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Jeremy Fowler
Closesenior NFL national reporter
- Jeremy Fowler is a senior national NFL writer for ESPN, covering the entire league including breaking news. Jeremy also contributes to SportsCenter both as a studio analyst and a sideline reporter covering for NFL games. He is an Orlando, Florida native who joined ESPN in 2014 after covering college football for CBSSports.com.
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Katherine Terrell
CloseESPN Staff Writer
- Katherine Terrell came back to ESPN to cover the New Orleans Saints in the summer of 2022. She left the company in 2019 after joining in 2016 to cover the Cincinnati Bengals. Katherine is a graduate of LSU and a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, native, and she has covered the NFL since 2013.
METAIRIE, La. — Kellen Moore didn’t have the answers.
Less than three months after the New Orleans Saints named him head coach, Moore found himself confronting a barrage of news conference questions about a player he had never coached — never even met with in person — since taking the job. The Saints had announced quarterback Derek Carr’s surprise retirement three hours earlier, with the team saying in a statement that Carr experienced pain in his throwing shoulder in late March after his first significant throwing session of the offseason. The Saints said scans determined Carr had a torn right labrum and “significant degenerative changes to his rotator cuff.”
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The dual May 10 statement from Carr and the team left a lot of questions. Twenty-three of them, in fact, were posed to Moore on Saturday, including these:
When did Carr decide to retire? How did he get injured? Did you talk to Carr yourself about the retirement? Why did you say you were optimistic at league meetings that Carr would play if, according to your statement, you’d just found out Carr was injured? Why were the Saints searching for clarity on Carr’s condition if his communication was “really good” as you said?
Moore steered clear of direct responses, praised Carr, discussed “the process,” although he didn’t provide any real details on what the process was. Carr also hasn’t spoken directly on the matter since retiring — attempts to reach him for this story were unsuccessful — which hasn’t kept the questions from coming, and hasn’t prevented puzzled observers within the Saints organization and around the league from attempting to answer them.
Everyone concedes Carr is injured. Not everyone believes it’s the full story of why he retired.
DAYS BEFORE FREE agency in early March, word began to spread within league circles that Carr — heading into the third season of a four-year, $150 million contract he signed with the Saints in 2023 — was open to playing for a new team.
A Carr representative spoke with at least two teams in the market for a quarterback about potential interest in the veteran, according to three league sources. While one of the sources classified the contact as indirect, both front offices were made aware that Carr might be looking for a new playing home.
A Saints source said no permission was given in writing for Carr to speak to other teams. A separate Saints source said the team heard whispers of Carr’s flirtation with other teams but didn’t consider it a major issue, in part because Carr, after 11 years in the league and playing through injuries, had earned the right to evaluate his future. Outside talks never reached a serious point, according to sources who have familiarity with the conversations.
An AFC executive believes Moore had every intention of casting his lot with Carr, at least in 2025.
“A lot of the guys that interviewed [for the New Orleans head coaching job] thought they would have Derek,” the exec said. “That was part of the appeal — the [Saints] offense and what it was when healthy.”
Though Moore expressed excitement about working with Carr and assumed he would be in the fold as the team’s top starting option for 2025, he took the job understanding that New Orleans likely was headed toward quarterback purgatory. The 2025 season was the last with guaranteed money on Carr’s contract, and after two years without a playoff berth, the Saints and Carr appeared poised for a breakup in 2026 barring undeniable chemistry between quarterback and coach.
“It was time to look at [quarterbacks in the draft] regardless,” a Saints personnel source said. “That’s where the value line was. Whether [Carr] played or not wouldn’t dictate whether we select somebody.”
Amid that reality, Moore received “mixed signals” about Carr’s plans this offseason, according to multiple sources. When Carr didn’t show up for voluntary workouts, one player source noted how rare it was for an established QB1 to be absent for such a session. Drew Brees’ 2012 contract holdout is believed to be the last time it had happened with the Saints. Without offering specifics on the timing, Carr said during a guest sermon at Church LV in Las Vegas in April that he and his wife, Heather, had planned to fly to New Orleans earlier in the offseason. He said that Heather had been experiencing a health issue and had a miscarriage around the time of their scheduled trip.
Multiple team sources did not recall seeing Carr in the building this offseason, and one of those sources believes Carr’s correspondence with teammates was minimal. Offensive coaches were in communication with Carr, but one team source noted those talks were more about life than football schematics.
Given that paradigm, both parties might have understood that a separation was possible.
