The New Orleans Saints have their new quarterback, and there will be a lot to learn heading into the 2023 season and beyond.
But the media and fans got off to a strong start in that regard, with the 31-year-old taking to the microphone for the first time with his new team and speaking for nearly 50 minutes on everything from his first, and less-than-great, meal choice upon arriving with his family, his impressions of the city, why he landed with the Saints and a lot more.
Scroll below for the top 10 quotes from Carr as the Saints embark on a new QB era.
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HE WAS ALWAYS THE GUY
The first Derek Carr quote isn’t actually from Derek Carr, but it is about Derek Carr. Here’s what head coach Dennis Allen had to say regarding why the team landed on him early and with such conviction throughout the process of courting the former Raiders QB to New Orleans.
"When our personnel people watched the tape and then our coaches watched the tape, he was clearly our No. 1 target in terms of what we wanted to do at the quarterback position. And so we wanted to be first out there and just make sure that he knew that he was the No. 1 option.
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“I'll be honest with you, I really felt like – and I think we all felt like – when we had a chance to sit down and visit with Derek and he told us what was really important to him. And what was really important to him was going and winning and trying to win a championship, I felt all along that this was going to be the spot that was the best fit.”
DID IT MATTER THAT THE SAINTS WERE AT THE FRONT OF THE LINE?
“Very important. It showed me how they felt about me from the beginning and they were very honest and clear. You heard DA, what he said and that's exactly what he told me on the phone and you know, so the fact that they were willing to even trade for me. You know, that that meant something, you're showing me value without showing me value, right? You're valuing me as a quarterback, me as a human without even having to say anything, and that meant something. It meant not just something, that meant a lot.”
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WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE VETO
The Saints ultimately landed Carr on the free agent market, but this could've all happened weeks ago if he was willing to accept a trade. He ended up in the same place, so what was that all about?
"I was very willing to accept a trade, but I was only able to talk to one team, you know, I was only given permission to talk to one team, and so as much as I love and respect the guys [with] the Raiders … I can't possibly make that decision without being able to talk to other people. But I still almost made the decision. I felt so much love here, I still almost did it. But at the end of the day, I just felt like I knew that when I sat here I wanted to be able to look my kids in the eye, look my wife in the eye and know that I did everything in my power, I asked every question, I went through every process to make sure I try to make the best decision for our family, us together. And so, I wasn't closed off to it at all, which may be shocking to some people, but I wasn't closed off, I was willing to work, but I was just only able to talk to the Saints. But it worked out."
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HOW CARR PLANS TO APPROACH HIS NEW JOB
"I just want to add value where I can add value and I think there's a lot of experience on this team. I have a lot of experience, different experience, but I have experience, too. Dealt with a lot of different personalities. I think, from a football aspect, playing the quarterback position … I'll never be someone in here saying I'm this or I’m that. I’m gonna be me, I'm gonna be very imperfect, but I can promise you a perfect effort. That's what I can do, is the film study, the work ethic.
"The City of New Orleans is gonna get, just like Las Vegas and just like Oakland, they're gonna get literally everything that I have and I've learned a lot from my time. And then getting released, you know, it alerts you to some things like, what else can I do? You know, that fire, gets a little little hotter on the inside. And I'm not going to get into too much detail on what I'm going to bring because I’m sure when I throw an incomplete pass it may get brought up again. But I just want to provide leadership, you know, someone that's gonna love their teammates. I'm not coming in here to try and take anything over, like I'm not taking anything over. I'm gonna be me, you know, I'm gonna call out what I want to call out and I'm gonna encourage what I think should be encouraged, but I'm here to do this with Cam, with Demario, with Tyrann, with Taysom, with Alvin, with Mike. Yeah. If we want to go far, we’ve got to go together and it's not just because Derek shows up, you know that we're gonna do anything special, it's because we all decided as a collective unit to go in one direction and do it the same way. And that starts in OTAs, that starts in April, you know, getting everybody here and getting to work if we really want to do what we want to do.”
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WAIT, YOU REALLY WENT TO CHIPOTLE?
Derek Carr can be forgiven for ending up at a chain burrito joint for his first family meal in New Orleans, considering it’s the same mistake Pelicans rookie Dyson Daniels made after he was drafted to his current team. All the same, it was the experience while he was there that helped reassure Carr he’d made the right choice for his new team and city.
"To the whole organization and to the City of New Orleans, thank you for welcoming my wife and my children literally everywhere we've gone. You know, when we first got here, with all the great food, the first place we went was Chipotle because we didn't know anything. We walked in there and we couldn't get out of there because of the love from everyone in that building and you know, they were taking pictures and just welcoming us, you know to the city, telling us anything that we need they're here for us, and you could already feel the southern hospitality and the the home feeling of it. With that said, you know, my wife and I are super grateful to be here with our children and make New Orleans home. We chose New Orleans, we chose this city, we chose the people here. [I want to] thank Drew Brees for reaching out to me and answering a lot of my questions, and I thank Peyton Manning, Archie Manning for reaching out to me and answering questions and being there for me in making this decision and so I'm really excited to get started and all of this stuff is fun”
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WHAT’S YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH MIKE THOMAS?
The Saints and WR Michael Thomas have a somewhat confusing relationship as of late, but it’s one that appears like it will continue after all, particularly when considering MT’s reaction to the Carr signing, and that he’s been spotted hanging with teammate Chris Olave in the offseason. Carr said MT was one of the Saints players who chatted him up as the team pursued the QB in the offseason, and the tone sure seems to indicate that he’ll be catching passes from Carr before long.
