Derek Carr is in his first season as the quarterback of the New Orleans Saints, perhaps the most visible job in the entire city.
The hopes of Saints fans everywhere rest on his shoulders, and he wants to embrace the city back.
As part of that, Carr has agreed to a one-on-one interview with Times-Picayune Saints editor Zach Ewing, who covered Carr years ago in California high school football. Here’s last week’s Q&A.
This week, Carr speaks on an injury that derailed his first playoff run, reflecting on his first year in New Orleans and whether he would restructure his contract to help the Saints with their salary cap situation.
Each week, we’ll post the interview here in a question-and-answer format, brought to you by OOFOS.
And you’re invited to participate, too. If you have questions you’d like Carr to answer — about football, family, life or anything in between — email them to
Zach Ewing: In 2016, you were having statistically what is still one of the best seasons of your career. You guys were rolling, had a good team, playing for a division title.
Not to bring up bad memories, but then you break your leg against the Colts. Walk me through that moment. I remember hearing you on TV — you knew immediately it was broken.
Derek Carr: Yeah, I knew it was broke. I felt the pop, I heard the pop. BOOM, you know? I’ll never forget that. It was against the Colts — it was Trent Cole, I believe, who got me.
Look, that memory right there — so much goes through your head. Is everything over? You get to this high, you’re starting to prove yourself, all this kind of stuff, you’ve got a chance to win the MVP, you’ve got a chance to win the division, get in the playoffs and make a run, and then it’s over in a moment.
remember so many thoughts going through my head. Like: “Is it career-ending? Am I done? How do I support my family?” I hadn’t signed a new contract yet, so what’s gonna happen there? Am I even gonna do that now? So many things just in the human sense go through your mind in the matter of like 10 seconds.
I knew the season was over, I knew all that.
But then I remember going in there, and they’re like, “Well, if it’s just broke, we can do surgery and you’ll be back in this many weeks.” And I’m like [claps], “I can play in the Super Bowl!” So immediately, you know, my positivity, it was, “We’re good, I’ll be back.”
ZE: Still, it was the first time you would have been in the playoffs in your career, and you had to watch from the sideline.
Does that make you realize how fleeting those opportunities are, especially as you head into a week like this? You’re only going to get so many chances.
DC: You only get so many chances. A lot of guys can tell you stories about how they went to a Super Bowl their rookie year or whatever, and they don’t go back to the playoffs the rest of their career. You’ve just got to catch fire at the right time.
So when you have an opportunity like this, you try your best to make the most of it, especially as you get older.
I’m 10-plus years [in the NFL] now. Every single one of these matter, and that’s the only thing we’re playing for.
ZE: So I know you don’t want to scoreboard-watch during the game, but do you know anybody on the Panthers or the Cardinals or the Bears that you can call and say, “Hey, I’ve got a steak dinner in this for you”? Is there any of that going on?
DC: I don’t until the aftermath. If everyone takes care of business, sure, you reach out, “Hey man, I got you. Appreciate you.”
But beforehand, no. Because I always try and keep my mind so focused on what I have to do. Because if I don’t take care of business, none of that is going to matter. I just try to stay my best to stay focused.
But ever since that moment, man, it has only gotten better and exceeded what I was hoping.
When you look back, you’re like, “Man, I wish it had happened a little sooner.” But the fact that that started, and now we’ve been trending upwards and doing all the right things, that’s exciting to me.
It was a grind, it was tough, but it’s been very rewarding the last month and a half, two months.
ZE: No matter what happens Sunday, I guess that makes you more optimistic going into the offseason and the new year.
DC: Oh, absolutely. No matter what happens, whenever that time comes to look at what’s next, I’m absolutely excited for what we’ve built and the foundation that we’re laying right now. But hopefully we can keep pushing that date back.
ZE: Speaking of which, don’t know if you saw Marshon Lattimore restructured his contract to push some money back.
How do those conversations go with players and agents? And is that something you’ve thought about or would be willing to do?
DC: Oh, yeah. I’ve always been that way. I’ve offered many times when I was with the Raiders, and now I would do the same thing here.
If it helps the team and I saw the plan and I knew where it was gonna go, man, let’s figure it out. There’s ways to get us what we need, and there’s ways that us as players, we can get the team what they need also with resources.
That’s absolutely something I would do. Not even a question, no matter what we got to do.
Again, there’s ways to do to where you can still get your money, and there’s ways to do it to where it helps the cap and helps the situation to help the team, ultimately.
