Loomis quickly shut down any further talk of Carr’s injury situation. Carr suffered a shoulder injury last year that was only revealed to the public a few weeks ago. Surgery is an option and it’s unclear to us and the Saints if he will be able to play in 2025. Other reports have indicated that Carr is using the injury to force his way out of New Orleans. The news has the Saints in a position to take a quarterback early in the draft, but it’s looking increasingly unlikely that it will happen with the No. 9 overall pick. The Saints will remain players in the quarterback market early in the second round, even if they don’t pull the trigger on the first night of the draft.

Speculation as to what the Saints will do with the No. 9 overall pick has increased lately, with commentators commonly linking them to Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders. Underhill’s “guess” is “that pick is not going to be a quarterback,” instead labeling the Saints’ No. 40 overall pick as “the sweet spot” for the position. Underhill does not believe there “exists” a quarterback prospect that the team deems worthy of the No. 9 pick, and addressed Derek Carr’s recent shoulder-injury saga by saying, “if [that type of quarterback prospect] didn’t exist before all of this happened, it probably doesn’t exist now.” Should Carr remain a Saint for 2025, he may be battling a second-round rookie for the starting role.

“Either a) he legitimately is like my shoulder has reached a point where I think I’d rather take care of it than play this season or ... b) it’s some sort of threat, like we asked for you guys to release us, you didn’t, we were upset when you just restructured the contract instead of trying to work out a release, so now here’s another path for us not showing us, and maybe now we’ll force a release,” Triplett continued. “I don’t know how there’s any resolution from this,” Triplett added. The Athletic’s Diana Russini added that she believes Carr does not want the “Kirk Cousins treatment” where a team is not committed to him long-term. Triplett and Nick Underhill believe that Carr wanted out and was very upset when the Saints restructured his contract and forced him to stay. It sure feels like Carr is intent on not playing for the Saints this season.

Regarding his injury, Breer writes that the “Saints knew about this shoulder issue. What I’m less sure about is if they view it as something that was actually threatening his 2025 season. The story I’ve heard is that Carr’s camp has told people that this actually stems from his ’23 AC joint sprain, which never fully healed,” Breer continues. The implication here seems to be that Carr wanted to play for former Saints coach Dennis Allen and may not be as thrilled to play with Kellen Moore. That Carr would really threaten to go under the knife to fix his arm rather than play out the 2025 season as a starter seems hard to believe, but his status with the Saints even beyond that appears to be shaky at the moment. New Orleans holds the No. 9 pick in the draft and could look to take a quarterback early to address the room.