"I mean really just in the recent has been the most we've talked. Obviously as players we know each other and have a respect and all those kind of things, right? And you have a lot of those relationships throughout the years. But, you know, me and Mike, we've gotten close through this process and talking and, you know, the first time I talked to him on the phone, I don't think he wanted me to get off the phone. You know, I really enjoyed talking to him and I told Mickey as you talk to Mike Thomas and you feel like you two could go out there and face the world. I told my wife when I got the phone and she was like, why are you smiling? I was like, I love this guy. He's so competitive, and I think just the energy that he brings, it would be very exciting times to throw him the football, for sure.
"So, you know, when he started recruiting and talking to me and all that, he wasn’t even like, trying to recruit me. He's just like hey, when are we getting to work? We're wasting time, you know, times ticking. And I was like, yeah, I feel the same way, but we'll get there but you know, I think that our relationship has grown through this process and I look forward to that relationship growing even stronger.”
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WHAT MAKES YOU SO GOOD AT LATE-GAME COMEBACKS?
Derek Carr has only been in the NFL for nine seasons, but in that time he’s engineered 4th quarter comebacks in 28 of his wins. That mark already ranks him 13th in NFL history, with plenty of time to potentially add to that mark. So what makes him so good?
"We have records and stuff that we did in the past. Like I said, it's not because I was just some Superman or something like that, it’s because we all were on the same page and we all put a lot of work in to make sure everyone did their job at the right time. And we were in those situations so often, coming back to try and win games or things like that that we got comfortable in those positions. When you practice something a lot you get better at it, and so I haven't won every 2-minute drive I've been on, but we've won a lot of them. And so have they here, they haven't won them all. In fact I remember one where we gave Drew a little too much time and you guys almost beat us here in the Superdome back in 2016. But thankfully … it was a long field goal."
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ON GETTING RECRUITED BY NEW ORLEANS QB ROYALTY
The Saints had the full blitz on to land Carr, and having the first family of QBs putting a bug in his year is never going to hurt. That was the case with multiple Mannings chatting up Carr, as well as Drew Brees, throughout the process.
“Peyton texted me. We obviously played Peyton for years when he was in Denver and all that, and then the Pro Bowl this past year, he was my head coach for the Pro Bowl, which was awesome. And then he texted me Archie's number and Cooper, his brother, who, I'll end up reaching out to Cooper too. Obviously they know this area way better than I do, and then before I could even text Archie, I got a text from Archie saying he can't wait to connect and help in any way that he can once everything slows down. And so, I mean, that's kind of my hope that what I could be for some future Saints quarterback or some future Raiders quarterback is someone that will just be there to help. You know, I'm definitely not gonna be the past quarterback that bashes the new one. I can promise you that.”
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ON NEW QB COACH RONALD CURRY
“He's been great, so bright, so smart. The one thing, everyone's just so even-keeled. It's like, so I was waiting for someone – when they gonna yell at me DA? Someone's gonna yell at me sometime, you know, but I mean, if everyone's just like so even-keeled. The one thing you feel in this building is from the top down, everyone is pushing in the same direction. No one’s stepping on anybody's toes, every idea is a good idea, you know, unless it doesn't work. It's not about who's right, it's about what's right and that's one thing I've learned watching our offensive staff, you know work and be together is, who cares whose idea it was, it’s our idea. We are gonna get the credit. We are gonna win the game because of a A, B, C and I just feel that so much with RC and with Pete and with everybody."
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IMPRESSIONS OF THE SAINTS' DEFENSE
Carr got a good look at the defensive group he'll be supporting next season and beyond, and it wasn't a fun one. The Saints shut out Carr's Raiders this season, preventing the Las Vegas offense from even crossing the 50-yard line while he was in the game. He'll now be hoping that the QBs he's trying to beat suffer that fate going forward.
"When I talked to the defensive guys here, and I've known a lot of them for a lot of years, but they're grown men. They know how to handle success. They know how to handle hard times and they they compete at everything that they do. And this past year when, I would say us, but y'all beat our faces in here at the Superdome. You could feel the physicality that they played with, you could feel the energy, the brotherhood. You could feel those things and I was so pissed after the game, excuse my language, but you know, I was like, wow, you know. What a opportunity it is to make that one of my choices now. So again, the rankings and stats – DA will be the first one tell you, none of that stuff matters. Anything I've done in the past, anything that they've done the past, doesn't matter. It's about what we're gonna do, and the main thing to me was the character and the type of men … that are in that locker room, and the type of men is what was so intriguing to me, you know, they're grown men. Like I said, the physicality that they play with, you know the style of play that I know DA preaches because I've been in the rooms hearing him say it, you know, that was something that fired me up."
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PLANS FOR 'EXPLOSIVE' OFFENSE
“Explosive, very explosive, very competitive. You know, I'm really excited to have all those guys run down the field and just check one down to Alvin just to see what he can do. You know, that'll be fun. I'm excited to watch Taysom run the football and have the ball in his hands. I'm excited to watch those guys run down the field, you know with their speed and athleticism and Juwan, the athleticism that he has it as a tight end and the way he can move and you know, there's just so much potential but that doesn't mean anything. You make a decision based on what you think it can be but then you got to go make it there. And so, when you watch them on film, it's hard not to get excited. … It's hard not to be excited about, you know, the roster and you know, what Mickey and da have put together here.”