Katherine Terrell, ESPN Staff Writer September 12, 2023, 7:00 a.m. ET
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- Katherine Terrell returned to ESPN in the summer of 2022 to cover the New Orleans Saints. She left in 2019 after joining in 2016 to cover the Cincinnati Bengals. Katherine is a graduate of LSU and a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She has been covering the NFL since 2013. You can follow Katherine on Twitter: @Kat_Terrell
METAIRIE, La. – When the Las Vegas Raiders officially released Derek Carr on Feb. 14, the veteran quarterback felt an overwhelming sense of relief.
Carr, who had a 63-79 record in nine seasons with the franchise, spoke with Raiders coach Josh McDaniels by phone. They both expressed regret that it didn’t work out and wished each other good luck.
When it was over, Carr texted his older brothers David and Darren.
“I thought, ‘Brother, I’m free! I am free!’ They said, ‘Let’s go, let’s figure it out,'” the youngest Carr said. “So it was kind of a moment of relief. When the decision is made, do you still want me to be sorry? No, I’m ready for the next thing.”
The next step came less than a month later, on March 6, when Carr agreed to a four-year, $150 million contract with the New Orleans Saints, reuniting him with former Raiders coach Dennis Allen, who helped him in the 2014 draft.
Carr made his first start for the Saints on Sunday and completed 23 of 33 passes for 305 yards, a touchdown and an interception in a 16-15 win over the Tennessee Titans at Caesars Superdome. According to ESPN Stats & Information, he is the second player in franchise history to pass for 300 yards in his team debut.
Carr smiled after the game and joked about the turnaround from his 24-0 loss with the Raiders to the Saints in the Superdome last year.
“That was incredible,” he said. “When we scored that touchdown, I couldn’t help but dance. That was great. That was ridiculous, man. It was good to be on this site. Last year it wasn’t as much fun.”
Carr’s Saints debut marked the beginning of a new phase in his career that almost didn’t happen after Carr questioned his direction and love of the game with the Raiders.
“You fall in love with a place, you give it everything you have for almost a decade, and now all of a sudden it’s gone,” Carr told ESPN. “…Do you want to do it somewhere else? You know, your heart is there so much. You’re torn and there are emotions.”
There were times when Carr questioned whether the 2022 season was right for him, particularly toward the end when the Raiders made him inactive for two games. He watched his teammates play without him and felt lost and frustrated.
“I wanted to be there for my boys,” Carr said. “The fact that I wasn’t able to do that hurt, but at the same time I always said that no one cared. Nobody cares how I feel. This is a business.”
This frustration had been simmering for some time and did not go unnoticed by his family. Carr’s mother, Sheryl, said when it came to football, she felt like the lights in his eyes were fading by the end of his tenure in Las Vegas.
“Seeing him lose that enthusiasm says, ‘I don’t know, mom, I don’t know if I want to play anymore, I don’t know what to do.’ “His dad and I were just sad,” Sheryl said.
IN THE MONTHS Between those last two games and the start of the Saints’ OTAs in May, Carr had to figure out how to love football again.
According to Carr’s wife, Heather, the business side of football had taken its toll. With the Raiders, he played for six coaches and three general managers and saw the franchise move from Oakland, California, to Las Vegas.
“We had so many changes, we could get used to a coach or the players that were here and then they left,” Heather said. “I know that’s the NFL business, but I think that’s the hardest part, always starting over.”
Carr could also sense in the end that the Raiders had their eye on both a potential quarterback of the future and keeping him as the face of the franchise when they traded to Las Vegas in 2020.
“There were a lot of offseasons where I had a great year and they were like, ‘Okay, who are we going to draft?'” he said of discussions about his possible replacement. “‘Who are we going to draft? What are you talking about?’ … It’s driving me crazy. For example: “Are you kidding me? Are you watching the same movie I’m watching?”
“As a competitor, some of this was annoying, and if those questions aren’t answered… it’s just like I’m continuing to prove myself as a competitor.”
These things dampened the pure love for the sport he had grown up with since childhood. Sheryl can still close her eyes and imagine him at different ages running up and down the field, jumping, screaming and high-fiving like he was a little kid.
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“He’s going crazy,” she said.
That love was passed down through his father, Rodger, who secretly smuggled the older boys through the fence at night onto Fresno State’s field. They threw the football around and dreamed of what it would be like to play in front of a crowd.
