The Josh Innes Show - Goodbye Derek Carr

Episode Date: May 12, 2025

This is going to sound odd, but I actually kind of feel bad for Derek Carr. I know that's not popular if you're a Saints fan. But, the Saints issues run deep. Who would you compare Derek Carr to? Carr is certainly one of those "What If" guys. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And it's interesting because you get that kind of be careful what you wish for mentality, because like you hate the guy, like I've disliked the guy, I don't think he's any good, seems like a nice enough dude, but like from the second they signed him to right now, I'll never understand why they signed him, but it's just like then they dumped the guy and then you almost have this brief feeling of like, like, oh, I feel bad, right? Because and

maybe I'm just weird, but I hated the guy. I hated watching him play. I never believed the Saints were going to win big with him and he's never won big anywhere and he's dealt with injuries and everything else. But then you hear that a guy who's only 34 years old retires because of injuries, and who knows, he may come back, he may not come back. And also, by the way, he's still getting paid well, even to just leave the Saints. He's still getting a nice chunk of change to do that. So it's not like this guy's life is over. He's got a lot of shit to look forward to in life. But there was a part of me, and I don't know what this says about me. Maybe it says I'm a decent human. Maybe it says I'm a pussy. I don't know. But the second I started reading

the stories and I'm like, well, he's a nice guy and like, like, like I don't feel bad that he's no longer the Saints quarterback. And I remain happy that he's no longer the Saints quarterback because the Saints in theory can at least start moving forward, right? They can move forward into the world although they still have the same shitty GM and let's be real the quarterbacks they have on the roster all look like they're gonna fucking suck. But still there was a part of me that was like I kind of feel bad. The human part of me which I know we're not supposed to be human because you know you watch the ESPNs and all these people and they're just assholes constantly and they don't talk about people from a human angle at all because they themselves on television

are not allowed to be human. There is a part of me that felt bad for the dude because if you look back at his career, his career has been a whole bunch of, oh what if he didn't get hurt here, what if he didn't get hurt here. So I do feel bad for the guy from that standpoint but I'm glad that he's no longer the Saints quarterback. Let's get into this stuff. Let's talk more about Derek Carr. I've been reading some stories. It is interesting but because it was a shock. I mean over the weekend when you see that Derek Carr retired it is a shock. Now it's not Tom Brady retiring. Like, everybody remembers where they were and what they were doing the first time Tom Brady fucking retired before he, you know, said I'm coming back or whatever. But nobody's going to remember where they were when Derek Carr decided to retire. But let's get into that after these words.

So Derek Carr, for everything you read, seems like a hell of a nice guy. And the thing about him is, we would be talking about him differently, probably talking about him differently, if he doesn't get hurt in 2016. If you're a Texans fan, you know all about it. Carr gets hurt late in the season. Texans play a home playoff game against the Raiders. I believe Connor Cook was the starting quarterback. I want to say that the backup quarterback is one of the dudes who played at Penn State and he got hurt and then Connor Cook became the quarterback and the Texans won like 27 of 14 and they beat the Raiders and that was Brock's big playoff victory

and then the next week they went on to lose right like that was 2016 Brock was the quarterback if he doesn't get hurt and by he I mean Derek Carr that Raiders team maybe wins a playoff game. And maybe one playoff game doesn't mean much, but it's one more than Derek Carr has. I look at Derek Carr in this way. Derek Carr to me is kind of in a Matt Schaub world, right? Now, Matt Schaub also, if I'm not mistaken, I don't think Schaub is one of playoff game because Schaub was not the quarterback

in the games that they won in the postseason, right? 2011, it was TJ Yates. Did he win the 2012 playoff game with Schaub, the quarterback in 20? I mean, he the postseason, right? 2011 it was T.J. Yates. Did he win the 2012 playoff game with Shaub the quarterback in 20? I mean he was on the, did he get hurt again in 2012? Who did they beat in the first, they beat the Bengals? I guess Shaub, that would have to have been the quarterback in that game. So I guess Shaub does have a playoff win. But I look at Matt Shaub in the same way that I look at a Derek Carr, although Derek Carr was expected to be very good and Matt Schaub was a backup that, you know, found a team that wanted to pay him some cash. That was the Texans. But when they were at their best, and I'm not saying they're similar players and their styles or whatever, but what I am saying is that Derek Carr and Matt Schaub were both dudes that, if all things worked out well for them, were dudes that were kind of on that

