Quarterback Derek Carr’s decision to retire may have come as a shock publicly, but it sounds like he and the New Orleans Saints had no plans to go into the season together.
A new detail emerged about Carr’s relationship with the Saints following the quarterback’s retirement announcement on Saturday. According to Jeff Nowak of WWL Radio in New Orleans, Carr never even had a face-to-face meeting with new Saints coach Kellen Moore. Carr also never spoke with rookie Tyler Shough, whom the Saints selected in the second round of the NFL Draft.
Something worth noting: Kellen Moore never actually met with Derek Carr in person this offseason.
— Jeff Nowak (@Jeff_Nowak) May 10, 2025
Tyler Shough never spoke with him, either. I don’t think him playing for the Saints in 2025 was really ever a realistic possibility.
The Saints officially named Moore their new head coach on Feb. 11. It is quite telling that he never met personally with Carr in the three months since.
This makes it quite clear that neither Carr nor the Saints envisioned the quarterback having any role with the team this season. While the team always backed Carr publicly, Moore never sounded sold on him at quarterback. The revelation about Carr’s shoulder injury only cast further doubt on his future, and Carr cited that shoulder issue as the primary reason for his retirement.
For now, the Saints appear ready to give Shough the chance to win the starting quarterback job for 2025. They probably drafted him with that knowledge, since it is quite obvious there was a great deal of distance between Carr and the team, and that has been the case for a while.
