Pro Bowl NFL Quarterback Refusing To Take Pay Cut In 2025
01/07/2025 01:40 PM
The New Orleans Saints remain in cap limbo entering the offseason. They can't count on Derek Carr to bail them out by giving back some of the money he's due.
Carr has two years remaining on a four-year, $150 million contract. The quarterback is owed $40 million next season with a $51.45 cap hit following last year's restructuring. Over The Cap projects New Orleans to be $66 million above the estimated 2025 salary cap.
Although Carr would restructure his deal again, he won't consider a pay reduction.
"I wouldn't take a pay cut," Carr told ESPN's Katherine Terrell. "Yeah, I wouldn't do that. Especially with what I put on tape. Would I restructure? Absolutely. I'll always help the team that way. But there's some things that you put out there that you earned ... I wouldn't take anything less to do this. It's hard enough putting our bodies through it. And you're trying to get everything you can for your family for it."
Carr will currently tie Aaron Rodgers for the league's 16th-highest quarterback salary for 2025. Sam Darnold could jump him if parlaying a breakout year into a big deal, and Brock Purdy may also receive a sizable extension from the San Francisco 49ers.
Despite the team's struggles, Carr posted a 101.0 quarterback rating with 15 touchdowns and five interceptions in 10 games this season. The Saints lost all seven games he missed, including the final four, due to fractures in his left hand.
The Saints must eat some dead money to move on from the four-time Pro Bowler. Carr told Terrell that he's had "great conversations" with the front office about his future.
"We all have mutual feelings, and so my confidence level is very high ... We've shown what it could possibly be at times," Carr said. "The hard part is we had to deal with some stuff that we didn't get to see that full picture all the time. So we'll see."
Carr called it "the life of a quarterback" that people are looking toward his contract to fix New Orleans' cap situation. The 33-year-old thinks he'll land on his feet no matter what the Saints decide.
"I'm fully confident with what I put on tape," he said. "I'm not worried, if that's the case, and it had to change and all that kind of stuff. I'm super confident that whatever it is, I could get anywhere else to play. And so I'm not worried about that, but at the same time, I just want to win."
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