Saints' Derek Carr addresses being benched at end of Raiders tenure

Quarterback Derek Carr signed with the New Orleans Saints earlier this offseason and remains displeased he didn't receive a chance to give Las Vegas Raiders fans a proper farewell this past January. 

"I was, for lack of a better term, I was very upset; I was mad," Carr recently told Anthony Galaviz of The Fresno Bee about being benched by head coach Josh McDaniels ahead of the Raiders' Week 17 and Week 18 home games. "You spend nine years in a place, you have all the records and you can play at a high level and for something to get in the way, whether it was whatever reason, money related or whatever, injury related, I would have said I don’t even want the money, just to play two more times in front of our fans. I didn’t get that opportunity. So it definitely lit a fire inside me to keep going." 

Carr originally joined the Raiders as a second-round pick during the 2014 NFL Draft and, per the Saints' website, holds numerous Las Vegas franchise records. However, McDaniels only accepted the job as Raiders head coach in January 2022 and, thus, had no deep ties to Carr before the coach made the club-altering decision to sit the 32-year-old in December. 

Carr indicated he would've moved on from the Raiders this past winter even if McDaniels changed his mind about the four-time Pro Bowl selection following the 2022 season. 

"Once they made my wife cry, that was pretty much over," Carr directly acknowledged. "Once they made her cry, that was out. But the love for my teammates is what probably would have made me do it. But the way it worked out and the timing of things, I was just ... it was time for me to move on. But who knows? You never know what will happen." 

The Raiders officially released Carr in February, and that decision allowed him to put pen to paper on a four-year contract with the Saints reportedly worth up to $150M with $100M in total guarantees. He said he's happy to now be "somewhere where we’re in a stable organization that’s been proven for years" but also noted he wants his friends with the Raiders to succeed. 

In total, Carr accumulated a 63-79 career regular-season record with the Raiders, and he lost his only playoff start with the organization. While he told Brett Martel of the Associated Press earlier this month he felt "bad" that the Raiders "didn’t get my best" across his final campaign with the club, it seems Carr is embracing somewhat of a "revenge tour" mindset ahead of Super Bowl LVIII that will occur at Allegiant Stadium, home of the Raiders, this coming February.