Mickey Loomis: Derek Carr wasn't perfect, but he did a lot of good things
When teams miss the playoffs, it's a good bet that the head coach and quarterback are going to come in for criticism when the year is over.
That was the case with the Saints, so General Manager Mickey Loomis spent time during a Wednesday press conference defending the work done by head coach Dennis Allen and quarterback Derek Carr. Loomis said Allen "is a good coach" and urged patience as he moves into his third season with the team.
Carr joined the Saints in 2023 and started every game for the 9-8 club despite a shoulder injury and a pair of concussions. He had a better year than he had with the Raiders in 2022 and Loomis indicated that Carr played through more pain than the team let on while saying that "the easy and lazy thing to do with results is to blame the coach or the quarterback."
"I think he did a lot of good things," Loomis said, via Katherine Terrell of ESPN.com. "It wasn't perfect, for certain, but I think he did a lot of good things. I think that he was hurt for a good portion of this season, probably more so than he would let on or that was out there, so I felt like he kind of hit a stride toward the end and we did collectively too, and he's not the only player or position that was the case."
The Saints finished with four wins in their final five games and financial reasons would make Carr's return all but a sure thing even if they hadn't finished on an upswing. Carr has $30 million in guaranteed salary for the 2024 season, which provides plenty of reason for the Saints to back him as the right guy to get them back to the postseason.
