Football is fun again for Saints QB Derek Carr. Now comes the hard part: Keeping it that way.

Football is fun again for Saints QB Derek Carr. Now comes the hard part: Keeping it that way. His nose was so close to the grindstone, Derek Carr did not notice the subtle but meaningful part of his transition to this new life.

Maybe it's because there was so much newness — new city, new franchise, new teammates, new coaches, new offense, new verbiage, new climate, new, new, new, new. His job is too important to let that novelty linger, to let it eventually become a crutch or excuse, so Carr buried himself in the work of making it all feel familiar. It was Heather Carr who pulled her husband’s focus away from the details a few weeks into his first training camp with the New Orleans Saints so he could see the broader picture.

When they made the seismic decision to uproot their lives and move to New Orleans, it wasn’t just for money or glory. Look how much fun you’re having again, she said. "She said it to me, and I was like, ‘You know what? You're right,’" Carr said.

"I really enjoy this building. What they have created here is special. " What is laid bare in the subtext is that football had become less fun and more of a job in recent years.

Carr’s nine-season run as the face of the Raiders franchise was rewarding, but it had run its course. The end was painful, but a remarkable opportunity awaited when the Raiders officially severed ties. Here was a franchise quarterback presented with a gift that never comes to players of his ilk: Choice.

Starting quarterbacks almost never reach the free agent market, and when they do, they usually come with risks. The Saints changed the trajectory of their franchise when they signed Drew Brees in 2006, but they had to gamble on his reconstructed shoulder. Peyton Manning faced similar injury uncertainty when he signed with Denver.

Tom Brady and Brett Favre were well into the twilight of their careers when they signed with the Buccaneers and Vikings, respectively. Carr is 32 years old and very much in the prime of his career. He has a clean injury history and he is well-regarded in NFL circles, both for his skill as a player and for his ability to unite a locker room.

And now he has the incredibly rare chance to author the second act of his career in a place of his choosing. Saints Chargers Practice Football As much as the Saints pinned the hopes of their future upon Carr’s shoulders when signing him to a four-year, $150 million contract this March, the reverse is also true. These are two parties betting on the other to be the best thing that has happened to them in a long time.

Carr already has a lot of the ancillary stuff that comes with being a franchise quarterback. He holds franchise records and he has represented his team as a Pro Bowler and he is fabulously wealthy. When he was deciding on his next football home, he was looking for something more substantial.

And that is why it was important for him to realize he was having fun again, because that is a precursor for the big thing he’s chasing. "The most important thing was he wanted to have fun playing football again," said quarterbacks coach Ronald Curry. ".

. . When you put together a good game plan, you execute and you win games, you have fun.

"You do all that and lose games, football is shitty again. " 'I'm free!' Counterintuitive as it seems, the catalyst that set Carr down the path toward signing with the Saints was the three-year extension he signed with the Raiders in April of last year. The deal was not what it appeared to be on its face.

Las Vegas brought in a new head coach, Josh McDaniel, and general manager, Dave Ziegler, in January 2022, and the new Raiders braintrust built in an off-ramp in the form of a $40. 4 million guarantee that triggered Feb. 15 of this year.

As a crucial part of the pact, Carr’s agent, Tim Younger, negotiated a no-trade clause. "I’ve got to give (Younger) credit," Carr said. "He was like, ‘The way we’re going to set this up is we’re going to get you a little bit of a raise, and we’re going to focus on this year.

We’ll get the extension, and if it all goes well, awesome, we’re going to keep going. But we’re also going to put a no-trade clause, and we’re also going to do a thing where they can have an out after this season. Technically, sure, they can trade you, but you can say no.

’ I said, perfect, that gives me all the leverage. " The money was nice, but Carr had already earned more than $100 million in his career when he signed the new deal. What he really wanted from the Raiders was a sign they were committed to him.

If they weren’t going to give him that much, he wanted a say in his future. "If it didn’t go well, I just wanted to be in control one time in my career where I get to make that decision," Carr said. "It was not like I wanted power over somebody or anything; I just wanted the choice for my life and my family.

