Look at the New Orleans Saints. Take a really good look. Because they are a team that now has a huge say in the 2025 NFL draft.
Then again, they often do, because the team is often bad. The franchise is no stranger to picking high in the draft. They are doing it again this season as New Orleans has the ninth overall pick. So in some ways it’s true that they already had a huge say because the team picks in the top 10.
What does this mean? It means the Saints are in an excellent position. They may be in the best position of all the teams in the draft except the Tennessee Titans, who pick first. (I’ll explain why in a second. Be patient.) In some ways, Carr’s injury may significantly impact the top half of the draft.
This is why.
Carr’s long-term viability was an issue even before the reported injury situation. With all due respect, he’s also not very good. The Saints were likely looking for a solution at the position in this year’s draft. There’s been a large amount of speculation that if Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders was available at nine, the Saints would take him. Makes a ton of sense.
That scenario becomes more pertinent now.
Wrote ESPN analyst Louis Riddick on X: ‘That 9th pick gonna be all kinds of interesting.’ Colorado coach Deion Sanders, Shedeur’s father, reposted Riddick’s message, utilizing the two eyeballs emoji. As in: yeah, you are correct, sir.
Told you. Told you this was getting good.
Even if Carr’s injury turns out to not be as serious as the reporting suggests, the Saints are still likely to go after a quarterback at the ninth spot. They can’t trust that Carr will stay healthy. Maybe New Orleans goes after Sanders. Maybe they grasp for Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart. The latter move would be a magnificent reach and stupendously ridiculous, and while the Saints have been stupendously ridiculous before, that would be bonkers even for them.
Again, some of these scenarios were true before the Carr news broke. It’s just that now all of these various scenarios have gotten spicier.
Could the Saints take a non-quarterback at nine and then draft Dart in a later round? They could but there’s no question who is the better quarterback of the two and it’s Sanders. If the Saints can get him, logic dictates they should.
The Saints could try to wrench Kirk Cousins from the Atlanta Falcons but even if they did, the team would still need a quarterback of the future. Plus, did you see Cousins play last season? He looked like Derek Carr.
Or, perhaps more likely, the Saints make a run at free agent Aaron Rodgers. He’s better than the law firm of Cousins & Carr but he’s still a short-term solution.
Saints’ Derek Carr suffers shoulder injury, at risk of missing time in 2025
All of this leads to why the Saints could be the sun and, in part at least, the upper level of the draft could orbit around the Saints.
If there was a team behind New Orleans that was in love with Sanders and was already considering jumping ahead of the Saints to get him, they are investing in trampolines now. Because they know the Saints are slightly more desperate. They know the Saints could make moves.
If the Saints were already considering moving up several spots to make sure they get Sanders, should he slip past the Browns and Giants at two and three, respectively, that thinking becomes even more urgent.
This draft season, thus far, has been exceedingly boring. That’s because there just aren’t as many superstar players in it to generate interest. There are a handful. But not many. Everything also seems so settled. We think we know where everyone is headed. This draft has been placid.
Nowwwww, we get some possible excitement. Hopefully, Carr will be OK, but this news has spiced things up in the draft. And the Saints could make the first round of the draft, well, extremely interesting.