Derek Carr, Las Vegas Raiders
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(Photo by Jeff Bottari/Getty Images)
The Minnesota Vikings are in the rumor mill for any QB who could be or will be available this offseason. One of the names that has emerged in the last few weeks is Derek Carr, who is contemplating a potential return to the NFL after taking the 2025 season off.
With the offseason in full swing now, Sports Illustrated’s NFL insider Albert Breer shared the latest regarding Carr and whether teams are going to make their best effort to convince the player to unretire.
“I think the interest in Derek Carr is going to be real, and I think Derek Carr is going to be judicious about this. I think teams are going to be quiet about their interest there,”Breer said on the Feb. 26 edition of “The Breer Report.”
“But he does strike me as somebody where, if you’re looking at him versus Malik Willis, or you’re looking at him versus Kirk Cousins, or you’re looking at him versus Tua [Tagovailoa] or Kyler [Murray], and he’s willing to come to you for a reasonable price, I don’t see why you wouldn’t say the guy could be a pretty good bridge.”
Before his retirement, Carr played 11 NFL seasons with the Las Vegas Raiders and New Orleans Saints, throwing for 41,245 yards and 257 touchdowns,per StatMuse. He also earned four Pro Bowl selections during that span.
Teams Will Want to See If Derek Carr Is Fully Healthy
Nonetheless, Breer mentioned that it will be curious to see how Carr feels, since he didn’t play last season due to a shoulder issue, and teams want to know where the former player is physically. Still, if he’s close to what he was during his time with the Raiders, teams could be rolling the dice to sign him.
“Now, he hasn’t played in a year,” Breer added. “You have to see where he is physically.There’s a lotof things that you have to check out there. But he has had his shoulder repaired now and he does have a history of playing at a pretty high level.
“So I think he’s a really interesting option for somebody, in a year, again, where you don’t have the depth of quarterbacks at the very top of the draft. And you’re going to have teams that are up there that aren’t going to have an opportunity to draft one because there’s not one worthy of going in that area.”
Vikings Are an Ideal Landing Spot for Derek Carr
So, why are the Vikings in this speculation? NFL.com’s Nick Shook sees the Vikings as an ideal landing spot for the former Raiders QB should he decide to unretire for the 2026 NFL season.
“If Carr is interested in manning a backup role that could include a camp competition for the starting job, he’ll find that in Minnesota,”Shook wrote in his article published on Feb. 11. “J.J. McCarthy didn’t cement his role as the Vikings’ franchise quarterback in his first season as their starter and has plenty of work ahead of him this offseason.
“Minnesota might not exercise as much patience in 2026, either, not after they watched their playoff hopes evaporate this past season because of unreliability under center.”
Moreover, Carr has left the door open for Minnesota or another team to convince him that their situation is worth his unretirement.
“Moral of the story, would I come back? The answer, obviously, is yes, but I had to say no a couple of times so far,”Carr said in a Feb. 12 video from Home Grown with David & Derek Carr. “… So would I do it? Absolutely, I would do it. I told you two things: I’d have to be healthy, and I would want a chance to win a Super Bowl.”