Last week, I wrote about the Minnesota Vikings’ potential options at quarterback. This week, we got cryptic, non-committal messaging from head coach Kevin O’Connell and interim general manager Rob Brzezinski regarding the situation, the decision-making dynamics within the organization, and the division of power. Couple that with some steamy combine rumors about Kirk Cousins, Derek Carr, and Aaron Rodgers, just to name a few, and my head is spinning.
Live look at me trying to hash out all the #Vikings QB smoke from the Combine. pic.twitter.com/AeuGVvG6SS
— Nelson Thielen (@NelsonThielen) February 27, 2026
I wrote a tongue-in-cheek piece last week about the plethora of options being tossed around for the Vikings QB in 2026, and I went through many of the popular names. I theorized a Kirk Cousins reunion, a veteran rehabilitation project like Kyler Murray or Tua Tagovailoa, or adding another project like Anthony Richardson. And perhaps I was less than charitable when discussing Derek Carr, a popular name that has lately been linked to the Vikings.
In my piece last week regarding the Vikings QB options, I may have been a bit dismissive when writing about Derek Carr…
This week I’ll defend myself. I regret nothing, and I hope the Vikings front office feels the same way 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/1K1LGjeuSG
— Nelson Thielen (@NelsonThielen) February 27, 2026
It may sound like I have something personal against Carr. And I’ll lay it all out on the table.
I guess I do.
Like many Vikings fans, I loathe the New Orleans Saints. And I greatly enjoyed trashing them during the Derek Carr era, especially to my college roommate, who is an avid Saints fan. The idea that, after multiple seasons of mocking, having to swallow my pride and be open-minded to Derek Carr in a Vikings uniform? That sounds like hell.
But if you aren’t as entrenched in the anti-Derek Carr camp as I am, then allow me to lay out some of the evidence to support my pre-conceived bias.
First, he’s boring as hell.
Remember how we all would roll our eyes at Kirk Cousins for throwing short of the sticks in crucial moments? Kirk got a reputation in Minnesota for either being way too wild with the football, throwing into reckless windows, or turtling into a checkdown machine. Well, if that style of football strikes your fancy, then Derek Carr is right up your alley.
Once upon a time, Carr was actually known for having a pretty live arm. Even if he tended to play conservatively, when he let it rip, the ball would spring to the target with some gusto.
Derek Carr to MVS for the Saints TD 🙌
📺: #ATLvsNO on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/UFiDPH16J7
— NFL (@NFL) November 10, 2024
However, as Carr aged and his body deteriorated, so did his confidence. Derek Carr quickly devolved into a player afraid to sit in the pocket and let things develop, and he played terrified of contact. When his reads weren’t quickly available, he was far too eager to throw the ball away or immediately get to his checkdown (as evidenced by the fact that he’s thrown the ball away on fourth down on multiple occasions in his career).
Kevin O’Connell, for better and for worse, has shown that he wants to chase explosives in the passing attack on offense above all else. The running game, screen game, and quick game exist purely as a function of setting up the intermediate- and deep-passing concepts that he believes will gauge your defense if they can connect on them enough. If you need any evidence of that, look no further than J.J. McCarthy. His No. 1 weakness pre-draft, according to the scouting community, was his deep ball. Still, he was tied for the league lead in average depth of target at 9.5.
Carr has perhaps proven competent enough as a deep/intermediate passer to hit an open man on a clear read. Still, he’s also shown an inability to hang in and allow those routes to develop or make throws through contact. That often leads to some of his worst plays, where do-or-die situations are combined with an anxiety to let things develop.
Lots of people joke that Carr looks like he’s Cid from Toy Story. Nowadays, he plays like he’s Cid at the end of the movie, traumatized by his tortured toys coming to life and haunting him.
Derek Carr with a bad bad interception. Wow. #NFL #NFLnews #SaintsVsPanthers pic.twitter.com/G5YGWcnZWN
— Tanner Phifer (@TannerPhifer) September 19, 2023
Which brings me to my next point: the leadership concerns.
The way Carr’s time in New Orleans came to an end should give you pause. Missing time due to a nebulous injury, while requesting a trade, is dubious at best. Best-case scenario, his divorce from the Saints coincides with his injury, keeping him off the field. But I’m not going to blame you if you draw the more obvious conclusion, which is that Carr gave up on his team, wanted out of New Orleans, and exaggerated an injury so he wouldn’t have to play.
If you think I’m being too jaded, the other explanation isn’t much better. It means the shoulder injury that led to Carr’s brief retirement was indeed that serious. Does that get you jazzed to drop money and draft capital on him?
Which brings me to my last point: the cost of acquisition.
Carr is retired from the NFL but still under contract with the New Orleans Saints, a contract that would resume the moment he gets reactivated. It’s a contract that would incur dead money if New Orleans were to cut him outright; they would only allow him to reactivate if they knew for a fact that the trade partner for his contract was already in place.
New Orleans has zero incentive to trade Carr. They control his rights and can keep him in retirement forever if they don’t have a trade partner. Carr has very little value to the 2026 Saints, given their investment in sophomore quarterback Tyler Shough, but they also have no reason to activate him and trade him for free.
Carr would be different from a traditional salary dump because there’s no additional money lost if they stand pat. They have an opportunity to get something out of an asset that isn’t costing them anything, so they can wait for the market to become valuable enough that they can flip this dead asset for real returns.
So, when is that value truly high enough? During training camp, when a QB gets injured? More immediately, while the QB carousel is in full spin? I don’t have the answer, but I don’t like trading in a situation where the opposing team is giving up essentially no leverage in this negotiation.
Not to mention the leverage Carr holds in this situation. Why would he come out of retirement just to find himself in another quarterback competition? If you’re swaying him to unretire, it’s going to be done with a clear runway towards a starting position. The idea that you’re going to get this player to unretire to be an insurance policy for J.J. McCarthy makes no sense. If Carr is going to be sitting down for an NFL Sunday, he’d probably prefer to do it on his couch at home.
Carr’s contract also has two years remaining on it, but the guaranteed portion of his contract is essentially over. So would Carr really unretire and waive his no-trade clause, all to get traded to a team with no guaranteed money on his contract? Absolutely not. You can count on a reworked contract/extension, meaning you’re committing financially to this player for more than just 2026, in all likelihood.
So if you want Derek Carr on the 2026 Vikings, you’re going to have to:
Sway him out of retirement, likely with a near guarantee of a starting position.
Trade legitimate draft capital with New Orleans to obtain his contract rights.
Extend his contract, almost certainly adding additional guaranteed money on top of his current two years remaining on his New Orleans deal.
Have to watch him play football every single week, draining the life out of the beaten and battered hearts of Vikings fans everywhere.
Of all the possible options, I’m not sure there’s one that I’m less interested in. We know who Derek Carr is, we know how much he’s going to cost, and we know exactly what his ceiling is going to be. And the combination of all those factors coalesces into a hot pile of mediocrity and purgation the likes of which this franchise is far too familiar with. They’ve done veteran re-treads time and time again, and Vikings fans know exactly how this movie ends.
If you’re going to put a veteran Band-Aid on this quarterback conundrum, let’s at least find one that can be a genuine mentor for McCarthy, requires little to no long-term commitment, or has legitimate upside as a long-term starter. Preferably, I’d love a combination of all three of those, but they’re all things Carr doesn’t offer.
After all this, I perhaps said it better last week in six words than I just did in 1,400. Rob, Kevin, if you’re reading this and still kicking around this idea?