outer tier of the top 10 and could also ease their way. Keep in mind, for a large part of this dude's career, he was playing, like he was right after the true golden era of quarterbacks, but he was also kind of right in the middle of it because like now you can look at the top 10 quarterbacks and like once you get past a certain number, there is a precipitous drop off when you start looking at these guys. Now, like if you do that you would even have to put in the top 10 you could argue

wouldn't have been top 15 top 20 when the true G's of quarterback play were like at their highest level. So like Derek Carr 2014, 2015, 2016 in that range, you're still talking about Tom Brady at an extremely high level in winning Super Bowls. You're talking Drew Brees and is damn near in his prime there. You're talking Roethlisberger. You're talking Russell Wilson before he became whatever he is now. I mean you're talking about I mean just go down the list Peyton Manning that was sort of the I guess Manning retired in what year 15 but like you had Manning you had Eli Manning still playing at a reasonably high level like you had some legit beasts where you'd look at the top 10 quarterbacks and say like 2013 2014 and you'd go holy shit.

These are like a who's who of who's legendary now you look at dudes and once you get past like a certain number, there's a lot of teams that you just go oof and even in the top 10 now you go oof but there was that time when a guy like Matt Schaub who was a perfectly viable NFL quarterback and if all things would have worked out fine for Matt Schaub could have, you know, won a couple of playoff games, right, but he was never going to be the dude. He was never going to be top five, top four in the league. He was never going to be the Tom Brady, you know, Rothlisberger. He wasn't

one of those kind of guys or Manning or Breeze. He was never those dudes. Philip Rivers. He wasn't even Philip Rivers. But he was a perfectly competent, viable NFL quarterback who with the benefit of hindsight, we look back on and go, there's a couple years stretch where Matt chose pretty fucking good. You know, he went bad. Was a Pro Bowl alternate the first year that we went to the Super Bowl. He was a Pro Bowl alternate. That was an 0910, I guess. Or yeah, 0910. So he would have been a Pro Bowl alternate and actually played in the Pro Bowl because

like 10 dudes didn't want to play but he was a Pro Bowl alternate cool guy could throw for 4,500 yards. He had weapons obviously with Andre Johnson like he was a beast clearly like and you had a good running game eventually with Arian and maybe and they're kind of similar in this way to like I look at a guy like Shob and you say at his best he was like you know outlier fringe top ten right? Like you could say that I read somebody use that term fringe top ten and I'm like okay

I could see that. Matt Schaub whenever Matt Schaub was at his best Texans offense cooking whatever Matt Schaub was a fringe top ten quarterback. I think that's fair. I think the same thing can be said for Derek Carr. Derek Carr when he was at his best was a fringe top 10 quarterback. Like there are moments that you go, holy shit, this dude's a beast. Look at the first two games of last season. Okay, the

Saints I want to say scored 90 points in the first two games of the season. Now you look back and you see who they beat and you're kind of like, okay, big fucking deal Cowboys. It turns out we're just horrible on defense. I think the other one was against Carolina. So who gives a shit and you're like, okay, whatever and then they play the Eagles, but then you see what happens the first two weeks. They're totally healthy, right? Weeks one and two the

office. He's throwing seven touchdowns. He's a beast people having fun. All of a sudden you lose a player. Week three, I'm in the Superdome. They lose Eric McCoy on the offensive line. The offensive line isn't the same. And boom, the whole offense falls apart. Derek Carr is one of those guys and I put like again, Matt Shaw was the first kind of name that came to mind because I think when Shaw was at his best, he was fringe top 10, not as talented as Derek Carr, but their

productivity was that kind of outlier. Then you look at the fact that Carr never won a playoff game and then didn't really play. Did he play in a playoff game? And then he had that chance with that pretty solid Raiders team that was going into the playoffs. They would have beaten the Texans probably. I'd give them a very good chance of beating that Texans team with Brock Osweiler, but Osweiler gets the win because he's facing Connor Cook and Connor Cook is inept. And then here you are, right? So I think those are kind of fair comparisons. But you look at Carr now, and I, Saints fan part of me is glad

that he's not there. But it is a shitty way for the whole thing to end. And it's possible there, but it is a shitty way for the whole thing to end. And it's possible to look at things through a human lens like that, right? Like, it is possible. Like, I think sometimes, like when we're fans of teams, and this is, I get it, this probably sounds extremely pussified and like some sort of weird Zen way of looking at shit. And if you think I sound like all cunty, then that's fine. But there is a human element that goes into it, and I don't

feel like the Saints were ever going to have a team around him that Derek Carr, like Derek, it's not Derek Carr's fault. Derek Carr gets paid $40 million to be a quarterback or 30 million or whatever the Saints paid him per year. The Saints viewed him as better than he was and they paid him a lot of cash. You know, it's one of those things. Again, I'm just telling you this from the standpoint of someone who roots for the football team that paid him a lot of money, and

