Derek Carr seeking $35M or more per year in free agent contract

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What will it cost for the New Orleans Saints to sign Derek Carr? Right now, he’s in the driver’s seat for free agency — other top passers on expiring contracts like Lamar Jackson and Geno Smith aren’t likely to hit the open market in a few weeks, and unlike his competition he’s able to get a head start on negotiations with other teams.

During a live appearance on ESPN’s Friday morning shows, NFL insider Dianna Russini relayed that Carr is seeking a contract averaging $35 million or more per year in free agent visits with the Saints and New York Jets. And he isn’t worrying about the ticking clock as strongly as may be expected.

“He doesn’t need to be the first quarterback to sign (in free agency),” Russini added.

That’s an interesting number. Now, $35 million is a lot of money, but it would tie Kirk Cousins to rank ninth in per-year salary among quarterbacks. Jared Goff is next at $33.5 million per year, and Carson Wentz follows at $32 million. Then you’ve got Matt Ryan and Ryan Tannehill at $30 and $29.5 million, respectively. They’re part of a mid-tier group of veteran quarterbacks.

So it means Carr may have a hard time finding the $40 million per year that Dak Prescott and Matt Stafford are each getting. And the Saints could afford that, even if it would require their typical creative accounting (our Ross Jackson has an example of what such a deal could look like). But if Carr is asking for $35 million and struggling to find takers, maybe he ends up settling for something closer to $30 million in the end. Hopefully this doesn’t take two or three more weeks to resolve itself.