Saints' Kellen Moore wise to hedge on committing to Derek Carr as quarterback

Kellen Moore, the new head coach of the New Orleans Saints, declined to commit to Derek Carr being the quarterback next season, according to ESPN's Katherine Terrell.

"Derek's a tremendous quarterback in this league. I've had so much respect for him, the journey that he's been on, he's a starter in this league," Moore said. "He's a premier player in this league. ... Really excited to team up with him and go through this process and so just like any player on this roster, I just got here a few days ago and I'm excited to go through this journey with all of them."

Moore went on to praise Carr, calling him a "tremendous starting quarterback in this league."

The former Cowboys and Eagles offensive coordinator is handling things the exact right way for the coach of a team in the Saints' position. Carr will be 34 next year, and while he wasn't bad in 10 games in New Orleans this season, he's hardly been the star they were hoping for when they signed him prior to the 2023-24 season.

More important than that, New Orleans finds themselves in salary cap hell for what feels like the 15th consecutive season, and Carr's $51.4 million salary is a significant chunk of that. For a quarterback who looks less and less like a star and more and more like a game manager, with a roster that can charitably be described as "full of holes," he very quickly becomes expendable.

The problem for the Saints is that this might be the weakest quarterback market in quite a while, between an uninspiring draft class and a free agent pool that figures to be less than ideal. They're not picking until ninth in a draft that features two likely first-round picks and no can't-miss prospects, and the quarterback free agency pool figures to be pretty shallow (Sam Darnold and Russell Wilson both figure to be outside their price range, and outside of them, there's nothing to get excited about).

So while New Orleans would love to find a better quarterback option than Carr, those options figure to be pretty limited. Even backup Spencer Rattler, who showed a couple small flashes last season, clearly isn't quite ready to be a number one starter in the NFL just yet.

But by not throwing Carr under the bus, Moore is keeping his options open, keeping the veteran quarterback happy until they can find themselves a better option, or figure out what to do with his contract.

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