The New Orleans Saints have brought in a couple of Derek Carr’s former Las Vegas Raiders teammates, and he played a part in recruiting at least one of them. Carr shared some insight on veteran safety Johnathan Abram on his nephew Austin’s Harvester Sports Podcast, detailing how he reached out to the Raiders’ former first-round pick in hopes of getting him to New Orleans. Abram later signed a one-year contract with the Saints.
“I was begging him to (sign here),” Carr recounted. “You know, he was going through the process (in free agency). I was like bro, come be a Saint. Stop playing. You know? Come back, let’s do what we can, let’s see if we can go and try to win the NFC South, see what happens after that.”
Abram was known as a high-effort player with the Raiders with a knack for making strong tackles downfield in run defense — the tradeoff being some vulnerabilities that opponents exploited in coverage, kind of like former Saints safety Roman Harper. If Dennis Allen and Joe Woods can get Abram into a position to play to his strengths, maybe Abram can make a positive impact.
“I love John, he’s a great teammate. He plays so hard,” Carr emphasized. We’ll see if Abram’s on-field production can live up to the billing, but it says a lot that his old quarterback is willing to go to bad for him like this.
