Quarterback Derek Carr is interested in playing for a Super Bowl contender. The Saints will have something to say about that.
Carr remains on the New Orleans reserve-retired list. He’s not a free agent. He can sign with a new team only if the Saints release him.
The Brett Favre (2008) strategy is available. Unretire. Show up in New Orleans. His base salary would hit the books again. Their options would be to release him or trade him.
The more practical outcome would go like this. First, Carr would find a team that is interested in acquiring his rights. Second, that team would contact the Saints to work something out. Third, if an agreement is reached, Carr would be traded.
Yes, there are elements of tampering included within that approach. But the Saints wouldn’t care. They’d end up getting a draft pick (or two) for a player who has moved on.
The Saints have moved on, too. Tyler Shough is their guy. The Saints won’t want to pivot back to Carr.
It’s a win-win, if someone trades for him.
The Saints also could handle the situation more directly, by granting Carr express permission to talk to other teams in an effort to work out a trade. Regardless, Carr doesn’t have the freedom that he’d have if he’d been released.
He hasn’t been. And while it shouldn’t be a huge issue, it’s still an issue that keeps it from being as simple as Carr finding a team and signing a contract.
Saints Clips
Derek Carr has confirmed the report that he would consider playing in 2026, but he says it would have to be in the perfect situation.
Carr announced his retirement from the Saints nine months ago, but he said on his podcast on Thursday that he has always been open to playing again, provided the shoulder injury he struggled with last year feels good, and that a team with a chance at winning the Super Bowl is interested in him.
“Would I do it? Yes. Would I do it for anybody? Absolutely not,” Carr said. “I’d have to be healthy and I’d want a chance to win a Super Bowl. And obviously, that’s a tough thing to find. That’s hard to do. That’s not easy.”
The 34-year-old Carr hinted that he is healthy and that some teams have already reached out, but he didn’t think they were the right fit.
“I had to say no a couple times so far,” Carr said.
Carr was still under contract to the Saints when he retired, and it’s unclear whether the Saints have given permission for him to talk to other teams, and what if anything they would seek in a trade for his rights. So there are some hoops to jump through before he can return. But Carr sounds like he wants to play, if he can find the right team.
Derek Carr could find his way into the mix for a quarterback job this offseason.
Carr retired after the 2024 season rather than have surgery on his right shoulder and has spent the last year working to rehabilitate his injury. Carr said in September that he still was not well enough to play and wouldn’t rule out a return at some point in the future if his health continued to improve.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that teams that have inquired about the chances of a return have learned that Carr is no longer dealing with any limitations to his shoulder and is throwing regularly.
Per the report, it is believed that the right situation and coaching staff could lead to Carr returning to action. The Saints still hold Carr’s rights, but Tyler Shough’s play as a rookie has cemented him as the team’s starter and a trade could be worked out if Carr finds what he’s looking for in 2026.
As of now, though, it remains to be seen if such a situation will present itself.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame welcomed five new members on Thursday night at NFL Honors.
Quarterback Drew Brees, running back Roger Craig, wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, linebacker Luke Kuechly and kicker Adam Vinatieri will have their busts in Canton.
Brees and Fitzgerald are first-ballot Hall of Famers, and Kuechly and Vinatieri were in their second year of eligibility.
Craig has waited 28 years for his knock on the door. He was one of three seniors candidates in a group that also included Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft as the coach and contributor candidates, respectively.
For the second consecutive year, only one of the five finalists in that group made it into the Hall of Fame. Sterling Sharpe was the only inductee of that group in the Class of 2025.
Seniors L.C. Greenwood and Ken Anderson, like Belichick and Kraft, did not receive the 80 percent required for induction in the Class of 2026.
After much criticism about the selectors’ failure to enshrine Belichick in his first year of eligibility, the elections of Brees, Craig, Fitzgerald, Vinatieri and Kuechly were met with a standing ovation when announced at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.
Brees learned of his election from Dan Fouts; Ronnie Lott and Charles Haley surprised Craig with the news; Morten Andersen had the honor of telling Vinatieri; Randy Moss informed Fitzgerald; and Julius Peppers was the Hall of Famer who welcomed Kuechly into the Hall.
The Hall of Fame’s membership now stands at 387.
The newest members’ enshrinement will take place Saturday, Aug. 8 in Canton.
Scott Tolzien will not be the Steelers’ next offensive coordinator.
