NFL fans call out Derek Carr as Saints QB refuses to take pay cut in 2025 - "Who does he think he is?"

Derek Carr has decided on his future as a New Orleans Saint and he is getting lambasted for it. On Monday, the four-time Pro Bowl quarterback announced to Katherine Terrell, ESPN's correspondent for that team, that he would not be taking a pay cut:

"Yeah, I wouldn't do that. Especially with what I put on tape. Would I restructure? Absolutely. I'll always help the team that way. But there's some things that you put out there that you earned. "

He drew ire from fans after his comment:

"I would release this guy so fast whomdoes he thinks he is?"

More of said condemnation can be seen below:

"Get him out of there," one demanded.

"Probably the stupidest thing he could have said," another rued.

"Bro thinks he’s prime Drew Brees or something," another ridiculed.

Carr is set to earn $30 million in base salary next season, which becomes fully guaranteed if he fails a physical come March. Unless the Saints restructure his contract, he will count for $51.45 million against their salary cap.

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Derek Carr discusses not getting to play against former team

In that same interview, Derek Carr discussed how his hand injury impacted his availability for the latter part of the season. He didn't think the injury was season-ending at the time; rather it must have come from the predictions of how many weeks he was going to miss.

It ended up being the rest of the season, including the Week 17 game against the Las Vegas Raiders, his former team. Downplaying the "revenge" aspect of that game, he said:

"I've got a great relationship with [owner] Mr. [Mark] Davis, [head coach Antonio Pierce] and all those players. There was no ill will or anything. It was just like, 'I want to play against my former team, against my friends.'"

"They even let me inject [my hand] then and they were like, 'We're going to let you do it.'"

However, all the injections to his hand ultimately proved to be for naught:

"I tried to stay as positive as I could all the way through the beginning of last week... They let me try and they were like, 'Yeah, it's not going to work.' And so [team trainer] Shone [Gipson] and our training staff were like, 'Look, you're doing everything you can and you can continue to try, but we also have to protect you at this point... You can't even take a snap.'"

Carr ended the season 5-5, setting career-lows in nearly every relevant statistical category. The Saints, meanwhile, failed to win a game with backups Jake Haener and Spencer Rattler, including the last four with the latter under center, ultimately finising dead last in the NFC South at 5-12.