Shoulder injury helps explain Saints' decision to keep Derek Carr
When quarterback Derek Carr suffered a late-season hand injury, the Saints potentially were backed into a contractual corner. It ultimately may have been his shoulder, not his hand, that limited the team's options.
Of his $40 million compensation package for 2025, Carr had $10 million fully guaranteed. Another $30 million was guaranteed for injury until the third day of the league year in March, when it converted to a fully-guaranteed payments. The Saints could not have cut Carr in order to avoid the $30 million obligation if he was unable to pass a physical before the vesting date.
The Saints ultimately didn't cut Carr. We previously were told the hand had healed before the deadline. If the shoulder injury happened during the 2024 season, the fact that he's considering surgery shows it hasn't.
The initial report regarding the shoulder injury didn't specify when or how it happened. Subsequent reporting from TheAthletic.com strongly suggests it occurred during the 2024 season. Thus, if Carr couldn't have passed a physical due to the shoulder before the $30 million in injury-guaranteed pay became fully guaranteed, the Saints couldn't have cut him.
So they did the only thing they could. They exercised their right to convert all but $1.255 million of his $40 million pay into a guarantee, creating more than $30 million in cap space for 2025 and kicking that amount to future years.
The shoulder injury and its implications speak to the current awkwardness between player and team. The fact that the news of the shoulder injury leaked 13 days before the draft suggests it came not from the team but the player. And it complicates the team's effort to land quarterback Shedeur Sanders at No. 9, since everyone now knows the Saints will be looking for a short- and long-term answer.
It also will help to have a player on a rookie deal. With a post-June 1 Carr trade now off the table due to the injury, the Saints are looking at releasing Carr next March with a post-June 1 designation. That would result in a 2026 dead-money charge of $19.207 million and a 2027 cap hit of $40.463 million.
The end result is a mess for the Saints, who had no way to avoid paying another $40 million in 2025 - and taking nearly $60 million in future cap charges - to a player who may never suit up for them again.