K Major

9+ years in, I think we kinda have a good idea what Carr is.

A mid QB at best. I think Kirk Cousins 2.0 is a fair comparison.

After watching JT Sullivan give an expert breakdown, I have my doubts
with DCarr turning this around. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many WRs “open” in a NFL game NOT thrown passes to before.

We can only hope things improve vs Indy.

saintsfan1976

All we needed was a top 15 QB. His salary was in line with his abilities. He didn't need to carry the team.

Instead Carr is playing nowhere near that level and may now be sinking the ship...

BakoSaint

Depends what you mean by need. If the goal was to go 10-7 or maybe 11-6 and make an appearance in the playoffs and have a coin flip shot against Dallas, Minnesota, Seattle, LA, or whoever were supposed to be the mid tier teams, maybe. But at a championship level, I don't think so. Thats the biggest problem to me, Loomis looked at this roster and said all we needed was the QB and he was wrong. A few years ago we had Brees, and 2018 was the last year we got close to the championship, and it has been down hill every year since, and we were not going to achieve greater results with a lesser version of Brees and the same but older core.

Taking away the QB position and comparing the rest of the roster, I don't think we are as good as Phi or SF. What we had was a solid top 10 defense, some good weapons on offense except for no dominant TE, a makeshift sketchy oline, and a head coach with a track record of losing. Although our defense is good, we don't have the DPOY caliber defenders who take over games. We drafted Davenport and Turner to be those guys and they both missed so now we have to sell ourselves that an aging Cam and Granderson are our direct equivalents of Bosa and Parsons. Cam Jordan has always been a guy who is consistent but he is getting old, and even in his prime he was not the guy who brought it to the next level and took over the game in the playoffs and willed a ring. Players like Bosa, Parsons, Gardner, and Donald are harder to account for in the playoffs.

We were 7-10 last year and didn't have the worst QB play from Dalton honestly. Dalton perhaps the 20th best QB in the NFL last year. He was 19th in passing yards, 15th in TDs. Lets say Dalton was the 22nd best QB in the league last year to be conservative, how is going to the 15th best QB going to get us from 7-10 to a ring?

The Eagles had everything we had, plus an elite oline, plus a proven coach who won a lot of games last year, plus a top 5-10 QB. How is getting a 15th ranked QB going to put us over the top?

The Jets had everything we had except they were coming from a much worse QB in Zach Wilson and probably have a better defense. After all they managed 7-10 in a better division with a worse offense. Garder is a DPOY level shut down corner while Lattimore shows up for the big games but isn't as consistent. They added a QB in Aaron Rodgers who was a recent MVP and had the potential to be top 5. How was adding Derek Carr going to match their adding Rodgers had he stayed healthy?

You can look at lots of other teams. The 49ers have a winning coach, a top 15 QB who is young and cheap, a better oline, and a more dangerous pass rusher to dominate games. The Bills have a roster a lot like ours minus the QB, but their QB is top 5. The Chiefs may trail us a bit on offensive and defensive weapons but their QB is all world. We just aren't competing with those teams even if Carr was Carr of 2 years ago. Maybe we are 5-2 in a weak division, but when the playoffs come we are done.

To say we paid fair market for a #15 QB is tricky. The market for a #15 QB isn't always there. Most NFL teams do not want to pay big money for a #15 QB even if its fair value because its hard to win it all with a #15 QB unless your team is absolutely bonkers great on other levels. Like the Jets with Gardner or the Broncos back when they had Von Miller and such an elite defense they made the playoffs with Tebow. Sometimes a QB who could be #15 doesn't get much interest at all, like Winston when he left the Bucs or Newton when he left the Panthers or guys like Matt Ryan or Philip Rivers late in their career. Your franchise has to be in a very special moment for the case where Drew Bledsoe or Derek Carr or Jay Cutler gets you a ring, and most teams would rather take a chance on a young guy who could be #5 or #25 for cheap than spend a ton to try to lock in mediocrity.

And the most important thing at all, we are infinity players away when we don't have a winning coach. There is no roster in the league that is going anywhere with an 18-42 coach. I think the whole point of signing Carr was to stretch for 10-7 so we could unfurl a glorius NFC West Championship banner and brag about owning Ridder and Mayfield and give big money long term extensions to ML, DA, and PC before getting our ass handed to us in the playoffs so they could enjoy a lovely January vacation with that signing money. It was never a viable move to pursue excellence, only the pursuit of good enough.

Rell&Gold

He's getting paid few mil less than Dak and is being out performed by Justin Fields and 23 other QBs. This is the offensive FA equivalent to Jarius Byrd