I thought that was bogus. Now, here's an interesting question, just a fair question. I talk about what ifs, like Creed. What if, right? What if Eric McCoy doesn't get hurt in the game against the Eagles? What if it's just one of those magical years that everybody stays upright for the Saints and Chris Alave is in concussed multiple times and you don't lose your great deep, you know, your deep threat. Like if you're able to do and your offense stays healthy and your

offensive line is healthy, what would the Saints have looked like? Healthy Derek Carr, healthy and by the way, Carr eventually got hurt too. That's the injury that's killed him. I mean look, I mean he was still playing at a pretty high level when he got knocked out of that Chiefs game. Again, he had no offensive line, whatever, but it's a fun what if. He'll go down as a great what if. Again, never a rock star, was never going to be a top five quarterback, but fringe top ten is fair. If the

Saints don't get in, again, injuries are part of the game, but if that offensive line stays healthy, what happens? How many games do they win? How many yards does he throw for? What kind of season does he have? And are we looking at him differently? And one of the arguments he have? And are we looking at him differently? And one of the arguments I see is, well, he's one of those guys that, I mean, if all things work out well, he can be good. The thing is, that's most quarterbacks. Did you notice that the Bengals didn't do much this year?

Why is that? Oh, their offensive line wasn't very good and their defense sucked, right? So does Joe Burrow just suck more because his offensive line isn't there and his defense. Like I think we pick and choose which guys will be willing to defend for the same things, right? There are very few guys who are going to win Super Bowls with their offensive line decimated a terrible defense and all that. That's not a defense of Derek Carr per se because I never think that he's a Super Bowl type of quarterback anyway, but we're

willing to say those things about certain people because almost to diminish them and say well, everything's got to be great for Derek Carr. Sure, everything has to be great for Derek Carr, but what did things look like when things weren't perfect for I don't know. Look at the Jalen Hurts who won the Super Bowl last year this past season when things are really good for Jalen Hurts things are really good when people are beat up and this receivers out and this offensive lineman's

out guys running for his life and he's not the same guy. We just pick and choose which guys we tend to look at and say, oh he needs everything to be perfect. I don't know why I'm sitting here doing something that even sounds remotely like I'm defending Derek Carr, but I am to a degree because I don't believe Derek Carr is the reason that my football team has sucked for the last three or four years since Drew Brees retired. My football team hired the dopey assistant coach to be the head coach and it was a disaster. My football team is dreadful as it relates to salary cap issues and their free agency moves haven't

been very good. My football team's offensive line was decimated by injuries. My football team's GM is a dunce. So like these are the things, my football team drafted Tyler Schar or whatever the hell the guy's name is to go along with the quarterback they drafted last year who's probably not very good either right Spencer Radler and my football team gave 150 or 200 million whatever it was to Derek fucking Carr but I can't look at Derek Carr and hate Derek Carr for that Like I see a lot of Saints fans like celebrate and I get fandom, right? Because I'm with you. I'm glad he's gone but I still go like it feels kind of gross to just look at Derek Carr and blame him for all of

the ills of the Saints. Like he ain't Drew Brees. And by the way, it's also very possible that like and I've said this, this is the part that disturbed me the most. They even gave the fucking money to Derek Carr. What the Saints could have done, should have done is just said, hey, James, here's, you know, one tenth of what we're paying Derek Carr. James Winston could have won six games, seven games or whatever the hell the Saints did the two years ago. He could have done that. You know, that's

the part that bothers me the most about it. That they tried to that they thought that this one fringe top ten quarterback was the missing piece for the Saints. But then again, all things going right. Started the season 2-0 and the dude threw like nine touchdowns in the first two games of the year. Dude was a beast. So again, I hate the guy. I mean, if you go back and listen, trust me, I view things a lot differently in May and June than I do in, you know, September, October, November.

I can assure you in November, there were plenty of days that I just fucking hated Derek Karn. If you go back and listen to the podcast that audios there but today from a human standpoint Saints fan standpoint, I don't look at Derek Carr and go what a piece of shit, you know, you know, rest in hell. It's guy was what he was. It's the same way. I look at a guy like Matt Schaub took the money to be the Texans quarterback was pretty

good doing it and if things worked out perfectly, he was pretty solid. And that's how I look at a guy like Derek Carr. Anyway, more to come.