Why Saints are in surprisingly better position to secure Derek Carr now

Derek Carr will not waive his no-trade clause and is expected to be released by the Las Vegas Raiders. That’s actually good for the Saints.

On Sunday afternoon, when it was reported that Derek Carr would not waive the no-trade clause in his contract for the Las Vegas Raiders to send him to the New Orleans Saints or any other team, it initially felt like a nail in the coffin for the Saints’ hopes of landing the quarterback in a trade.

Carr had just spent multiple days in New Orleans with top members of Saints brass, only to say that he didn’t want a trade. Las Vegas has made it clear that their time with Carr is over, and so that paves a path for the Raiders to ultimately release him before a massive cap hit takes place.

Ultimately, Carr may not end up in New Orleans, but surprisingly, it could actually set the Saints up better to land him than previously thought. Nick Underhill and Mike Triplett discussed this idea recently on their members-only podcast (subscription required) for NewOrleans.football, and helped me wrap my thoughts around it.

Saints no longer have to deal with a middle-man in Derek Carr acquisition

Everyone knows Carr and the Raiders are heading for a split. So, why would any team send the Raiders significant assets when they know Las Vegas has every financial incentive to release him before the huge cap hit goes on their books?

Furthermore, why would they send the Raiders anything? They’ve, somewhat comically, foiled all leverage they had in this situation entirely.

The Saints just got a first-round draft pick back in the deal that saw Sean Payton come back to the head coaching ranks in the NFL with the Broncos. Sending picks out for a quarterback, while potentially necessary, was never ideal in the first place.

Now, though the Saints will have to compete with a larger market of teams interested in Carr’s services, they won’t have to deal with the Raiders at all, which is a blessing in disguise. Now, New Orleans can get Carr for simply cap space (which, right now, they have none, but they can restructure and make some adjustments to make it possible) and use their assets on other areas of improvement.

The calculus on the decision to acquire or not acquire Carr changes tremendously now. Arguably, he just got a whole lot more inexpensive.

Yes, the options for Carr are more expansive now. But the Saints got their pitch in to the Pro Bowl quarterback first, and didn’t end up having to actually pay the Raiders to do so. That’s a win, and they should still be considered the front-runner until we hear otherwise.