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Derek Carr injury gives New Orleans Saints unexpected control over 2025 NFL Draft chaos

Derek Carr injury gives New Orleans Saints unexpected control over 2025 NFL Draft chaos

TOI Sports Desk / TIMESOFINDIA.COM / Apr 12, 2025, 10:35 IST

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Derek Carr's shoulder injury puts his 2025 season at risk and forces the New Orleans Saints to rethink their NFL Draft plans with the No. 9 pick.

(Image via Imagn Images)

Derek Carr shoulder injury news broke Friday, and it changes everything for the New Orleans Saints. According to multiple reports, Carr’s latest issue could keep him off the field for the entire 2025 season. That’s not speculation. That’s the word around the league, and it couldn’t have come at a worse time.
The New Orleans Saints kick off offseason training Monday under new head coach Kellen Moore. Carr’s status is now completely uncertain. NFL Network first reported the injury, while Dianna Russini followed up with more context, tweeting: “Derek Carr’s shoulder development did not come as a surprise to the Saints. Surgery is being contemplated as both sides analyze next steps for player and franchise. Carr carries a $20.4M cap hit in 2025.�?/span>
Carr has not taken a snap since Week 14 of the 2024 season after fracturing multiple bones in his non-throwing hand against the New York Giants. He missed a total of seven games last year. Oblique and hand injuries sidelined him, and when Carr was unavailable, the Saints lost every single game. Spencer Rattler and Jake Haener couldn’t save the season. And now, with a shoulder issue potentially keeping Carr out through 2025, the Saints have a quarterback problem that’s no longer ignorable.

Derek Carr’s injury gives New Orleans Saints major leverage at the draft

The New Orleans Saints already held the ninth overall pick. That alone made them interesting. Now, with the Derek Carr shoulder injury likely to sideline him, the Saints hold real power in the top ten of the 2025 NFL Draft. They might be the most unpredictable franchise in that range right now.
Derek Carr signed with New Orleans in 2023. He still has two years left on that deal. Earlier this year, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reported that Carr was open to testing the market. The Saints didn’t let that happen. Instead, they restructured his contract. Now he’s locked in, and injured, and expensive.
Carr’s long-term viability already looked fragile. Performance hasn’t lived up to the paycheck. The Saints knew this. They’ve been doing their homework on quarterbacks. Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders has been linked to the team for months. That buzz only grew louder when Louis Riddick posted: “That 9th pick gonna be all kinds of interesting.�?/span> And Deion Sanders reposted it with the eyeballs emoji.
The Saints hosted Louisville’s Tyler Shough on the same day Carr’s injury hit the media. The optics are brutal. Fans are connecting dots. Executives around the league are noticing the timing. Russini even hinted there’s “conjecture about whether the Saints are telling the full story about Carr’s situation.�?/span> That’s damning if true.
Whether Carr plays or not, the Saints cannot bet the franchise on him staying healthy. They’ve tried that. It didn’t work. They didn’t win a single game without him last year. He’s injury-prone, and they know it. That ninth pick? It’s probably going to be a quarterback. If Shedeur Sanders is there, they should take him. Anything else would be malpractice.

Every team behind the New Orleans Saints now views them as a QB threat and will act accordingly

The Derek Carr shoulder injury didn’t just shake up New Orleans. It created a ripple effect. If any team behind the Saints was hoping to get Shedeur Sanders, they’re panicking now. They’re making calls. They’re exploring trade-ups. Because no one trusts the Saints to let him fall anymore.
The Cleveland Browns and New York Giants sit at two and three. If Sanders slips past them, New Orleans is next in line. And they suddenly feel more desperate than anyone else in that top ten.
Even if the Saints shock everyone and don’t take a quarterback at nine, they still need one. Derek Carr isn’t the future. Spencer Rattler and Jake Haener aren’t starters. Ben DiNucci is a practice squad guy. The Saints could look at someone like Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart in a later round, but let’s be serious. That’s a downgrade. It always has been. Sanders is the smart play.
The idea of going after Kirk Cousins? Temporary fix. A move like that would show the Saints are thinking short-term again, and that’s how franchises get stuck in mediocrity. Aaron Rodgers? Same problem. Better than Cousins and Carr, sure. But he’s not solving anything long-term. He’s 41.
So here’s where this draft gets wild. The Saints are in the middle of the board, but they now feel like the team everyone else has to watch. If they want to move up to guarantee Sanders, they might try it. If another team wants Sanders, they’ll need to leapfrog the Saints. Everyone’s anxious now, and the clock’s ticking.
The 2025 draft was boring before this. The Derek Carr shoulder injury made it messy. New Orleans didn’t ask for this spotlight, but they’ve got it. Now we wait to see if they screw it up.
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TOI Sports Desk

The TOI Sports Desk excels in a myriad of roles that capture the essence of live sporting events and deliver compelling content to readers worldwide. From running live blogs for India and non-India cricket matches to global spectacles featuring Indian talents, like the Chess World Cup final featuring Praggnanandhaa and the Badminton World Championships semifinal featuring HS Prannoy, our live coverage extends to all mega sporting events. We extensively cover events like the Olympics, Asian Games, Cricket World Cups, FIFA World Cups, and more. The desk is also adept at writing comprehensive match reports and insightful post-match commentary, complemented by stats-based articles that provide an in-depth analysis of player performances and team dynamics. We track news wires for key stories, conduct exclusive player interviews in both text and video formats, and file content from print editions and reporters. We keep track of all viral stories, trending topics and produce our own copies on the subjects. We deliver accurate, engaging, and up-to-the-minute sports content, round the clock.

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