Back in March, Derek Carr picked up a football for the first time in months. The guy was rehabbing a concussion and a fractured left hand from a brutal December game against the Giants. But let’s face it—just when he began throwing again, something felt off. A sharp pain in his right shoulder. Yes, his throwing arm. Medical scans revealed that Derek Carr has a torn labrum and “significant degenerative changes to his rotator cuff.” Just like that, the Saints‘ legend faced a tough decision. Either go under the knife and hope for a comeback, or step away from the game he loved. Derek chose the latter. “It was time. He’s very content with where he is,” Derek’s brother, David Carr, said. The NFL legend was as surprised as any NFL fan when Derek hung up his cleats. Unexpected retirement.
But now that he’s officially ended his pro football career, everyone’s speculating about his next move. Whether the Saints’ legend is going to join the coaching staff, or his brother at the NFL Network. Though Derek hasn’t shed light on his post-retirement plans, David Carr believes that his brother might join the NFL Network.
“NFL Network has already asked me—probably a dozen times—when Derek’s gonna come down and do a show with us,” David recently said. “That’s usually how it starts.” David, who played for over a decade in the NFL at the quarterback position (first overall pick in the 2002 NFL draft), joined the NFL Network back in 2016. The guy can be seen on shows like “The Insiders” and “NFL GameDay Final.”
Will he follow in his brother’s footsteps? Probably. “Would I do something? Absolutely, because it’s just easy to talk about for me,” Derek said. The Carr brothers are already working together as they recently started their own YouTube channel, the “Home Grown Network.” The duo posts videos of analyzing football, playing golf, and some anecdotes related to things outside of sports.
And the way things are shaping up, we can say that there’s surely a possibility of the former Saints’ QB entering the broadcasting world, and joining his brother. How long is he going to take? We’ll see. But at this point, the guy’s spending his post-retirement life with his wife and kids, and he’s having fun. Carr revealed, “My agent literally texted me a few days ago and he said, ‘Hey, just checking it in. How’s everything? You still feel comfortable with the decision?’ And I sent him a picture of me on the beach with my two kids playing. And I said, ‘This beats an OTA any day.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I thought so.’”
Derek Carr never wanted the Saints’ money
It’s been almost a month since Derek Carr unexpectedly announced his retirement from the NFL. And get this, when folks out there are believing that Carr could pull a Tom Brady move after retirement, Derek has been content with his decision to end his NFL career. Now, it sounds even astonishing because there were still a couple of years left on his four-year $15o million contract, which he snagged back in 2023.
To spice things up, the guy stacked up a $10 million roster bonus back in March, no doubt. But he gave up on his $30 million salary that he was set to earn in the 2025 season. At the end of the day, Carr didn’t care about money, given that he was suffering from a shoulder injury and was uncertain to play in the 2025 season. “That part was tough because I didn’t want to have surgery and just sit there and—it sounds crazy but—just take the Saints money,” Carr told Front Office Sports.
Ahead of the 2025 NFL draft, it was reported that the Saints were going to draft a quarterback, which they eventually did. Ever since, Carr was uncertain whether to return for yet another season with New Orleans. As it turned out, the shoulder injury that he sustained in the earlier season jeopardized his future. “I wouldn’t have been able to play if I had the surgery,” he said.
“And then if I tried to play with it, I wasn’t near 100%, and so that doesn’t help them, either. I just felt like it was the right thing to do for myself and for the team.” The Saints drafted the former Louisville quarterback, Tyler Shough, in the second round of the draft with the 40th overall pick. With Carr gone, the Saints’ head coach revealed that Shough, along with Spencer Rattler and Jake Heaner, will compete for the QB1 role.
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