NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans Saints quarterback Derek Carr is retiring because of a labral tear in his right shoulder and “significant degenerative changes” to the veteran starter’s rotator cuff, the team announced Saturday.
Carr, 34, played 11 pro seasons after being selected out of Fresno State by the Oakland Raiders in the second round of the 2014 NFL draft. He spent his first nine seasons with the Raiders, making the move with them to Las Vegas ahead of the 2020 season.
He was acquired by the Saints as a free agent in 2023 but had mixed results in New Orleans, going 14-13 as a starter while struggling through oblique, hand and head injuries that caused him to miss seven games last season.
Carr, who was entering the third year of a four-year, $150 million contract, experienced unexpected pain in his throwing shoulder when he began to ramp up training on his own this offseason. That led to the diagnosis that now has cut short his career.
“Surgery was an option, jeopardizing the entire 2025 season, yet there was no guarantee Derek would return to the level of strength, function and performance of play to which he was accustomed,” the Saints said in a written announcement.
The Saints did not acknowledge Carr’s injury until the day before this year’s NFL draft in late April. Carr did not speak publicly about the injury until a few days later, when he delivered a guest sermon at a Las Vegas church. In that sermon, Carr said his critics were “lying” about him when they questioned the unusual timing of the injury, as well as both the team’s and the quarterback’s initial reticence to address it openly or answer questions about it.
Carr has career passing totals of 41,245 yards, 257 touchdowns and 112 interceptions. The four-time Pro Bowl selection retires with a 77-92 regular-season record as a starter and was 0-1 in the playoffs.
Carr said he made his decision in consultation with his wife, Heather, and “upon reflection of prayer.”
“For more than 11 years, we have been incredibly blessed, and we are forever grateful and humbled by this experience,” Carr said. “It’s difficult to find the right words to express our thanks to all the teammates, coaches, management, ownership, team officials and especially the fans who made this journey so special.”
“I sleep well knowing that I gave my teammates, my coaches, and my cities my all,” Carr added.
The decision also comes after New Orleans, heading into its first season with Kellen Moore as head coach, used a high second-round draft choice to select Louisville quarterback Tyler Shough.
And now Shough, who learned of Carr’s decision just before taking the field for a rookie camp practice on Saturday, will have a chance to compete for a starting job.
“All I want is an opportunity,” said the 26-year-old Shough, who, in part because of injuries, spent seven years at the college level with three programs, spending time at Oregon and Texas Tech before joining the Cardinals. “I’ve been at points in my career where I would just be dying to get on the field because I was injured. I was a backup before and I was a starter. So I know a lot of those roles and what it looks like, and I think I can operate well in any of them.”
“I’m just really excited for that opportunity to go out there and prove myself,” he added.
Other quarterbacks on the roster include second-year pro Spencer Rattler and third-year player Jake Haener, who did not post a victory between them in seven games last season, six of which Rattler started.
Moore said Carr’s retirement “will provide some of those younger quarterbacks a chance to just get ready from a rep standpoint and opportunity standpoint. Obviously, those guys will be ready and fired up for that.”
Moore was noncommittal about the possibility of bringing in an established veteran quarterback through free agency.
“We’ll certainly have awareness of it,” Moore said. “We’re ready if the opportunity presents itself.”
Since the AFL-NFL merger in 1966, just 12 quarterbacks who were not drafted in the first round have started season openers as rookies. One of them was Carr. Another was Dak Prescott in 2016 for the Dallas Cowboys, when Moore was one of his backups.
Prescott “was obviously a fourth-round pick and probably wasn’t anticipating being a starter that year,” noted Moore, who also worked with Prescott as the Cowboys’ quarterbacks coach in 2018 and as their offensive coordinator from 2019 to 2022. “These guys all come from different paths.”