The more we learn about the Derek Carr situation, the more confusing it gets.
There’s seemingly a new twist to the story daily.
And the more we hear, the more suspicious everything sounds, which might explain why Carr and Saints officials keep sounding like Officer Barbrady from “South Park” when dealing with the subject: “This isn’t happening. Everyone look away. Nothing to see here!”
Carr has maintained a low profile during the offseasons throughout his New Orleans tenure. For him, it’s a time to get away from football and focus on his family, so his silence this spring was not entirely out of character.
But obviously, this is different.
A shoulder injury serious enough to possibly require surgery and potentially derail your season is a development not just worthy of commentary and transparency, but one that requires it.
Better than anyone, Carr knows teammates, coaches, fans and support staff are counting on him to lead the team, both on and off the field. Communication is one of the requirements of the position.
And so far, everyone involved in this situation has failed at it.
Until Carr’s comments on Sunday, we’d heard nothing from him. Instead, he left it to intermediaries to disseminate information.
Twelve days after head coach Kellen Moore said at the NFL owners’ meetings he was “excited to team up with Carr”, the NFL Network broke the news about Carr’s shoulder.
Two weeks later, Carr’s brother David said the injury is believed to have occurred when Derek took a headfirst fall against the New York Giants on Dec. 8 and that Derek didn’t throw for a long time during the offseason.
It’s important to note that Carr’s shoulder was never listed on any of the official injury reports the Saints submitted to the NFL after the Giants game. Only left hand and concussion were listed on the reports.
Likewise, not once in the four months since the injury supposedly occurred did anyone mention a shoulder injury when discussing Carr or his injury status.
You might recall that after the Giants game, the Saints maintained the possibility of Carr returning to the field at some point during the 2024 season.
Are we to believe Carr didn’t try testing out his throwing shoulder once during the month between the injury and the season finale Jan. 5 against the Tampa Bay Bucs? Wouldn’t that have been the starting point for any evaluation of his potential playing status?
And even if he didn’t, it strains credulity to think that a starting NFL quarterback who stated publicly that his top offseason goal was to “get healthy” would not try to throw or test out his throwing shoulder at some point during the offseason, and certainly before mid-April.
If you’re confused by the story, suspicious of its timing and skeptical of the explanations being presented so far, you’re not alone.
Little of it makes sense.
The timing alone begs for skepticism.
It’s an unusual time for major injury news to occur. I can count on one hand the number of major injuries that have come to light in mid-April during my 25 years of covering the NFL. Let alone one as significant as the throwing shoulder of the starting quarterback.
Protocol is to address injuries as soon as possible to give proper time for rehab and recovery entering the next season.
Adding to the confusion and heightening the suspicion is the strange way both sides have treated the situation.
Carr stayed silent until Sunday, when a video of his sermon at a Las Vegas church was released.
Saints officials, meanwhile, have refused to comment directly on the subject, other than a short statement by general manager Mickey Loomis at his pre-draft news conference last week that said little more than the Saints still were seeking “clarity” on the shoulder injury.
When Loomis and Moore were asked about the injury again over the weekend, they danced around the subject.
If everything is jake, why be so secretive and evasive?
Instead of hiding behind offseason protocols and injury policies, why not just address the situation in a news conference over Zoom? That would go a long way toward ending the rumors and speculation that everyone says they fear and loathe.
Certainly, the Saints and Carr have the right to remain silent about the situation. It’s their prerogative to keep things private.
Just as we have the right to remain skeptical when Officer Barbrady tells us, “There’s nothing to see here.”