BakoSaint

Drew Brees first year he was coming off a major surgery, the entire teams coaching staff was new, all the receivers, RBs, etc were learning a new system too, Brees was only a few years into his pro career, and Brees was on a prove it contract with an easy one year escape clause where the team could get out in one year if it failed. Derek Carr is not coming off a surgery, he is 10 year veteran, he has worked with this head coach before, except for Carr the offense has been in place for years under the same OC and none of the receivers are new. But stupidly we signed Carr to a 'you already proved it' contract that is will be very costly to ever get out of.

The reason that Mickey Loomis is still all in on Derek Carr is that Loomis' cap wizardry relies 100% on restructuring all the biggest contracts every year. If you cut a player, you cannot restructure their contract, and all the dead cap hits. Carr is our biggest contract. If we don't restructure him this offseason we barely get under the cap and there is no magic for adding any medium-big free agents. Once we we have restructured him and made those additions, we find ourselves in a similar predicament for 2025 with tons of dead cap if we move on then. Loomis' current cap management has no room for mistakes. So Derek Carr is Drew Brees and Carlos Ruiz is Jahri Evans, because thats what its got to be to keep the liquor cabinet in Loomis' office stocked. Does Mickey Loomis look sober to anyone in that photo?

Also this whole you win some you lose some we just haven't had all the pieces clicking at once lets be patient crap with our super weak schedule is how you tolerate mediocrity and eventually become a doormat.