The New Orleans Saints are kicking off their offseason in a tough spot after hiring Kellen Moore as their head coach. While they’re coming off a disappointing 5-12 season, the biggest difficulty in New Orleans is that they’re starting the offseason way over the spending limit for the 2025 season.
One way the Saints could save a little bit of money is by moving on from Derek Carr, who has an astronomically high $51.4 million cap hit in 2025. Designating him as a post-June 1 cap casualty would bring in $30 million in cap savings, but leave behind a $21.4 million dead cap charge.
Meanwhile, the Saints could also restructure Carr’s contract and realize even more savings if they can find a solution that works for both sides, which may even involve a trade. Either way, the Saints have to consider all their options, and one might be to replace Carr with a much more affordable starting quarterback.
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ESPN predicts New Orleans Saints to oust Derek Carr, sign Justin Fields
The New Orleans Saints will have to get creative to fix their salary cap problems this offseason. Part of that process will surely involve getting rid of talented players they’d prefer to keep.
One might even involve parting ways with Derek Carr, even though he’s a four-time Pro Bowl QB. Yet, the Saints don’t want to turn to Spencer Rattler or Jake Haener as their full-time starter for 2025. That process led to an 0-7 record last season.
So if the Saints move on from Carr, who should they replace him with? ESPN’s Seth Walder predicts that they sign Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Justin Fields.
“Carr is owed a fully guaranteed $10 million roster bonus and a non-guaranteed $30 million salary. The former is a sunk cost for the Saints, but the latter can and absolutely should be saved.
Holding Carr’s $30 million salary on the cap until June 1, which is what the Saints will have to do even if they designate him as a post-June 1 release, will be a challenge.Assuming New Orleans can avoid paying that $30 million to Carr, it ought to embrace a full rebuild — which means playing players with future upside. Fields and a rookie could make sense in that context. There’s still a possibility Fields can kick his level of play up a notch, and, if not, a midround rookie can get some run. My only hesitation is that even Fields might be too expensive for the Saints, given how rough their salary cap situation is.”
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Going from Carr to Fields would be a significant downgrade from a passing perspective. However, the Saints’ rushing attack could take a significant jump forward after ranking 14th in yards and yards per carry if they moved forward with Fields.
With a new head coach coming in, there’s no telling what type of dream offense Kellen Moore has in store, but the Saints have thrown their support behind Carr so far.
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