According to Jeff Duncan, the word at the Senior Bowl is the Saints plan to restructure QB Derek Carr‘s contract before the start of the league year in March.
New Orleans is in the same position it’s been for several years now of needing to restructure a bunch of contracts to get under the cap and have room to operate this offseason. However, they could become cap-compliant without touching Carr’s deal if they wanted.
That would preserve the ability to move on from Carr after the 2024 season without a lot of strings attached. Instead, a restructure could tie Carr to the Saints for the next two seasons.
Duncan says nothing has been finalized yet but the Saints are happy with Carr and the expectation is they will restructure his deal.
Carr is owed $30 million in a guaranteed base salary this upcoming season. A restructure would save a little over $23 million for the Saints in 2024 cap space. It’s also worth noting he has a $10 million 2025 roster bonus that becomes guaranteed this March, per Over The Cap.
Carr, 32, 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.
In 2023, Carr appeared in all 17 games for the Saints and completed 68.4 percent of his passes for 3,878 yards, 25 touchdowns and eight interceptions.
We will have more on Carr as the news is available.
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