After announcing his retirement a year ago, Derek Carr is planning his return to the NFL. The former New Orleans Saints and Las Vegas Raiders quarterback has been rumored to be ready to return to action. Up until recently, though, these were just rumors coming from insiders. There was nothing definitive from Carr's camp that indicated he was planning his comeback.
Now, though, Carr has officially made it clear that he's looking to return to the NFL. However, Carr laid out two conditions that need to be met for him to return: he has to be healthy, and he would like to contend for a Super Bowl when he returns.
“Would I come back? The answer is yes,” Carr said on his podcast “Home Grown” with his brother, former NFL QB David Carr. “Would I do it for anybody? Absolutely not. I'd have to be healthy and have a chance to win a Super Bowl.”
While some might scoff at the notion of Derek Carr as the quarterback of a Super Bowl-winning team, recent trends in the league will show that the chances of that happening are not as bad as one might think. A few years ago, you would have been laughed at for saying that Sam Darnold would win a Super Bowl. Yet, here we are, with Darnold helping the Seattle Seahawks win the Lombardi.
There are other stories of embattled quarterbacks finding a new lease of life late in their careers. Baker Mayfield went from being a castoff to fighting for MVP honors earlier this year. Geno Smith, before his down year in 2025, had a similar trajectory. If there's one takeaway from the last few seasons, it's that some quarterbacks just need a change of scenery.
That being said, the places that Carr could go are pretty few. Most Super Bowl contenders already have their star quarterback in place. Unless Carr is willing to be a backup quarterback, he'll have to undergo a similar development to the other quarterbacks before him. Carr is still technically with the Saints, so any move to a different team will have to either be via trade or Carr needs to be released first.
