Derek Carr won’t take a pay cut for 2025 but willing to restructure to help the cap (1 Viewer)

[Stalwart385]

I think his contract is fine. The question is, are we in a position in 2025 that it makes sense to pay it. I personally believe this is the time to do a hard reset and trade off players for draft picks.

I would love to trade Carr and his contract to a team who needs him and get draft picks in return. Then, you let Rattler show what he can do. He either proves to be QB of the future or you struggle and draft Arch Manning (or hot QB flavor of the month) after a rebuild season. You take the extra draft picks and try to build a new young core.

I don’t know if Carr would be open to trade and I don’t know how much it would help our cap if any…but it seems like the best possible outcome.

A trade would be better than a cut or doing nothing. Saves you about 10mil. You still have to restructure the whole team for the most part but at least gives you a bit of wiggle room after you do.

It's not an easy sell to trade either. He's in the back end, more expensive part of his contract. Basically it's 45mil/yr for 2 years for another team. Not horrible but it won't be easy.

The best course is to just restructure him. It gives you more room to properly handle players who aren't playing or won't be playing next year. He'll at least give you a return on the money. Other guys you'd be forced to restructure are out of gas. You can cut him in 2026 and be about 30 mil under the cap if you want to (before June 1st). All while keeping your other restructures modest.

 

[Just Win Maybe]

Restructure is a fancy name for pay raise.

Best thing to do is cut him before his guarantees kick in and reboot.

This thread is identical to so many threads in Raider boards while Carr was there.

 

[Booker]

Bro, I just don’t get it. How can a fanbase hate a guy so much?

I’m fully convinced that some people just don’t watch any other games to be able to understand that Carr is solid.

The fact that someone actually comped Minshew to him all but confirms it.

Unreal.

Carr is being held to a standard matched only by all-time NFL greats by many people here. Any negative play he has gets magnified to disproportionate levels.

Wait a sec, I mentioned Minshew and a few others as bargain alternatives should the team want to save cap and cash, presumably to be used to acquire or retain young building blocks, but no one anywhere argued that Minshew was better than Carr -- nor Brisette or Lock. They're just cheaper and would provide a not totally incompetent veteran presence while we try to develop Rattler or perhaps a mid-round pick in the coming draft.

 

[Stalwart385]

Restructure is a fancy name for pay raise.

Best thing to do is cut him before his guarantees kick in and reboot.

This thread is identical to so many threads in Raider boards while Carr was there.

No, no it's not. That's not what a restructure is. And sorry to tell you it won't happen because it can't. The out for Carr is in 2026 (even with the restructure).

 

[DaveXA]

Restructure is a fancy name for pay raise.

Best thing to do is cut him before his guarantees kick in and reboot.

This thread is identical to so many threads in Raider boards while Carr was there.

A restructure is more moving money around than anything else. It's not a pay raise in many cases. You may be thinking of an extension, which is different than a restructure.

And the savings you'll get is going to have to go to another veteran backup or starter depending on what approach the team takes with Rattler. A veteran starter is going to eat up all the savings, and more likely will be a downgrade from Carr.

Regardless, I doubt the team is going to cut him. It makes more sense to take a bird in the hand approach and draft a qb following the 2025 season and maybe have Carr take the rookie under his wing until he's ready.

Or Carr can try to do that with Rattler in the 2025 season and if Rattler does well enough, we can focus on filling other needs.

And really don't care what debates Raiders fans had about Carr. It's irrelevant.

 

[Just Win Maybe]

A restructure is more moving money around than anything else. It's not a pay raise in many cases. You may be thinking of an extension, which is different than a restructure.

And the savings you'll get is going to have to go to another veteran backup or starter depending on what approach the team takes with Rattler. A veteran starter is going to eat up all the savings, and more likely will be a downgrade from Carr.

Regardless, I doubt the team is going to cut him. It makes more sense to take a bird in the hand approach and draft a qb following the 2025 season and maybe have Carr take the rookie under his wing until he's ready.

Or Carr can try to do that with Rattler in the 2025 season and if Rattler does well enough, we can focus on filling other needs.

And really don't care what debates Raiders fans had about Carr. It's irrelevant.

I brought up Raider fans because there is a pattern. I’ll leave it up to you to find it but it’s obvious.

Restructure is kicking a can down the road and usually the player gets a bigger payday at the back end of the deal. Derek loves his money and rightfully so but offering to restructure isn’t some heartfelt sacrifice…..it’s an investment.

Saints save a lot of money if Carr is cut before the new league year begins but yes, his replacement isn’t on the team yet but Carr is not carrying anybody to the big show anyway so why not rip the bandaid off and start over. Carr is the definition of QB purgatory

 

[Stalwart385]

I brought up Raider fans because there is a pattern. I’ll leave it up to you to find it but it’s obvious.

