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I was skeptical of CKM comments during his press conference. I'm more of a "pay attention to what they do" rather than a "pay attention to what was said" guy. And I often notice what was NOT said. It was CKMs 1st press conference....it would have been premature to announce his thoughts (IMO) before studying sufficient hours of game film. What else was CKM supposed to say in his initial press conference? It sounded non-committal either way, and I was fine with that. It didn't confirm anything for me either way.
Fast forward to the press conference this week.....and this is the first time I've heard CKM speak on the matter, that I didn't feel he was being non-committal in a purposeful manner. He's had time to watch the film; he's had time to talk to and meet with the dude; and they've certainly talked football and vision. I came away feeling like CKM did his homework and was confident in his decision moving forward. If that's what CKM wants, I'll support it (as if I had a say, LOL?!), and this is the first time I felt like I had a true read on CKMs REAL thoughts. Unless something unexpected and unforseen happens, DC4 is the QB in 2025.
To be honest....none of this is surprising. The handwriting has been on the wall for awhile, and the "tea leaves" have been forecasting this for awhile if we ignored our internal biases. I wanted to move on, because that is financially better for the Saints. I didn't like the way this went down....I was disappointed in the way Carr's camp handled this. On a personal level, can't blame them; but from a fan level, was hoping to see the TEAM as a higher priority than the individual paycheck. I was HOPING to see DC4 take a "token paycut" as a gesture to build the team around him. He didn't have to, but would've went a LONG way in PR that the guy wanted to be here, was committed to winning, and was doing his part to make that happen. But at the same time, DC4 is no doubt the best QB on the roster currently; and there is no guarantee that SR18 can be, or will be coached up to a similar level this season. Maybe eventually....but he needs to EARN it.
I'm speculating on CKMs thoughts here....but maybe he sees DC4 as an "average QB" who will neither win nor lose games single-handedly; but has learned about 8-10 new offenses in 11 seasons, and is almost certainly going to be the "quickest study" in learning CKMs offense. DC4 is probably the most experienced QB in the league at learning new offenses; and if CKM is the coach we all hope he is, perhaps he can squeeze a little more juice out of DC4. In the meantime, this doesn't change much...DC4 still isn't the future, but he IS the best we've got now and CKM can MAYBE tweak him a little better.
And we can still hope that SR18 develops into that guy. Sure would be nice if Rattler could CHALLENGE Carr for the starting job, but on a rookie salary.....would go a LONG way towards a rebuild/reload....but it can't be relied upon. But if CKM doesn't think Rattler or Haener are worthy, I absolutely hope he drafts a project QB with mid round pick. I'm curious as hell to see what a CKM QB looks like, because I honestly don't know. But I do believe this staff, with 3 former NFL QBs on the coaching staff, is specifically geared for QB development. And I can't wait to see what that looks like!
I asked the question in another thread how much is the annual pay for Carr across these three season and it is basically $100M guaranteed money divided by three or $33.3M per year. IMO, Carr has easily been worth that.
