotten the wrong idea about and polished them off, restoring the old shine. How incredible is it that Alvin Kamara and Carr now sound like a venerable threat again after we’d imagined, based simply on what we’d seen on the field, that their skills had diminished.
Maybe something else had diminished in New Orleans and it had nothing to do with Carr or some of his top offensive weapons.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Klint Kubiak Has Derek Carr and the Saints Offense Humming.