“They’ve just loved it since they were little. And Rodger loved it with them,” Sheryl said. “He taught them how to play it and how to love it, and I think they’re trying really hard not to lose that love for the game.”
Years later, Derek and David both played in the same stadium, set records, and eventually found their jerseys retired. All three would play football at some level; Darren played defensive line for Bakersfield College and the University of Houston.
David, 12 years older than Derek, played for Fresno State from 1997 to 2001. He took Derek into the stadium, put him on his shoulders and signed autographs for the fans, who quickly fell in love with his little brother.
“Derek stood on the ramp and signed more autographs than David,” Sheryl said. “Everyone wanted Derek’s autograph. It was the sweetest thing.”
David taught Derek everything he knew about football and discussed concepts with him while the family got ready for dinner.
Derek took some of that information into sixth-grade football when he called an audible at the line of scrimmage. His team scored a touchdown, but the coach benched Derek and called Rodger over to discuss the situation.
Rodger was shocked that his mild-mannered son had gone against his coach’s wishes, but Derek immediately argued against the original move.
“But it wouldn’t work,” he told the two men before rattling off a concept that David had explained to him.
The coach laughed before repeating his stance.
“He says, ‘But Derek, you have to do what I tell you,'” Sheryl said, laughing. “Derek knew more than she did at a young age.”
The older Carr got, the more complicated it became. When he reached free agency for the first time in his career, he wanted to make it straightforward.
Carr holds the Raiders’ franchise records for passing yards (35,222), touchdowns (217), attempts (4,958), completions (3,201), game-winning drives in the fourth quarter (33) and most starts for a quarterback (142). He went to four Pro Bowls.
He had the records and the accolades, but no Super Bowl. All he wanted now was a place to win games, and the Saints offered him a tempting opportunity to achieve that.
“I’m looking for anything that can give me something [an edge]Carr said, “Because I can’t wait to leave my mark here, in the games – leaving legacies, breaking records, that’s what we’ve done with the Raiders.”
“The only reason I’m here is to win.”
DEREK leaned further David for advice on finding a possible landing site. David told him to look at the bigger picture: Has the organization won consistently over the last 15 years? Have they shown growth?
Rodger supported Derek in a different way, showing enthusiasm every time Derek narrowed down the potential pool.
“It would be fun for him to know that stuff,” Carr said.
Carr liked the idea of playing with Saints wide receiver Michael Thomas, who insisted that Carr sign with the team. Thomas described their relationship as “amazing” in June.
“He’s a professional, it’s great for these young guys to see that.” [him] as a leader,” Thomas said. “Everything, I just watch him when he comes into the building. Kind of like Drew [Brees] Was. … He wants to win, just like I want to win. He’s just very disciplined. He has everything under control. He came here for a reason.
The duo showed that chemistry against the Titans, as Thomas caught five passes for 61 yards.
“I love Mike,” Carr said after the game. “He is the ultimate competitor. And wow, on game day I love the communication we have. It’s a different level, man. He reminds me so much.” [Raiders receiver] Davante [Adams] and the way they approach the game.”
But Thomas laid the foundation for communication long before they played together. Carr said in their initial conversations before signing with the Saints that it was hard to get him off the phone.
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“For me, with the performance he had, the type of player he is and how hard he works… it was hard for me to ever think of anything else because every time I was with someone else “I could only imagine that Mike was texting me,” Carr said. “Literally, when I was there [the] new York [Jets] On that visit…I got a text from Mike.
He loved that the Saints were about winning and losing as a team. Carr would be just a cog in the wheel of the organization and not the man who bears all the responsibility.
“It was always ‘we’. It was always called “Team”. It was never, ‘You have to do this or that,'” Carr said. “It was like the mindset of the entire team from top to bottom was, ‘We’re all in this together. One fails, we all fail.’ A lot of people say that, but [don’t] I really mean that. And so I could feel that difference here, and that made me just say, “We’re all in this together.” We’re going to try to win.”
Saints linebacker Demario Davis, who signed with the team in 2018 and became captain almost immediately, said the team was able to give him the same game-winning pitch when he signed and he wanted Carr to feel that way, too.
“We just want to give him a safe space to come in and be himself,” Davis said. Carr could just focus on football again.
“They said, ‘Trust me, just come here. We’ll help you get where you need to go,’” Carr said. “It wasn’t like, ‘You have to come in here and do everything.’ The whole team was like, ‘We just need you to add value.’… That was cool for me.'”
