Derek Carr joined the New Orleans Saints with a lot of fanfare, but some analysts are still wondering whether the Saints truly upgraded by signing him to start at quarterback instead of Jameis Winston and Andy Dalton. Pro Football Focus recently took a look at every starting quarterback in the NFL and their take on Carr — coming off a down year with the Las Vegas Raiders — isn’t very optimistic.
PFF ranked every starting quarterback around the league, ranking Carr at No. 14 as part of a middle class in the NFL along with Geno Smith (No. 15) and Jared Goff (No. 16). PFF’s Sam Monson wrote of the pickup:
Last year’s 66.6 PFF grade was the lowest of Carr’s career outside of his rookie season. In what was supposed to be a solid season, Carr’s big plays declined and he was notably less accurate overall. His adjusted completion rate dropped by more than 6 percentage points from the year before to his lowest level since he was a rookie. That likely represents the floor for Carr’s play, and he has typically been a borderline top-10 player over his career.
Just because Carr didn’t play well in Josh McDaniels’ busted offense doesn’t mean he’ll continue to underperform in New Orleans, running a system with so many similarities to the scheme he ran well before that his former coach Jon Gruden was brought in for a week as a consultant to fine-tune the Saints offense for him.
But there is a chance Carr is hitting the downslope of his career. The Saints are betting on a rebound instead, and the early chatter from his coaches and teammates at spring practices are encouraging. Hopefully he keeps it and helps this team get where they want to go. We’ll learn who ends up being right in just a few months.