Restructure is kicking a can down the road and usually the player gets a bigger payday at the back end of the deal. Derek loves his money and rightfully so but offering to restructure isn’t some heartfelt sacrifice…..it’s an investment.

Saints save a lot of money if Carr is cut before the new league year begins but yes, his replacement isn’t on the team yet but Carr is not carrying anybody to the big show anyway so why not rip the bandaid off and start over. Carr is the definition of QB purgatory

Not sure where you are getting that. They save nothing by cutting Carr, then would have to restructure the entire team even to attempt to be cap compliant.

This has nothing about being pro or anti Carr. His out is 2026 and they will restructure him. It is what it is.

 

[DaveXA]

I brought up Raider fans because there is a pattern. I’ll leave it up to you to find it but it’s obvious.

Still irrelevant, but whatever.

Restructure is kicking a can down the road and usually the player gets a bigger payday at the back end of the deal. Derek loves his money and rightfully so but offering to restructure isn’t some heartfelt sacrifice…..it’s an investment.

You called it a raise. It's not. A restructure is moving money around. It's not an investment. It's mostly simply changing when the player is paid. It's not a pay cut or increase. Offering to restructure can give the team options. Also, the way contracts are written these days allows the team to restructure contracts on their own and don't really need the player's permission to do so.

Saints save a lot of money if Carr is cut before the new league year begins but yes, his replacement isn’t on the team yet but Carr is not carrying anybody to the big show anyway so why not rip the bandaid off and start over. Carr is the definition of QB purgatory

Sure, but I don't see the team cutting Carr. He was having a decent season. Just marred by his injuries and of course the team not winning as much as they could have had they been healthy.

I think the new coaching staff will have a lot of say in whether Carr is going to be part of their transition or not.

 

[Just Win Maybe]

Not sure where you are getting that. They save nothing by cutting Carr, then would have to restructure the entire team even to attempt to be cap compliant.

This has nothing about being pro or anti Carr. His out is 2026 and they will restructure him. It is what it is.

From what I’ve read or heard on the radio that cutting him before the new league begins costs the saints some cap in 2025 but saves them a lot of money in the years after.

 

[Booker]

A restructure would probably just mean converting most of his salary to a bonus. He’d get the same amount, just faster, and his cap number would go down in 2025, but he’d carry more dead money going forward.

 

[Stalwart385]

From what I’ve read or heard on the radio that cutting him before the new league begins costs the saints some cap in 2025 but saves them a lot of money in the years after.

He's owed 30 mil in salary. Cutting him saves that but the dead money evens it out to no savings in 2025. The real problem is you need to save money on his contract to become cap compliant in 2025. It's pretty much required to restructure him. It was probably always the plan for his contract. Paying him the 30mil salary for another year isn't the worst investment if we had the choice anyway.

In 2026 we could cut him to save a ton of cap room and that's when all our older player's contracts end anyway. So settle in for 1 more year. 2026 will open up the roster.

 

[DSnfla]

You truly believe that we will make the Super Bowl with Carr? Good on ya then.


Keep the straw man, those QB’s had much better TEAMS.than we have. That’s the difference. I took no shot at Carr.

LOL Of course you did by saying that we would never do anything with DC as QB that's exactly what it meant. About half of those QBs I mentioned didn't have great teams , some did.
It's easier to build a strong team than to be in position and to be lucky enough to draft a Mahomes or a Jackson or a Burrow or an Allen. And even if you do get one of those kind of QBs you STILL need a strong team around them.
How many yrs did we have Brees and our D was awful? What did we win ?
Carr is a good enough QB that with a good defense and some good players around him we could definitely get to the SB

 

[DSnfla]

To play devil's advocate, majority of these guys you just mentioned had really good defenses and rushing attack, the Saints don't have that. Regarding Nick Foles, he came in on the back end of Wentz who was having a good season till he got hurt.

LOL so we build a really good defense and run the ball well. Guess what Mahomes has a really good defense. Jackson has a really good defense Even the elite QBs have good teams around them.

 

[saintfan1972]

Restructure is a fancy name for pay raise.

Best thing to do is cut him before his guarantees kick in and reboot.

This thread is identical to so many threads in Raider boards while Carr was there.

Restructure is not a raise. They get their contracted money up front. No more than the contract gives so it's not a raise.

 

[kwkrnu]

I'd rather let him play out his contract, and then let him go via free agency. This team needs a reset, badly. They're not winning anything over the next couple years. It's high time to admit that, and move forward with a complete rebuild....something the front office seems hesitant to embrace.