Now Derek Carr can stress about correctly pronouncing Tchoupitoulas Street.
The quarterback has learned the language of the New Orleans Saints. He’s no longer relating or referencing his time with the Las Vegas Raiders in order to understand. He’s on the same page as his new coaches and teammates.
“I’m pretty far along from where I feel like I was, knowing the system and things like that,” Carr said. “You never want to feel like you have it all figured out. But I feel confident with where I’m at.”
Carr has been in New Orleans for a little more than three months. The Saints have completed 10 days of voluntary organized team activities in that time. Carr worked out in every single one, asking questions and absorbing information.
That’s a rather quick time to break his mental muscle memory from the Raiders, considering he spent all nine seasons of his career so far there. Carr’s goal was to have the lingo down before training camp, maybe even minicamp. Mission accomplished.
When OTAs began, and Carr was first expressing these transition thoughts, Saints coach Dennis Allen did note the Saints’ offensive schemes and concepts are rather similar to those Carr already knew, so that helped ease the learning curve.
“I think he's been awesome,” Allen said. “I think it's been great to see. I think Derek's done a really good job, and I think our receivers have done a heck of a job. He kind of raises the expectation of what those guys have to be able to do. There's a certain position that he wants them to be in and a certain way that he wants them to run the routes, and our guys have worked really well together to try to build that chemistry.”
At one point or another in OTAs, all of the wide receivers were present. Michael Thomas was absent the first two weeks but there the third. Tre’Quan Smith missed the second week. Rashid Shaheed wasn’t seen during the third.
Those who spoke had nothing but praise for Carr.
“Great teammate, great quarterback,” Shaheed said. “He’s going to help us win a lot of games. I’m excited to get to work with him.”
Said Thomas: “He’s been amazing. Amazing. I can’t wait to play with him, just be out there and execute and create — create something special with him.”
Mandatory minicamp begins Tuesday and runs through Thursday. Training camp dates have yet to be announced. The Saints’ first taste of preseason play, though, is scheduled for Aug. 13 against the Kansas City Chiefs.
New Orleans opens its 2023 regular season at home in the Caesars Superdome on Sept. 10 with the Tennessee Titans. That’s 90 days away.
“It's still a process,” Allen said. “We're not where we need to be, I like the direction that we're headed, but there's still a lot of things that we have to have to work on, a lot of things that we have to improve on. Fortunately for us, we got some time to get there.”
