Derek Carr coming over to the New Orleans Saints this past offseason has not exactly been smooth sailing for the former face of the Las Vegas Raiders franchise. Deemed the best quarterback in the worst division in football, the Saints are 3-4 and a full game back of the hated Atlanta Falcons in the NFC South. Even more troubling, this Saints offense is not getting off on the right foot this season.
During last week's loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars at home 31-24, Carr was caught on a hot mic absolutely eviscerating wide receiver Chris Olave during a critical stretch of the game in between plays. Olave may have his own mess of trouble to sort through, but the Saints are massively underperforming expectations this season. Carr has not made it work with Pete Carmichael Jr. yet.
The play in question involving Carr berating Olave prominently featured Jaguars edge rusher Travon Walker. The former Georgia star and No. 1 overall pick was giving Carr the business by saying that Olave was not open because "It wasn't there! Derek, it wasn't there!" While Jacksonville looks like a real Super Bowl contender in the AFC South, New Orleans may be a third-place team in its division.
Once again, Carr was caught on camera yelling at someone on the Saints, while losing to an AFC South team. Carr was caught yelling at Carmichael in New Orleans' loss to the Houston Texans.
In his decade-long career out of Fresno State, Carr has never quarterbacked a division winner...
Derek Carr caught yelling at Chris Olave during Saints loss to Jaguars
Truth be told, nobody is running away with the division. The only team that looks to be out of it is the Carolina Panthers, the NFL's only remaining winless team. Not only is Carolina absolutely horrific for mostly David Tepper reasons, but they do not even own their first-round pick. That belongs to the Chicago Bears, who I have little to no faith in them figuring out how to use that asset wisely at all.
As far as the Saints are concerned, they need to be at least competitive in their games with the Falcons and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, on top of handling Carolina, the rest of the way. 10-7 will probably win the division. While crossing the Saints off now is patently ridiculous, you have to wonder what the future holds for Carr's former Raiders coach Dennis Allen now in year two leading the Saints.
Carmichael has been exposed in the years since Sean Payton left the organization. Although offense is not Allen's side of the ball, we have seen some regression defensively as well with Ryan Nielsen turning heel and reuniting with Terry Fontenot in Atlanta on Arthur Smith's Falcons staff. Either way, Carr was brought in to elevate the Saints as a whole. Unfortunately, he has played like ... Derek Carr.
Carr yelling at his teammates and coaches will not help him win games, or win over the locker room...
