We spent a lot of time at the NFL trade deadline speculating about how the New Orleans Saints could add more picks in the 2026 draft, but could we have overlooked someone? The Cincinnati Bengals reportedly checked in on recently-retired Saints quarterback Derek Carr when Joe Burrow went down with an injury last month, and they would have had to trade for him since the black and gold still hold his contract. If Carr is ready to return from his shoulder injury in 2026, any team interested in him will have to send the Saints something as compensation.
Some fans may already be dreaming out the kind of haul the Bengals got by trading Carson Palmer (a 2012 first-round pick and a 2013 conditional second rounder), but that’s not going to happen. The circumstances were vastly different and that decision got everyone in Oakland fired. It was a mistake no other organization should be expected to repeat. Sorry to throw some cold water on you, but we’ve got to be realistic about this.
Just recently, former Pro Bowl tight end Darren Waller was traded from the New York Giants to the Miami Dolphins in exchange for a 2026 sixth-round pick, with the Giants potentially getting back a 2027 seventh rounder if certain conditions are met. That’s the low end of what Saints fans could hope for in a deal for Carr. In 2017, the Seattle Seahawks agreed to trade Marshawn Lynch to his hometown Oakland Raiders (ahead of their move to Las Vegas), sending Lynch with a 2018 sixth-round pick to get back Oakland’s 2018 fifth rounder. A more recent example would be the Tampa Bay Buccaneers trading for tight end Rob Gronkowski and a 2020 seventh rounder, which cost a 2020 fourth-round pick. That’s the established value.
So what could the Saints get for Carr? If he’s healthy and eager to play in 2026, and the right opportunity presents itself (like an opening on the playoff-ready Minnesota Vikings, shackled to what’s quickly looking like a first-round bust in J.J. McCarthy), we’re looking at a pick swap. Maybe they could get another third rounder by sending a fourth- or fifth-round pick with Carr to Minnesota. But this isn’t going to be a franchise-altering move and the Saints should be in the business of adding picks, not sending them out. If they could get a combination of fifth- and sixth-round picks instead, that might be the better deal for a team with such a thin depth chart.
But we’ve got a long way to go until this evolves from idle speculation to anything real and tangible. Carr might very well sit out the 2026 season, too, and aim for a comeback in 2027 when the Saints don’t control his rights anymore. We just don’t know. It’s something to look out for in the coming offseason.
