There’s been rumbles of former New Orleans Saints quarterback Derek Carr pursuing a return to football, and those rumbles got louder this week. Instead of just letting the rumors speak for themselves, Carr chose to open up on the podcast he shares with his brother. He left no doubt to whether or not he would return. “The answer is obviously yes,” the quarterback stated.
Carr even went as far to say he had to decline a couple of teams. He has two criteria. Carr needs to be healthy and wants to win a Super Bowl. If he has both of those things, Carr will come out of retirement. Now that we know what it would take for him to unretire, we also know the odds of Carr coming out of retirement is unlikely.
David Carr checked the health box for his brother. That leaves one more box to be checked, and it's also the biggest question. Who is saying "we're a Derek Carr away from a Super Bowl?" It's one thing to try to grab Carr during the season due to an injury. It's another for a Super Bowl a team would pick Carr before the season to lead them to the promise land.
Derek Carr will have to either change his demands or stay retired
If Carr is serious about his criteria to return to football, he’ll never play another down in the league. He’s not wrong for these standards. It makes sense for him to need a strong environment to leave retirement. It’s just unrealistic that he’ll attain it.
Starting? That’s easy. There’s some teams out there that are lost at quarterback. Those are the teams most likely to jump at Carr, but those aren’t the teams most likely to be in position for a Super Bowl.
Teams within reach of the Super Bowl are set at quarterback. The Steelers and Colts are playoff caliber teams with uncertainty at quarterback. Maybe you could throw the Vikings in there, maybe. Those teams may once again be playoff contenders in 2026 with Carr at the helm, but it’s hard to imagine Carr being the thing that takes them into Super Bowl contender territory.