Saints News: Derek Carr might be a realistic option in 2023

In Saints news, Derek Carr has officially become another quarterback that could interest the New Orleans Saints in 2023. The Las Vegas Raiders are benching Carr for their final two games to prevent further injury to him in case they do indeed want to trade him this offseason, which seems likely.

Carr was drafted in the second round by the then-Oakland Raiders in 2014 and has been their starting signal-caller ever since. In 2016, he was putting up MVP-like numbers until he was injured and couldn't even start for them in the playoffs that season. He finally started a playoff game for the Raiders earlier this year but lost to the Bengals.

Carr being available in the offseason is definitely intriguing for a team like the Saints, however. The guy clearly needs a change of scenery and New Orleans needs a quarterback in 2023 and beyond.

Dennis Allen was the head coach of the Raiders when the organization drafted him in 2014 so there are connections here. Do the Saints realistically have the finances and draft capital to make a trade like this happen though? That's where things get tricky.

Check out what's trending in Saints news.

Derek Carr benched by Raiders, who was drafted by Saints HC Dennis Allen [John Sigler, Saints Wire]

"Carr may have a 63-79 record in the NFL but he’s completed 64.6% of his attempts while scoring 217 touchdown passes against 99 interceptions in his Raiders career. He’s never led the league in interceptions but he’s twice set the pace for fumbles (putting the ball on the ground 12 times in 2018 and 11 times in 2020). He also doesn’t have an extensive injury history. The point is that you could do worse. "

- John Sigler

This quote from Sigler really does sum it up with Carr. He's not a franchise quarterback but the Saints don't need one of those right now. Their weapons and defense are talented enough that if Carr can just play at an average level each week, they'd be a much better team.

Raiders bench Derek Carr with playoffs all but lost, $33M injury guarantee looming [Jason Owens, Yahoo! Sports]

"Meanwhile, Carr is due $33 million next season that's fully guaranteed in case of injury. He'd also be guaranteed $7.5 million in 2024 in case of injury, The Athletic's Vic Tarfur reports. According to the report, the Raiders front office met on consecutive nights this week to discuss the course of action regarding Carr. "

- Jason Owens

The big reason for the Raiders benching Carr is that they don't want him to get injured because obviously then trading him becomes difficult. Remember when Jimmy Garoppolo got injured at the end of the 2021 season? That made it difficult for the 49ers to find a trade partner for him and he ended up re-signing with the Niners as a result. The Raiders want to avoid that.

The Saints won, and their playoff odds got worse. Here's where things stand after Week 16 [Luke Johnson, NOLA.com]

What else do the Saints and Raiders have in common, you ask? Well, both of them are long-shots to make the playoffs and the Raiders essentially punted on what little chance they had by benching Carr. As for the Saints, Johnson details a few playoff scenarios for New Orleans for Week 17.