Saints give Derek Carr something he never had with Raiders that will lead to easy wins

The New Orleans Saints are able to offer Derek Carr an easier path to wins than he ever had with the Las Vegas Raiders.

There is still plenty of time for the early optimism around the Derek Carr-New Orleans Saints partnership to fizzle out. After all, we all saw how the first go-around between Dennis Allen and Carr went in 2014…

For now, though, just let Saints fans have this, will you? New Orleans hasn’t been able to land any massive free agents in quite some time, and on Monday, they secured Derek Carr, a big one.

The most exciting free agents the Saints have signed in recent memory had some pre-existing ties to the city, like Tyrann Mathieu and Jarvis Landry last offseason.

There are several reasons Carr might have chosen the Saints. Chief among those is the rolling out of the red carpet for Carr. New Orleans put it all on the line, agreeing to trade with the Raiders before Carr was released in order to get permission to host him on an official visit before he hit free agency.

But another reason might have been what the Saints offer as far as an easy path to wins.

Derek Carr will have an easy path to wins compared to his time in Las Vegas

With the Raiders, Carr has been training heavy. Once he suits up with the Saints, it’ll feel like he’s taken off a weighted jacket that he’s been doing wind sprints with since 2014.

That’s because Carr doesn’t even have to be a world-beater to find success in New Orleans. He just needs to score at a mediocre rate, because the Saints defense is good enough to hold opponents to an extremely low level. Just ask Carr himself, the Saints shut the Raiders out last year, 24-0, New Orleans’ best win of the season by far.

Here is the defensive rank for the Raiders since Carr’s rookie season in 2014 in points allowed, per Pro Football Reference:

• 2014: 32
• 2015: 22
• 2016: 20
• 2017: 20
• 2018: 32
• 2019: 24
• 2020: 30
• 2021: 26
• 2022: 26

The worst the Saints have been over the last three years in that same stat is ninth. Had they not had some injuries on the defensive side last year, they very well could have stood in the top five as they did the two years prior.

Nick Underhill, in his reporting of how the Saints landed Carr reported that Carr studied how often offenses won by scoring just 20 points (subscription required), which was four total in each of the last two seasons in New Orleans.

Furthermore, the Saints’ defense held opponents to 19 or fewer seven times in 2022 and six times in 2021.

Surprisingly, that didn’t seem to do much for the Jets’ case. New York had a shocking eight games last year where they held opponents to 20 points or fewer, ranking fourth in the NFL in overall points allowed.

While New York’s defense is clearly on the uptrend and exciting with Sauce Gardner, the Saints have veterans who will surely keep the defensive intensity up. In New York, one good year isn’t enough of a pattern to completely buy in yet.

While Carr took his time and obviously considered lots of different factors, this seems to be one of the primary ones.