The Derek Carr shoulder injury saga came to an abrupt end as he unexpectedly announced his retirement while the New Orleans Saints‘ three day minicamp was being held May 9-11. Carr’s injury had been creating uncertainty around the Saints’ quarterback position ever since he started ramping up his preparation for the 2025 season in late March. The 11-year NFL veteran felt pain in his right shoulder during his first extended throwing session after sustaining a concussion and left hand injury against the New York Giants last December, which ended his 2024 season.
Carr had previously sprained the AC joint in his right shoulder early in the 2023 season, but didn’t miss any games because of this injury. Medical scans determined that Carr had a torn labrum and degenerative changes to his rotator cuff. Surgery, which would have put Carr’s 2025 season in jeopardy, was the likely course of action if he hadn’t retired.
Carr was scheduled to make $40 million in 2025. The Saints converted $28.745 million of Carr’s $30 million 2025 base salary, which was guaranteed for injury, into a signing bonus and his fully guaranteed $10 million fifth day of the 2025 league year roster bonus was also prorated to create $30.996 million of 2025 salary cap room. Carr’s 2025 cap number dropped from $51.458 million to $20.462 million. The four-year, $150 million contract Carr signed in 2023 included fake or dummy 2027 through 2029 contract years automatically voiding on the last day of the 2026 league year for salary cap purposes, which is why $38.745 million was prorated over five years (2025 through 2029).
Carr and the Saints and reached an agreement with his retirement where he forfeits the $30 million that was originally his base salary while keeping the $10 million roster bonus. The Saints are waiving the rights to the $17.1 million from the $28.5 million signing bonus Carr received in 2023 that was subject to recoupment because he is retiring.
Interestingly, a condition of payment for the $28.745 million of base salary that was converted to a signing bonus is “receiving medical clearance to practice and play and taking the club’s physical exam.” The $28.745 million was to be paid in equal installments along with Carr’s $1.255 million 2025 base salary. Under the NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement, base salary is paid in equal weekly or bi-weekly installments over 36 weeks (twice the number of regular season weeks). Prior to 2021, base salary was paid over the course of the regular season.
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Carr has already received the $10 million roster bonus being treated like signing bonus for salary cap purposes. This $10 million was payable within 30 days of the fifth day of the 2025 league year. Since March 16 was the fifth day, Carr got this money by the middle of April.
The Saints are probably going to carry Carr on the roster until June 2 in order to keep the bonus proration from his 2026 contract year and fake/dummy 2027 through 2029 contract years from becoming a 2025 cap charge. This type of delayed processing happened when future Hall of Fame quarterback Drew Brees announced his retirement in 2021 that March because waiting was more advantageous for the Saints salary cap wise.
On June 2 or shortly thereafter, the Saints will place Carr on the reserve/retired list. At this point, Carr’s $1.255 million base salary will come off the books giving the Saints some modest relief from his $20.462 million 2025 cap number leaving $19.207 million in dead money, a salary cap charge for a player no longer on a team’s roster.
Although none of the $28.745 million of the signing bonus from the March salary conversion has been paid to Carr, the Saints are unlikely to get any cap benefit from this money until 2026. This includes the $5.749 million that’s counting on the Saints’ 2025 salary cap as bonus proration. New Orleans should receive a 2026 cap credit for this $5.749 million. The $22.996 million of 2026 through 2029 proration from the converted 2025 base salary should also be wiped away next year.
The net impact is the Saints picking up $225,000 of 2025 cap room. This is because of another player with a $1.03 million 2025 cap number replacing Carr for offseason cap accounting purposes where only the top 51 cap numbers matter.
The Saints will have $36.674 million of 2026 dead money from Carr’s original $28.5 million signing bonus, the $28.79 million signing from a 2024 contract restructure and the $10 million 2025 roster bonus he is keeping. After factoring in the $5.749 million credit, Carr’s 2026 dead money reduces to $30.925 million.
The Saints are essentially in the same position as if Carr had been released with a Post-June 1 designation after the 2025 league year started on March 12, except the $50.132 million of dead money over 2025 and 2026 is allocated in a slightly different manner. With a Post-June 1 designation, the Saints would have been required to carry Carr’s $30 million 2025 base salary that wouldn’t have been converted into a signing bonus until June 2 when it would have come off New Orleans’ 2025 salary cap. Carr would have been counting on the salary cap at $51.458 million until this point instead of having him at $20.462 million because of the contract restructure.
The $50.132 million of dead money would have been $21.458 million in 2025 and $28.64 million in 2026 with a Post-June 1 designation. The dead money is being split into $19.207 million in 2025 and $30.925 million with Carr’s retirement.
Carr retiring and the agreement the parties made is probably the best outcome for the Saints financially. Notwithstanding the language associated the $28.745 million that was converted to a signing bonus in March, the Saints still would have been on the hook for the $30 million if Carr had remained an active player because the surgery on his shoulder would been because of an injury he suffered while performing services under his contract. Carr wouldn’t have the flexibility to get his shoulder treated on his own timetable like retirement affords him.
The Saints probably would have released Carr in 2026 before his $10 million roster bonus was due next March 15 on the fifth day of the 2026 league year, while contending with a total of $59.67 million in dead money. The Saints would have had the option of picking up $9.537 million of 2026 cap space since Carr’s 2026 cap number was going to be $69.207 million or splitting up the $59.67 million into $19.207 million in 2026 and $40.463 million in 2027 by using a Post-June 1 designation. Carr would be $30 million richer where he made $100 million for his three years in New Orleans rather than $70 million for his two seasons the Saints had him as the starting quarterback.
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