NFL.com lead draft writer Eric Edholm recently predicted each team’s Most Valuable Player for the 2024 season, and he’s a believer in Derek Carr. Edholm selected Carr to take a step up in his second year with the New Orleans Saints and earn recognition as the team’s MVP.
Edholm expressed his hesitance to lean too heavily into quarterbacks when making these selections around the league. Positional value plays a part in this award yearly, as was the case for Edholm with the Saints, but Carr was the beset choice for what he was looking for:
I sat and stared at the Saints’ roster for longer than I want to admit, trying to figure out if Carr was indeed the right choice. I couldn’t quite pick Demario Davis or Tyrann Mathieu, two guys heading into the gloaming of their careers, terrific as both might have been last year. Chris Olave was naturally an option, but I couldn’t forget how he and Carr struggled to get on the same page at times last season, unsure how to weigh that. And in the positional hierarchy of things, quarterback trumps receiver every time.
Quarterback does trump receiver nine times out of ten. If Olave has a great season, it would just likely be a part of a great Derek Carr season. When you look at receivers who won Offensive Player of the Year recently, they were the the only true receiving option on their teams. They also had at least 1.700 yards. Neither of those things are likely in Olave’s 2024 future with guys like Rashid Shaheed, Alvin Kamara, and Juwan Johnson drawing targets.
Carr is the best option when looking at all the factors. Mathieu and, specifically, Davis feel like more sure things, but they aren’t at positions of “high value.” Carr is looking for a bounce-back season after an uneven 2023 campaign in New Orleans.
If he can achieve success in Klint Kubiak’s offense, Carr will earn the team’s MVP award, and the Saints will end the season in a better place because of it.