But nowhere in the talk of an impending split — nor in conversations Carr’s camp had with other teams — was any discussion of a potentially career-ending injury.
TO BE SURE, Carr’s injuries were a prevailing theme of the Saints’ misbegotten 2024 season. After going 9-8 and narrowly missing the playoffs in 2023, Carr was limited to 10 games in 2024. He left an eventual loss to the Chiefs on Oct. 7 because of an oblique injury. Second-year player “Apparently there were some reports out there about him being done for the season and all that. If he was done for the season, we would’ve put him on IR by now.”
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Several team sources said the looming issue around Carr’s late-season availability was the left hand injury listed on the injury report. Carr worked to return to action, with one player source recalling that Carr was able to throw but “couldn’t take a snap.” A shoulder injury never appeared on the injury report during the 2024 season, and a team source said that Carr went through a routine physical at the end of the season like all the other players on the roster and that no issues were voiced about the shoulder.
This is why, according to player and team sources, questions and curiosity linger among some in the Saints building about the injury that inspired Carr’s retirement.
“What we thought was his injury going into [2025] looks a lot different now,” said a team source, referring to the hand injury. Those same sources acknowledged Carr has played through injuries throughout his 11-year career and very well could have accumulated issues related to his shoulder over time.
“He wasn’t in the mode of doing heavy throwing late in the year, and he tried to get ready, but the wrist just wasn’t there yet, so it’s possible he didn’t discover problems [in the shoulder] until he started to do more,” a Saints coaching source said about Carr’s late-season process.
When exactly the labrum injury occurred is not clear, nor is the timeline for when Carr reported pain in his throwing shoulder to the Saints. While multiple team sources said they learned about Carr’s injury around late March (the time when Carr reported the issue to the team, per the May 10 statement), a Saints coaching source said he first learned about the issue when an April 11 report surfaced on NFL Network that Carr had a shoulder injury that jeopardized his 2025 status.
Whenever the notification occurred, the team “got [the shoulder] looked at, found out what was going on” and hoped for the best, according to a high-ranking Saints source. “When he said pain, we’re not thinking retirement,” the source said. Carr attempted to rehab the injury but realized that functioning with it would be an arduous task, as outlined in the team’s statement Saturday. Multiple sources said that’s an important piece of the timeline between the March discovery of the injury and the May 10 announcement — both sides wanted to see how the injury would respond to rehab.
Still, the belief among two player sources and one league source is that Carr had been at least considering retirement well before the extent of the shoulder problem was apparent, even if Carr was simply taking stock of his own career mortality as the season concluded.
Then why gauge interest from other teams? One source with knowledge of the situation said Carr was simply considering his options at that point. Even if retirement was a consideration, it was hardly a solidified plan. And Carr would not have been clear on the extent of the shoulder issue in early March when he was evaluating his potential market.
Would a Carr retirement announcement in, say, February have prompted New Orleans to pursue a veteran on a high-priced contract such as Sam Darnold? One team source said such a move would have been tough at the time because of the $40 million in guarantees for Carr on the books in 2025. “I think the draft was always the most logical play,” the source said.
The Saints did heavy lifting on quarterbacks in the 2025 draft, and several league sources said they believe New Orleans spent significant time evaluating two in particular: Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart and the team’s eventual choice, Louisville’s Tyler Shough.
Multiple rival teams wondered in the days leading up to the draft whether the Saints were a candidate to move up into the back end of the first round to select a quarterback. The New York Giants would do so, trading up to select Dart at No. 25. The Saints chose to remain patient, getting Shough at No. 40. Now the 25-year-old rookie might be their best option.
0:45
Flashback: New Saints head coach Kellen Moore faced Derek Carr in college
Check out highlights from Kellen Moore and Boise State beating Derek Carr and Fresno State 57-7 back in 2011.
ONE DAY AFTER the season ended, Carr met the media. He addressed his contract, telling ESPN he would not take a pay cut but would be happy to restructure his contract to help the team. He discussed the details of his hand injury, saying he wouldn’t need surgery, but did not mention a shoulder problem.
“I’m probably still a little bit away from getting cleared from all of that stuff,” Carr said. “I did everything I could to try and be out there. I’m appreciative to the organization and Coach Rizz for giving me that chance. … It came down to, I just couldn’t hold a football. That’s kind of important to do.
“The No. 1 thing is that I have to get healthy. I’ve got to take care of myself and then, the rest after that, is really out of my hands.”
Whatever his deep-seated thoughts about retirement, Carr struck a positive tone about a future in New Orleans.
