Retaining GM Mickey Loomis, the Saints will pair their long-running front office setup with a new coaching staff soon. This partnership will oversee a retooling effort, as a full rebuild does not appear to be in the cards. A collaboration on the team’s most important player will be necessary, as the Saints are once again in the worst cap shape of any team entering an offseason.
Derek Carr is now in Year three of his $150MM contract, which runs through 2026. The former Raiders cornerstone has battled injuries, and a battered receiving corps gave he and the Spencer Rattler–Jake Haener combination little to work with as the season progressed. New Orleans has a decision to make on Carr, but anything drastic would involve a heavy dead money figure.
Carr, 34 in March, is due a $30MM base salary for 2025. Of that total, $10MM is guaranteed due to the QB being on the Saints’ roster in March 2024. A $30MM injury guarantee — covering the remainder of Carr’s 2025 salary and $10MM of his 2026 paragraph 5 pay — would vest in March of this year. The Saints have already gone to the restructure well, as this is perhaps the NFL’s restructure headquarters, but no known pay-cut effort has occurred. Carr would not accept a trim if the Saints tried.
“I wouldn’t take a pay cut,” Carr said, via ESPN.com’s Katherine Terrell. “Yeah, I wouldn’t do that. Especially with what I put on tape. Would I restructure? Absolutely. I’ll always help the team that way. But there’s some things that you put out there that you earned. Even in some cases it could be even worse, but I felt confident when I signed it that this would give the team the best flexibility at the time.
“… But there’s always a kind of respect as a quarterback you’re like, well still we’re in that respectful lane. ‘We’re good. Build the team.’ But yeah, I wouldn’t take anything less to do this. It’s hard enough putting our bodies through it. And you’re trying to get everything you can for your family for it.”
Restructures are commonplace at this time of year, and Saints fans know this better than anyone. The previous Carr restructure created the high dead money bill in exchange for cap savings last year. As a result, it would come with a $50.13MM dead cap charge if New Orleans released Carr. That could be halved via a post-June 1 cut. Like the Broncos’ case with Russell Wilson last year, the Saints could attempt to escape now before another injury guarantee vests. It just would mean cap savings of less than $1.5MM this year.
A restructure is probably where the team goes, as Carr would count an NFL-record $51.46MM against the cap in 2025. The Saints gave Carr a no-trade clause, minimizing the chances of that route being feasible. The Raiders did the same via the sides’ 2022 agreement, and they moved on via release in February 2023.
Carr started 17 games for the Saints in 2023 but only 10 this past season, with the QB battling an oblique tear and a subsequent hand injury. He finished with 15 touchdown passes, five INTs and 7.7 yards per attempt, and although the 11th-year veteran did not have enough snaps to qualify in QBR, his 63.1 number checked in higher than his 2023 offering (56.5). Carr remains a capable but unspectacular option, but the Saints finding a definitive upgrade would prove difficult this offseason.
“That’s the life of a quarterback,” Carr told Terrell. “Whenever the season doesn’t end the way [you wanted] that’s the person people look at. ‘Well what money can we free up to get this and do this’ … and I’m fully confident with what I put on tape. I’m not worried, if that’s the case, and it had to change and all that kind of stuff. I’m super confident that whatever it is, I could get anywhere else to play. And so I’m not worried about that, but at the same time, I just want to win.”
Per usual, the Saints are in their own sector of cap trouble, sitting more than $66MM over the projected 2025 ceiling. No other team is more than $24MM over. Carr said he has engaged in “great conversations” with Loomis and Gayle Benson. With the Saints limited in terms of how they could replace the middling QB, especially in an offseason that does not look to feature many upgrade options, Carr sits on fairly steady ground ahead of the Saints’ annual cap-gymnastics period.
Nor should he accept a pay cut. It strikes me as absolutely absurd that a journalist would even ask that question. If he was to entertain it, that would be something that should be discussed between player and club.
Agreed. That “pay cut” thing what a horrible term to use with some employees…
And, while that cap hit is significant, Carr’s pay itself isn’t that high. $30 million as a starting QB isn’t a large amount (somehow) in today’s league.
30m really isn’t much at all for a solid starting QB in the league. He can win games in the league too, they just need to get the pieces around him. They desperately need some size and strength in the WR group; and with luck, fewer injuries in ’25.
What do the Saints have to do to escape the perpetual cap trouble? Don’t the restructures just kick the can down the road?
Start drafting better players and trading /casing off some of their current roster to get more picks and reduce the current and future cap load. If ever a team was due for a complete rebuild to get their financial house in order, this is it.
Eventually they need to eat their vegetables for a year.
They just need to start over, and swallow the dead cap pill. The only way they can remain competitive doing what they’re doing is by hitting multiple home runs in the draft year after year.
Saints should just bite the bullet and do the rebuild this year. Reset the cap as much as possible and draft a replacement for Carr next year when the draft class is deeper.
Carr stinks and the Saints have to finally rebuild. What coach would want that job with Carr at QB? They have a bunch of old guys on defense. I would want stability and young talent to preserve my own job security. Also, does Mickey Samuel Billy Loomis have compromising pictures of Benson? Why is he still there? Saints fans should be upset. The Aints are back!!
Yep, burn it down and hand the keys to the guy with the best plan and ability to rebuild (with 3+ years of leeway to get it done)
I’m not sure why the Saints stick with Mickey Loomis. Having a team in perpetual “cap hell” is evidence of a GM who doesn’t know what the F he’s doing much of the time.
Edit – Unless he’s only following the directives of ownership. Then his continued employment would make sense.