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It’s been a whirlwind week for Kellen Moore, who capped his first season as the offensive coordinator of the Philadelphia Eagles with a win in Super Bowl 59 on Sunday night, and followed that up by officially accepting his first head coaching gig with the New Orleans Saints less than 48 hours later. Moore will walk into a situation in New Orleans that is not nearly as cushy as he entered in Philadelphia. His team is aging, in cap hell, and has big questions to answer about their starting quarterback.
The Saints have been unable to find stability at starting QB since Drew Brees retired in 2021 after 15 years with the team, starting eight different quarterbacks in that four year span. With 27 starts, nobody is more seasoned than Derek Carr, who signed a 4-year deal worth $150 million in March 2023. But Carr’s brief tenure has been marred by injury, mediocrity, and a contract that anyone around the league would tell you was a massive overpay.
From the sounds of it, however, it seems as though Kellen Moore isn’t as down on Derek Carr, a quarterback he once defeated 57-7 in a college football matchup, as others have been.
“Derek’s a tremendous quarterback in this league,” Moore told reporters during his introductory press conference on Thursday, per Mike Garafolo of NFL Network. “He’s a starter in this league. He’s a premier player in this league. … Really excited to team up with him and go through this process.”
Although Moore had nothing but kind words to say about Derek Carr, what he didn’t say perhaps said even more about Carr’s place within the Saints organization than what was said. Twice Moore was asked whether Carr would be New Orleans’ starter in 2025, and twice Moore went out of his way not to provide a direct answer.
Not only is Carr 33 years old and past the prime of his career, but he has hard salary cap hits of $51.5 million and $61.5 million in each of the next two seasons. If New Orleans decided to cut Carr with a post-June 1st designation, it would result in a $21.5 million dead cap charge, but $30 million in cap savings, which would be huge for a team already $54 million over the salary cap heading into the offseason. If Carr is still on the roster in March, he’ll be due a $10 million roster bonus.
The Saints hold onto the 9th pick in the NFL Draft, but it’s not anticipated that the team will use their 1st round pick on a quarterback. New Orleans has however selected a quarterback in three of the last four drafts, picking Ian Book and Jake Haener in the 4th round in 2021 and 2023 respectively, and Spencer Rattler in the 5th round in 2024.
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