"So the fact that he got that no-trade clause, it was just like, oh my gosh, I don’t care what the money was after that. " What happened next is well-known: The Raiders did not come close to meeting their high expectations for the 2022 season. Carr struggled, posting his worst quarterback rating (86.

3) and completion percentage (60. 8%) since his rookie campaign, and Las Vegas won just six of his 15 starts. A divorce between the quarterback and franchise was looming.

Las Vegas made that all but official when it benched Carr in December, ensuring he would not trigger the $40. 4 million guarantee if he became injured. After nine seasons operating as the face of the franchise, being trotted out in front of the cameras to speak on whatever fresh controversy the organization found itself embroiled in, Carr was not even around the team for Weeks 17 and 18 of last season.

This is where things get rather complex between the quarterback and his old franchise. Last winter was a bitter end to an important period of his life. On one hand, he understood the decision from a business standpoint; on the other, it killed him not to finish the season with his teammates.

There are people within the organization for whom he has no love lost, and yet he wants nothing but success for the Raiders in their new chapter. That last bit is something Carr desperately wants to convey. This split was complicated, and so were the resulting emotions.

He hit pause at multiple points in this interview to reiterate that he bears no malice in his heart for the Raiders. "Whether I felt one way or another, they’re still all my friends over there," Carr said. "Even the people that I may not like as much, I don’t want anyone to fail, because I know how hard this business is on families when it’s not going well.

I genuinely mean that. " That being said, the ball was in Carr’s court this offseason, and he was not going to go out of his way to help the team that gave up on him. There was a time when Carr said he was open to waiving his no-trade clause, but it had to be on his terms.

What he wanted was time to explore all his options, and the freedom to choose his next landing spot without being burdened by the regret of learning later that there was another option he discovered too late. He said he did not get that opportunity, so he told the Raiders he would not accept a trade. Carr was vacationing in Mexico when he got the call.

It was McDaniels on the other end of the line, thanking him for his contributions to the Raiders organization. The conversation was cordial, according to Carr, with both men saying they were sorry it did not work out. Las Vegas was releasing Carr.

Before his phone would start blowing up with messages from potential new teammates, Carr pulled up the group message he shares with his brothers. The message he tapped into his phone: "I’m free!" "It was a relief kind of moment," Carr said. "Once the decision is made, what, do you want me to still feel sorry about it? No.

I’m ready for the next thing. " Be yourself Teams don’t just invest $150 million in a player on a whim. They dissect as much game film as they can get their hands on, then extrapolate it to gauge a player’s fit within the scheme and around the existing personnel.

The front office staff works their network to find old friends, teammates and coaches to get a sense of a player’s personality or work ethic. If there is a stone to be found, it is turned over to see if there are any worms beneath, because a swing and a miss on such a high-stakes signing can cripple an organization for years. As the Saints dug in on Carr, they kept finding things they loved.

Old teammates raved about his character, and the Saints had no problem envisioning the player they saw on tape operating within their offense. "He’s an accurate passer; he’s a quick processor; you can tell he’s a high FBI guy — football intelligence," Curry said. "He’s good under center in the play action, he’s good in the gun, he’s good in empty — all the things that we like to do.

"You can see that you can put a lot on his plate and he can still function at a high level. Some guys slow down, some guys don’t like it. He’s going to allow us to do everything that we wanted to do on offense.

" New Orleans was highly motivated to land Carr. Brees’ retirement after the 2020 season cratered the team’s contender status. After two straight disappointing years that finished with the Saints out of the playoff picture, the franchise was sliding toward irrelevance if it could not fix its quarterback situation.

So the Saints pursued Carr vigorously, making him their Plan A, B and C. Technically, there were fallback options if the interest was not mutual, but the Saints were hard set on Carr, and they made sure to let Carr know that. They were the only team to receive permission to host him on a visit while he was still under contract with Las Vegas, and they set up another meeting with him at the NFL combine in Indianapolis following his release.

