Any bad news for the New Orleans Saints tends to be good news for the Atlanta Falcons. That's just how it goes when you share a division in the NFL — and of course, the bad blood between these two franchises goes well beyond your normal divisional rivalry.
So, while no one is ever wishing poor health on a player, Atlanta fans almost certainly saw the news of Saints QB Derek Carr's abrupt retirement on Saturday morning as an opportunity. An already wide-open NFC South figures to be even more so now that New Orleans will be either sticking Spencer Rattler back under center or tossing 2025 second-rounder Tyler Shough straight into the fire.
But this news is important for the Falcons for reasons that go far beyond this year's playoff picture, or even this year at all. It might be a long shot, but Carr's retirement could well help answer Atlanta's thorniest question of the offseason: How will the team manage to extricate itself from Kirk Cousins?
Derek Carr retirement gifts Falcons golden chance to escape Kirk Cousins contract
Sure, it can be tough to imagine the Falcons and Saints getting together on any deal — much less one involving a potential starting quarterback. But no matter what they insist to the contrary, Atlanta needs to find a way out from under Cousins' contract. And that got significantly tougher after the 2025 NFL Draft; prior to Saturday morning, it seemed like the team's only hope was Aaron Rodgers retiring or someone getting injured in training camp.
Now, though, one more potentially QB-needy team has entered the chat. In some ways, Cousins makes all the sense in the world for New Orleans: The team already has Shough as its future but would rather not force him to start Week 1; with Carr's $30 million salary coming off the books, why not let Cousins keep the seat warm in the near term while letting Shough learn from the sidelines?
Of course, the Saints may well decide that a 36-year-old with injury concerns on a bloated contract may not be the ideal replacement for ... a 34-year-old with injury concerns on a bloated contract. But this team needs someone who can credibly beat Shough out for the QB1 job right away, and somenoe who can bring some leadership to what is now a very young position room with Shough, Spencer Rattler and Jake Haener. Cousins fits that bill to a T, and that could bring these two arch nemeses to the table.