Derek Carr's impact on the Saints: What the team has learned about their new QB in 6 months

Derek Carr is a competitor.
He is a hands-on field general. He is cool under pressure. He is extremely relatable with his teammates.
The New Orleans Saints have had nearly six months to get to know their new franchise quarterback. The time that has passed since New Orleans and Carr agreed to a massive $150 million contract has only reinforced the reasons why the Saints felt Carr would be a good fit for the team.
What follows is an account of what the Saints have learned about Carr since they put their future in his hands this offseason.
The competitor
Foster Moreau spent four seasons with Derek Carr as a member of the Raiders, so he knows how competitive the quarterback is.
Not just on the football field. Not even close.
"Derek is a real, real, real competitor in everything that he does," Moreau said. "Whether it’s pool volleyball, three-on-three, against Darren Waller, Mack Hollins and Hunter Renfrow, or whether it’s Sunday at 12 o’clock central time and he’s trying to beat the brakes off anyone who walks in here."
Which, of course, begged the follow up question: Did those pool volleyball games actually happen?
Moreau smirked and let out a deep sigh. "Did it happen."
The pool volleyball games were not just a way to blow off steam. Carr and Renfrow apparently both had their pools custom-made according to the game’s regulations — four feet deep across the side, with steps leading out of the pool in the corners.
"The guys are really good," Moreau said. "Hunter Renfrow’s got a baby tip, soft serve, right over the net. It’s really special. I wish I was kidding. It was so, so competitive. We’ll get the best athletes you’ve ever seen going against us, it doesn’t matter."
Anybody present at the Carr household could play. Waller’s wife, Las Vegas Aces star Kelsey Plum, participated in a few games, and Carr said "she would be spiking the ball in our face." Carr’s pastor even played a few games. There was only one rule.
"Once you get in the pool, we can’t promise we’re all going to be nice to each other," Carr said.
Which aligns with the final point Moreau made about Carr as a pool volleyball player. He referenced the tattoo on Carr’s right wrist, a symbol called a Chi Rho, which represents the first two letters in the Greek word for Christ.
"I’m the biggest guy, and I’m the setter," Moreau said. "Derek gets up and smashes the ball. You see the (tattoo) on his wrist coming down and serving with the wrath of God. He’s such a special player in that pool, he really is."
The cool cucumber
In his nine seasons with the Raiders, Carr accumulated an impressive amount of fourth-quarter comebacks and game-winning drives.
Some of it is a function of his Raiders teams playing from behind late in games, but still: According to Pro Football Reference, nobody has accumulated more fourth quarter comebacks (28) or game-winning drives (33) since Carr entered the NFL in 2014.
New Orleans won’t truly see that side of him until the real games start, but his teammates have noticed at least one trait in him that helps explain those statistics.
"He’s comfortable being uncomfortable," said receiver Chris Olave. "He’s calm in tough situations. He’s always through his reads, even when something is cloudy. … It makes it easier on us. He’s getting to the backside of routes, so we’re trying to run all our routes full speed because we know he can throw the ball at any time."
The locker room presence
When a team signs a free agent quarterback to a giant contract, it tends to energize everyone within the organization.
As linebacker Demario Davis put it, casual fans only need to watch the Super Bowl to see how important quarterback play is. In order for a team to get the most out of its potential, it needs great quarterback play.
So yes, New Orleans is excited by what Carr brings to the team as a player, but he’s also passed another important test in the eyes of his teammates.
"He’s a relational guy, so in the locker room, he’s having face time with his o-linemen, he’s having face time with his receivers, he’s having face time with his running backs," Davis said. "He spends time talking with the defense — me and him talk almost every day. That’s huge."
Center Erik McCoy described Carr this way: He is never in a bad mood.
"He brings his juice every day, and he brings his stuff every day," McCoy said. "I feel like that’s impressive and it’s a hard thing to do, because there are days where your body hurts, where you’re agitated, and you never see any of that out of him. That’s going to propel our offense to be even better."
The field general
Back when the Saints first hosted Carr on a visit, shortly before the Raiders granted him his release, they took him and his wife, Heather, out to an informal dinner at Ralph’s on the Park in Mid City.
The conversation inevitably turned to football.
"There were no pens or napkins, a lot of sharing ideas," said offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael. "You came away from the dinner feeling really good. Then the next day you’re in the classroom, now you’re on the board, talking concepts. We have similar concepts, but there are things that are a little bit different and you think, ‘Oh that’s going to fit well with us.’"
New Orleans already had a strong sense that Carr would fit well within the framework of their existing offense, but the dinner and subsequent whiteboard session was an opportunity to see what Carr’s vision was.
"The way he saw offense is the way we see offense," quarterbacks coach Ronald Curry said. "He didn’t want to come into a place where you have to change the way you were doing things to fit him. It just lined up that way, we do a lot of the things that he likes to do, and we’re more than comfortable with changing some of the stuff that we do if it makes sense for everybody."
Carr is a hands-on player. Like most quarterbacks, his voice carries weight when the team is putting its game plan together, but he also wants to be involved in the decision-making process in the flow of a game.
That includes calling protection schemes and having pre-snap options at the line of scrimmage.
"From a play caller standpoint, instead of trying to guess — Are they going to be in this? — give him an option or two at the line of scrimmage, and let him get us in the right play," Carmichael said. "I think that’s beneficial."
McCoy had been largely responsible for the protections since Drew Brees retired, but he said Carr has taken some of that burden and has done well with it. McCoy described him as a great communicator, joking that Carr "doesn’t want to get hit, either, so it makes sense."
But McCoy has also taken note of the way Carr processes before the snap. The quarterback is particularly fond of a certain package that has helped him clear up the defensive picture.
"See if the defense is out of whack, make them have to get their personnel right, to get in the front they want to get in, get in the defense they want to get in, and it makes them hurry up to where they’re the ones that are reacting," McCoy said.
As Curry said about his new quarterback, he is someone who is able to handle a lot on his plate.
"Some guys slow down, some guys don’t like it," Curry said. "He’s going to allow us to do everything that we wanted to do on offense."