The New Orleans Saints took a blow to their offense in the fourth quarter of their matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday.
Quarterback Derek Carr suffered an oblique injury that sent him to the locker room. The team announced on social media that he was questionable to return to the game, though he ended up not coming back in with the game out of reach in the final minutes.
He told reporters that he is “not good” after the game:
The quarterback added that he will get an MRI to determine the severity of his injury.
Carr had 165 passing yards, a touchdown and an interception on 18-of-28 passing before exiting with the injury. He was replaced by second-year quarterback Jake Haener, a fourth-round pick in the 2023 NFL draft.
The appearance from Haener marked just the third of his career. He didn’t play at all last season and has played briefly in two games so far this year. He finished Monday’s game with 17 passing yards on 2-of-7 passing, also picking up 11 rushing yards on two carries.
Carr has had a solid start to his second year in New Orleans, throwing for 824 yards, six touchdowns and three interceptions coming into Monday’s matchup.
Should Carr have to miss any time, the Saints have two other options at quarterback, though both are extremely inexperienced. Along with Haener, New Orleans has rookie quarterback Spencer Rattler, a fifth-round pick out of South Carolina.
In his collegiate days, Haener had 9,120 passing yards, 68 touchdowns and 18 interceptions across four seasons split between Washington and Fresno State. Rattler had 10,807 passing yards, 77 touchdowns and 32 interceptions in five seasons with Oklahoma and South Carolina.
The Saints will now hope Carr’s injury isn’t serious enough for him to miss time as New Orleans looks to continue its playoff push. The Saints had two dominant performances to start the year, but have now dropped three in a row and sit a 2-3 on the season.
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