Derek Carr revealed his biggest regret from his time with the New Orleans Saints is not connecting with the city sooner. For Carr, that meant community outreach. However, his sentiment can be reflected by telling the media his first meal in the city was Chipotle.
To outsiders, it may seem like a harmless comment. In many markets, your first meal isn’t even a question. It felt like Carr had no interest in diving into the community and culture. His comments all but confirmed that was his mentality at the time. Carr said for the first 6 months he was all football and it showed. That comment lost him a lot of the benefit of the doubt. At that moment, Carr didn’t just fail to connect to the city. He disconnected himself from the fans.
Derek Carr says when he first got to New Orleans, he was so focused on football that he didn’t get to get involved with the community. He says he regrets that. #Saints pic.twitter.com/bWgjRX4i4P
— Farrah Yvette (@farrah_yvette) May 26, 2026
Derek Carr continued to make a bad situation worse with Saints right away
Carr never recovered from that mistake. Now, let’s make it clear. Carr had multiple offenses after the fact. Fans didn’t hear him say he ate Chipotle and be done with him. Carr compounded that cultural mistake with more issues directly related to football.
Carr’s first season featured him visibly throwing Chris Olave under the bus on an incomplete pass. To make matters worse, it was later revealed that Olave was a decoy route and never was considered a target on the play. Michael Thomas backed up the claim and made it clear Carr was at fault by not going through the proper progression.
There was also a blow up between Carr and Erik McCoy on the field in the same year. McCoy had never shown that type of emotion. It was out of character, and by this time, fans were already souring on Carr. This was just another reason to go against him.
The spat between Carr and McCoy could have been easy to forget, but it came in combination with Carr throwing Olave under the bus. That move came off cowardly and like a display of poor leadership. It was halfway through his first season with the Saints and eliminated any redemption arc Carr could have had.
Carr’s inaugural season showed a lack of situational awareness, accountability and leadership. Everything gets washed away with winning and strong play. Carr had neither. His biggest regret may be not connecting with the city sooner, and it should be. It made all of ensuing negatives look even worse.
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