RevDeuce’s biggest takeaways from Panthers at Saints after watching film
He needs to watch what a bunch of other teams are trotting out as their QB1. I get it, Carr isn’t Mahomes but he’s better than most.
And to that point, he's paid either where you feel he ranks or he's actually a better value.
I'm not a Carr die hard. I'm also not a Carr hater. I think Carr brings plenty of good and some less-than-good things to the table most of the time. It's up to the coaches to get the most out of him at this point. But we are paying Carr as a bottom-level NFL starting QB. To say we aren't getting that level of return would be misguided, and I've seen that too often.
Carr ranks T-17th in average annual salary. That metric doesn't tell the entire story, but it's close enough. That's T-17 among non-rookie deal QBs mind you. There are a lot of rookie deal starters (Williams, Daniels, Richardson, Young, Nix, Stroud, etc) and others that will soon be (Maye, McCarthy, Penix, etc). Those that succeed as rookies will fly by the average we are paying Carr. So we are getting a value in terms of the market.
The only question anyone should have about Carr is should we just have gone with a bottom-of-the-barrel fill in while trying to get a rookie that works out. Someone like a Dalton, Brissett, Darnold, etc. Your argument in that case is that Carr and no other QB on the market has a shot at winning a Super Bowl, so why try? If you want to make that argument (that the Saints can't ever win with a Carr-level or similar QB), then fine. That's an option. But I've seen too many people say we are paying Carr too much when we're actually paying him market rate or worse.
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/rankings/player/_/year/2024/position/qb/sort/contract_average