Ranking Derek Carr top 5 landing spots in 2023 following his release

No. 4 potential landing spot for Derek Carr in 2023 – New Orleans Saints

The Raiders wanted to shop Derek Carr but the no-trade clause on his contract complicated things substantially. On paper, this approach makes sense, as it restricted his ability to potentially arrange deals without the knowledge of the organization. In practice, this limited their number of realistic trade partners.

Carr ended up meeting only New Orleans Saints and he told Las Vegas after the visit that he wouldn’t be waiving his no-trade clause. The Saints can now pursue Carr without having to compensate the Raiders and they have a head start. The only thing that might hold them back is their limited amount of cap space. They’re currently $55 million in the red and will need to restructure several contracts and shed a few others just to get under the cap.

Working in New Orleans’ favor is that general manager Mickey Loomis has always found a way to land players he likes in spite of the cap and would surely find a way to fit Carr into the team’s budget. One thing that could convince the veteran quarterback to sign with the Saints is that he would be playing under Dennis Allen, his head coach in his rookie season.

On the other hand, New Orleans is undergoing a soft reboot and will have to address several roster holes, such as wide receiver. Chris Olave is coming off a productive rookie season but Michael Thomas didn’t play a snap last year and isn’t probably the same player he was in his prime. As a matter of fact, he could be a cap casualty.

Then again, the Saints had a pretty good defense (9th points allowed, 5th in total yards) last season, something Carr never truly had with the Raiders.