While Tolzien interviewed for the position on Monday, Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports reports that Tolzien will stick with the Saints as their quarterbacks coach in 2026.
Tolzien, 38, played under McCarthy as a backup quarterback for the Packers from 2013-2015. Tolzien then coached under McCarthy with the Cowboys from 2020-2024, first as a coaching assistant and then as the team’s QBs coach for his last two seasons there.
In 2025, Tolzien worked with rookie Tyler Shough, helping him finish the season having completed 67.6 percent of his passes for 2,384 yards with 10 touchdowns and six interceptions in 11 games with nine starts.
Now Tolzien will continue to work with Shough to further his development.
The Chiefs have added a quarterback to their offseason roster.
Jake Haener announced on Instagram that he has signed with the AFC West club. Haener closed out the 2025 season on the Saints’ practice squad and did not sign a future contract to remain with the team.
Haener was involved in a competition for the starting job in New Orleans with Spencer Rattler and Tyler Shough last season, but wound up in third position. The 2023 fourth-round pick spent most of the season on the practice squad and did not appear in any games.
Haener made eight appearances in 2024 and started one game. He was 18-of-39 for 226 yards, a touchdown and an interception in those games.
The Chiefs have Patrick Mahomes coming off a torn ACL, so their other quarterbacks should get plenty of work in the offseason. Gardner Minshew and Chris Oladokun filled in after Mahomes’s injury, but Minshew is not under contract for 2026.
The Steelers could take a step toward filling a crucial spot on Mike McCarthy’s coaching staff on Monday.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that they will interview Saints quarterbacks coach Scott Tolzien for the offensive coordinator spot on McCarthy’s staff. Word of their interest in Tolzien first surfaced last week.
Tolzien joined the Saints last year and spent the previous five seasons working with McCarthy in Dallas. He was the quarterbacks coach for the final two seasons as McCarthy’s run as the Cowboys’ head coach.
McCarthy also coached Tolzien when he was a quarterback for the Packers from 2013-2015, so landing the Steelers job would continue a long-running relationship between the two men.
The Saints will be marching into Paris during the 2026 season.
The NFL officially announced that they will be taking part in the league’s first-ever game in France on Monday. The game will be played at the Stade de France, which is the largest stadium in the country.
“We are excited to be selected to play in the first regular season game to take place in France,” Saints owner Gayle Benson said in a statement. “This moment is special not only because of the strong cultural connection between Louisiana and France, but also because we will compete before a growing Saints fan base in Paris.
The league did not announce the date of the game or the opponent. A report over the weekend said that the Saints will face the Browns on October 25.
Paris joins London, Melbourne, Rio De Janeiro, Madrid, and Munich as sites for international games during the 2026 season.
The Saints’ long-planned “home” game in Paris is coming in 2026.
French news outlet RMC Sport reports that the Browns will play the Saints on October 25 at Stade de France, the country’s largest stadium.
It will be the NFL’s first game in France, and a sellout crowd of about 80,000 fans is expected.
The NFL’s aggressive push at growing internationally shows no sign of slowing down. In addition to France, the NFL plans to play its first regular-season game in Australia in 2026, and the league has also played in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Brazil, Canada and Mexico. Some American fans don’t like seeing their teams lose a home game, and many fans dislike the early morning Sunday kickoffs to accommodate European time zones. But the league’s decision-makers have made clear that they think there’s money to be made in other countries, and that’s the bottom line.
The Saints have been saying for years that they’re eager to play in the NFL’s first game in France. And now it’s on the schedule.
Joe Brady mentioned multiple times in his introductory press conference as Bills head coach that he’s from the Sean Payton tree.
Now he’s brought in one of Payton’s longtime offensive lieutenants.
Pete Carmichael Jr. is joining Buffalo as the club’s offensive coordinator, according to a report from NFL Media.
Carmichael, 54, was with the Saints from 2006-2023, spending the vast majority of that time as the club’s offensive coordinator under Payton. Carmichael did not call plays full-time until Payton departed the franchise after the 2021 season. But he was fired after two seasons under head coach Dennis Allen.
Carmichael reunited with Payton with the Broncos, becoming the team’s senior offensive assistant in 2024 and serving in that role over the last two seasons.
Brady noted he will still call the Bills’ offensive plays as head coach. But Carmichael joining the team will be a key factor in implementing Buffalo’s offensive game plans throughout the week.
