Saints

Derek Carr Return Seems Unlikely For 2026?

March 3, 2026

Per Jason La Canfora, NFL teams are showing little interest in QB Derek Carr and a return for the 2026 season seems unlikely as of now.

Carr is currently on New Orleans’ reserve/retired list, but he’s made it clear he would come out of retirement to play for a contender.

One GM seeking QB help told La Canfora the Carr return is more of a media thing, as those around the NFL, and there is no market for the veteran signal caller.

“I think you guys (in the media) are talking more about this than us,” the GM said. “The Saints don’t have a market for him. That’s a really bad contract. He’s going to stay retired.”

An agent for a top free agent QB told La Canfora they do not view Carr as competition for his client, and there has been general skepticism about Carr playing anywhere this season.

Another NFC executive told La Canfora he’d rather sign Ryan Tannehill over Carr if he were going to experiment on a veteran QB who had been out of the game for some time.

Carr, 34, is a former second-round pick of the Raiders back in 2014. He was in the final year of his contract when the Raiders signed him to a five-year, $125 million extension that included $70 million guaranteed in 2017.

Carr stood to make a base salary of $19.77 million in the final year of his contract and was set to be an unrestricted free agent in 2023 when he signed a three-year, $121.5 million extension.

However, the Raiders released Carr the following season, and he signed a four-year, $150 million deal with the Saints.

He was due a base salary of $40 million and $50 million in total in the final year of his contract in 2026.

In 2024, Carr appeared in ten games for the Saints and completed 68.1 percent of his passes for 1,926 yards, 14 touchdowns, and four interceptions.

For his career, Carr appeared in 169 total games for the Raiders and Saints for a career record of 77-92. He completed 65.1 percent of his passes for 41,245 yards to go along with 257 touchdowns and 112 interceptions.

We’ll have more on Carr as the news is available.