Carr’s Saints deal another band-aid on cap bullet wound

It wasn’t cheap.
Heck, it probably wasn’t even sensible.
All that said, the New Orleans Saints made an announcement on Monday that certainly set the dominos falling in the NFL’s offseason starting quarterback carousel with the announced terms of a pending contract with free agent quarterback Derek Carr.
The terms are startling: a four-year contract worth $150 million dollars ($100 million guaranteed), Carr essentially getting $70 million of it in the first two seasons of the contract no matter what.
It also includes a no-trade clause.
It was tweeted by Ian Rapaport that it is a “cap-friendly structure” that would accommodate the Saints’ financial needs.
For those who are not exactly sure of what that means, I’ll give you the cliffnotes version of why the Saints needed a team-friendly deal.
Since the twilight of Drew Brees’ playing career, New Orleans general manager Mickey Loomis has been doing whatever he deemed necessary to get the Saints under the salary cap.
It began with the idea of loading up the roster in hopes of delivering Brees a second Super Bowl.
That obviously never materialized, and since then it’s been a cavalcade of contract restructures, voided contract years, deferred bonuses and lots of other nonsense that essentially has had the franchise playing on borrowed time and borrowed cap space on a yearly basis.
It’s been thought that the time for the Saints to pay up would be coming any year now. Yet, Loomis still finds a way to make it work.
In fairness, there is a lot to like about this Carr contract. Essentially, it is structured where it is a two-year deal with two void years available. So, if it doesn’t work out the Saints can get out in a relatively short amount of time.
Secondly, the Saints finally solve the quarterback conundrum it has dealt with each of the past two seasons. And they do so with a guy that can be argued as one of the top five quarterbacks in a weakened NFC almost immediately.
Third, it puts the team directly in the driver’s seat as the favorites in the NFC South for next season.
All that is great. But, I overall don’t love this direction and here’s why.
The cap gymnastics have an expiration date. And with each year the Saints try it again it makes that impending doom that much worse.
I can understand making a move for a quarterback if you’re competing for a Super Bowl. But how truly close are the Saints to making that happen as currently constructed?
Since Brees’ retirement, I’ve wanted to see New Orleans push the reset button and embark on a full-on, studs up rebuild.
With every year the Saints do this, I’m further convinced Loomis and the Bensons don’t have the patience or the intestinal fortitude to try to build a long-lasting winner.
As the Saints are a sell-out ticket on a yearly basis, I get it to a degree. However, the bigger picture of running a team should be to deliver championships.
In their current state, the Saints are set up for long-term failure once Loomis retires. And the next general manager will have a very difficult job in re-establishing a winning tradition.