“I feel excited about being here because I feel like we finally, not only, the last 16, 17 games, played really well, but also my wife and I have been able to do what we do in the community. … I’m super passionate about this city, our fans, this organization.
“Hopefully over the last two years I’ve proven to everyone in this building that all I care about is winning and that’s what I want to do.”
Carr was already well on his way to $200 million in career earnings. He had played through various systems and coaching staffs. Moore would have represented his seventh head coach and eighth playcaller since entering the league in 2014. He has played through many injuries — including a serious one with the labrum that hadn’t even been known. Within that context, his retirement should have perhaps been unsurprising.
0:30
Saints grab Tyler Shough with the 40th pick
The Saints select Louisville QB Tyler Shough with the 40th pick as the third quarterback off the board in the 2025 NFL draft.
As for a move to another team, Carr’s $30 million in guaranteed salary and $10 million roster bonus “certainly didn’t help” his attractiveness for a trade, according to a source from a team in the market for a quarterback. Money would have complicated any trade talks, had they intensified.
The Cleveland Browns decided to run it back with Joe Flacco while trading for Kenny Pickett and drafting Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders. The Titans, whose head coach Brian Callahan oversaw Carr’s quarterbacks room with the Raiders in 2018, selected Cam Ward with the No. 1 pick. Another potential suitor, the Giants, rebuilt their QB room with Russell Wilson, Jameis Winston and Dart.
Carr’s best and perhaps only chance to be a QB1 was in New Orleans, before the injury appeared to make it all a moot point.
The Saints and Carr had agreed to keep their discussions on his future private until at least after the draft as they sorted things out. “The fact there were not a lot of leaks was by mutual consent,” said a source familiar with their conversations, adding that Carr’s goal was for the process to go smoothly for both parties.
While a high-ranking team source wasn’t sure of the exact date when retirement became the only viable option, discussions on a contractual settlement took some time, of which the Saints didn’t have much as they laid the groundwork for their next rookie class in the days before the draft.
What the sides worked out: Carr would keep his $10 million roster bonus and the $28.5 million signing bonus received in 2023, and the Saints would get cap relief from the $30 million in 2025 salary that Carr would forfeit. Carr did not want to earn a bloated salary against the team’s cap with no intention or possibility of playing after surgery. “Integrity matters to him,” said a source who knows Carr well.
Carr was initially set to count $69 million against the salary cap next year, but his retirement benefits the Saints twofold: saving $30 million in cash and getting his salary off the books quicker. Had he remained on the team this season and been released in 2026, the Saints likely would have made him a post-June 1 cut to spread the cap hits into 2027.
An important piece of context is that general manager Mickey Loomis is 69 and has had his role for more than 20 years, a reality that has led some in the industry to express a belief that the organization is resistant to stark change. A more aggressive front office might have pushed the issue with Carr to find a swifter solution and made quarterback plans accordingly, an AFC executive said.
4:18
Saints release 2025 schedule with a rowdy news conference
Saints coach Kellen Moore is joined at the podium by comedian Rob Kazi to reveals the team’s schedule for the 2025 NFL season.
“They move slowly — that’s just the way they operate,” the exec said. “Which has worked for them for a while. But they could use a reboot. If they go that route, they will need to start trading off veteran pieces in training camp.”
One team source believes that the Saints at least considered scaling back the roster in an effort to rebuild two years ago but that Loomis wants to make one last run at a winner. The Saints retained a number of their older veterans, working out incentive-based contracts for players such as Cameron Jordan (age 35) and Tyrann Mathieu (33), whose contracts are set to void next season along with those of Taysom Hill (34) and Demario Davis (36).
And, to be sure, Loomis is used to winning. The Saints were a perennial contender with Sean Payton on the sideline and Brees under center in the mid-2000s.
“I think they see things as the NFC South is still very winnable and they are in a position to be underestimated now,” a veteran NFL personnel man said. “They would have to rely heavily on the run to be successful this year, in my opinion.”
Deepening the intrigue is a 2026 quarterback class considered much deeper than this year’s — one that could include Texas quarterback Arch Manning, whose grandfather, Archie, was the No. 2 pick by the Saints in 1971, the last year New Orleans used a first-round pick on a passer. That connection is not lost on many in league circles.
Whatever the future at the position holds, the series of events that brought the Saints to a pivot point in their QB continuum, with a new coach left to answer questions in a mid-May news conference about the unforeseen retirement of the team’s No. 1 quarterback, was not on the radar of many in the building.
“Is this what everybody anticipated? I don’t think so,” a team source said.