Carr's phone buzzed with messages from current and former Saints players. They walked a delicate line between being desperate and showing the veteran quarterback why there was only one place to consider. Feeling desired was important to Carr, especially after the way his Raiders tenure ended.

It was the way the Saints expressed that desire that interested him — it was not just from the coaches and executives, but from the players who he would eventually call teammates in New Orleans. Two things struck Carr about the Saints’ approach. First, the players within the locker room made clear to him that he’d be welcomed with open arms, which was important to Carr.

Second, they wanted him to be himself and nothing else, just come in and add value where he could to a roster that is already laden with proven veterans. "That meant everything, because they were like: 'Trust me, just come here, we will help you get to where you need to go,'" Carr said. "It wasn't like, you've got to come in here and do it all.

The whole team was like, we just need you to come add your value. " Demario Davis was once in Carr's shoes, a free agent looking for the right place to call home. The pivotal element, he said, was that when he arrived, he felt no pressure to be anything more than simply himself.

He didn't have to prove he could be a leader or that he was worthy of the big contract, because the Saints had a stable structure in place. Since signing in New Orleans, Davis has played the best football of his career, and he thinks the same can be true for Carr. "For guys like myself and Cam (Jordan), Tyrann (Mathieu), our job is to take that burden off him," Davis said.

". . .

He’s been a phenomenal football player, but we don’t want him to come in and think he has to and carry the load. "We just want you to come in and do you. This is a safe place, this is a refuge.

When that time (comes) to put it on your back, it’ll happen. " 'We've got a chance' The Carr signing may not have moved the needle much nationally. The Saints are currently scheduled to play 13 of their 17 games in the noon CT time slot, away from national audiences.

When New Orleans is discussed as a contender, it is usually filtered through the lens of its weak division. But the excitement is hard to miss inside the Saints facility. Making a high-profile splash in free agency at the most important position in sports has galvanized the organization and made those on the inside believe the biggest things are within reach.

"Getting someone like him off the market, into this city, into this locker room, with the players that we have already? It’s like, damn, we can make a run," said center Erik McCoy. "If we stay healthy, we’ve got a chance at this thing. " Carr is careful not to make any grand statements about what this team is capable of with him under center, because he has not yet shown it in a game with real stakes.

Still, there is a quiet confidence. He is eager to get Act 2 of his career underway, so much so that he has been scouring Instagram for clips of the Tennessee Titans in joint practices to try and gain a tiny edge for when the real thing starts in Week 1. There are so many responsibilities that come with being the franchise quarterback, but Carr has his focus fixed on the main thing.

"The only reason I'm here is to win," Carr said. ". .

. I just want to win, and I believe with everything in me that we can do that. So that's what I'm excited for, if that makes sense.

Of course I want to make an impact in the community. We're going to do that. Stuff seen, stuff never seen by people except the ones we're impacting.

Of course I want to do that. Of course I want to leave a mark and all that. All that's great.

"But the only thing that drives me every morning that I wake up, no matter how I feel, is winning, and doing that here. And so, for me, that is what I'm looking forward to, is getting to the game, so we can get that feeling. " This has been a chance for Carr to hit reset, and the process has been rejuvenating.

He chose New Orleans because the organization convinced him he could win here. The last several months have only brought that into focus. "Whatever happened (in Las Vegas), it took a lot out of him," Curry said.

"It weighed on his family, it weighed on his heart. He’s such a good dude, he’s a loving dude, he loves everybody. So to get mistreated the way he did (by) an organization he gave so much to, it just bothered him.

"Now that he’s here, it’s like, man, this is how it can be. He’s just having fun, enjoying coming to work, enjoying the people that you’re in the grind with. It’s a shot in his arm.

He’s like a little kid again. You can see it every day. " So what does it look like, if everything goes the way it’s supposed to with a new $150 million man pulling the strings? "Super Bowl," Curry said, with no hesitation.

"That’s why you go out and get the guy. " And the game is in Las Vegas this year? Sounds like fun. .