Heather was the one who ultimately made the difference. Her first meeting with Saints owner Gayle Benson quickly made it clear to her that everything would work out.
“When we sat down with Mrs. Benson – and she started talking to us and she was so friendly – the way she treated my wife and the questions she asked, things like that, my wife. “ [said]“How could you not want to play for someone like that?” Carr said. “And I really think it was that meeting that tipped the scales.”
After the Carrs finished their visit, Heather began looking for possible homes to live in New Orleans. Carr tried to warn her that he would be accepting more visits, but Heather, smiling to herself, was undeterred.
“I know, I know,” she told him. “I’ll let you do your due diligence, but I just have a feeling we’ll be here.”
CARR’S TRANSFORMATION INTO A Saints quarterback this offseason hasn’t been instantaneous – like he was in the first half, when he was sacked four times and threw an interception.
The fact that he was the starting quarterback meant the players would view him as a leader, but he still had to earn it. Talking to his teammates on the phone was one thing, but building a real bond would take time.
“He feels very comfortable now,” Saints quarterbacks coach Ronald Curry said. “…I can remember two or three weeks after the offseason having the conversation: ‘Don’t wait for them, you have to go to them. When you’re QB1, everyone looks at you. Be yourself and…’Do what you have to do.’”
Carr invited several of his teammates to Las Vegas so they could train and meet him and his family. It was this journey that allowed them to see him as Derek Carr the person, rather than Derek Carr the quarterback.
“I felt like that was kind of the starting point for where we are now,” said wide receiver Rashid Shaheed, who scored the Saints’ only touchdown against the Titans in the third quarter, adding a 41-yard reception to seal the win the fourth quarter. “I feel like we’ve grown so much since then and that will only continue to grow as the season goes on.”
Carr and several other players commented on the intensity of training camp practices over the summer. Even though the offense didn’t always win, he was excited to see where it could lead.
“It hasn’t been one-sided for a long time. It went back and forth, back and forth, in and out,” Carr said. “That’s exactly what we enjoy because we understand what it leads to. That leads to a good football team and hopefully a lot of wins.”
When Carr came home late from practice one day at camp, Heather immediately felt the energy.
“Our 24th, 23rd day of camp and she was like, ‘You’re having so much fun again,'” Carr said. “And I thought, ‘You know what? You’re right.’ I really enjoy this building. What they have created here is something special.”
Heather said she could tell by the look on his face that something had changed.
“Derek will always be happy, he will always be positive. This is what I know about him. That’s who he is,” Heather said. “But there was just like… I would say a childlike excitement in him.”
Saints players voted before the team’s season opener and named Carr one of seven team captains for the season, which he said “means a lot” to him.
“Honestly, you leave a place where you say, ‘Hey, they didn’t want you anymore,’ and you go into a place where you say, ‘We want you and…we want you as our captain.’ “What that meant to me meant everything,” Carr said. “I don’t say much, but when I do, I’m passionate. I told them in that moment what it meant to me…since I got here, all I wanted to do was earn the respect of my teammates.”
CARRS 10TH SEASON in the NFL will represent the freedom he never thought he wanted.
If he had his way, he could have played for the Raiders his entire career, stayed close to his family, and ended his career where it began.
“I don’t think he would have ever left because he would never have left his team,” Sheryl said. “He would never have given up on his team, he would have remained loyal to his players.”
Besides the loyalty and emotional connection to the Raiders, there were many other reasons to stay. Derek was born and raised near the West Coast, where Darren now coaches football at Bakersfield Christian High School, Derek’s alma mater. Rodger and David are assistant coaches.
Even moving to Las Vegas didn’t stop Rodger from his tradition of attending every one of his son’s home games. This series is broken with the move to New Orleans.
Carr doesn’t dispute the Raiders firing.
“The first one, ‘I’m not going to be the quarterback of the Raiders anymore,’ hurt,” Carr said. “That’s all I wanted to do, that’s all I ever wanted to do.
“This was a business decision they made and I wish them the best of luck. Hopefully they hear this and know it. I’m still with the Raiders, you know? I’m just more for us.”
But as he turns the page, Carr is confident, poised and ready to start fresh in New Orleans.
“The most important thing was that he wanted to enjoy playing football again,” Curry said. “That’s a bit of our job. It’s fun when you come up with a good game plan, show up, execute it and win games. You have fun.”
“Our job is to put him in the right situations so he can be himself. I think he’s in a good spot right now.”