Saints quarterback Derek Carr stunned the league last month by abruptly retiring. As explained at the time, he gave up $30 million by choosing not to have surgery to repair a shoulder injury and miss the 2025 season.
“I didn’t want to have surgery and just sit there and — it sounds crazy but — just take the Saints money,” Carr told David Rumsey of FrontOfficeSports.com.
He had to choose between having surgery and not playing or not having surgery and trying to play.
“I wouldn’t have been able to play if I had the surgery,” Carr told Rumsey. “And then if I tried to play with it, I wasn’t near 100 percent, and so that doesn’t help them, either. I just felt like it was the right thing to do for myself and for the team.”
The Saints allowed him to keep a $10 million roster bonus that otherwise would have been forfeited. In return, he gave up his $30 million otherwise guaranteed salary for 2025.
“I never played just for the money,” Carr told Ramsey. “I had a whole bunch of people tell me how crazy I was and, ‘Man, I would never have done that.’ That’s all cool, but I’ve gained all these things that the world has to offer, and it doesn’t really do anything for your heart. I knew my heart was at peace, and that’s really all that mattered.”
It’s easy to not care about money when he has made, with the extra $10 million, more than $200 million in an 11-year career.
And, as previously explained, it’s extremely unlikely that Carr will return in 2026.
“My agent literally texted me a few days ago and he said, ‘Hey, just checking it in. How’s everything? You still feel comfortable with the decision?’” Carr told Rumsey. “And I sent him a picture of me on the beach with my two kids playing. And I said, ‘This beats an OTA any day.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I thought so.’ So, I’m doing great and have thoroughly enjoyed being home.”
At only 34, Carr could have played for several more years. He decided not to. It appears that the decision is permanent.
Or at least as permanent as any early retirement ever is.
