NEW ORLEANS —The New Orleans Saints announced that they have agreed to terms on a four-year contract with free agent QB Derek Carr. The announcement was made by Saints Executive Vice President/General Manager Mickey Loomis.
“We are excited to welcome Derek Carr to the New Orleans Saints,” said Loomis. “Derek’s experience, leadership and skillset will be an asset to our offense.”
“I had the opportunity to work with Derek at the start of his professional football career,” said Saints Head Coach Dennis Allen. “In addition to his talent, I admired his approach to the game, work ethic and commitment to get better every day in what were the formative stages of his career. From afar and when we played him as an opponent, I saw Derek’s development into one of the most productive quarterbacks in the National Football League. Derek is an outstanding addition to the New Orleans Saints and I can’t wait to get working with him and the rest of our team this offseason.”
Originally selected in the second round (36th overall) of the 2014 NFL Draft by the Oakland Raiders out of Fresno State, Carr, 6-3, 210, spent his first nine seasons with the Raiders. The Bakersfield, Calif. native has started all 142 career regular season games he’s played in, completing 3,201-of-4,958 passes (64.6 percent) for 35,222 yards with 217 touchdown passes, 99 interceptions and a 91.8 passer rating, while adding 845 rushing yards and six touchdowns.
From 2014-22 as a member of the Raiders, Carr was selected to four Pro Bowl Games (2015-17, 2022) and set numerous team passing records including the franchise’s career passing yardage and touchdown pass marks and single-season mark in passing yards (4,804 in 2021). He also holds the franchise records for games with multiple-touchdown passes (69), games with a passer rating of at least 100.0 (47) and 300-yard passing contests (33).
Since entering the league in 2014, Carr ranks fourth in the NFL in passing yards, seventh in passing touchdowns and his 3,201 completions through his first nine seasons rank second in NFL history. He became the third quarterback in history to pass for 3,000-plus yards in each of his first nine seasons, joining Pro Football Hall of Fame signal-caller Peyton Manning and Denver Broncos QB Russell Wilson. He is just the fourth player in NFL history to reach 35,000 passing yards in his first nine seasons. Carr is the only quarterback in Raiders history with multiple seasons of at least 4,000 passing yards. His 142 starts are tied with Tom Brady for the most by a quarterback since 2014.
In his final season in Las Vegas, Carr started 15 games and threw for 3,522 yards on 305-of-502 passing (60.8 percent) with 24 touchdown passes and an 86.3 passer rating. 2022 was his ninth straight campaign with at least 300 completions, joining Peyton Manning as the only two quarterbacks in NFL history to do so.
Prior to his NFL career, Carr established 27 school records and 21 Mountain West Conference records in four seasons at Fresno State. In 44 career games with 39 starts for the Bulldogs, Carr threw for 12,842 passing yards on 1,086-of-1,630 passing (66.7 percent), 113 touchdown passes and 24 interceptions. A two-time MWC Offensive Player of the year and two-time All-American, Carr holds school records in almost every major passing category.
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