National Football League

Is new Saints offense for real? Tom Brady says it depends on Derek Carr

Updated Sep. 15, 2024 7:23 p.m. ET

The New Orleans Saints offense entered the 2024 season with a lot of questions, especially surrounding quarterback Derek Carr. They've resoundingly answered those questions over the first two weeks, following up a 47-10 drubbing of the Carolina Panthers in Week 1 with a 44-19 blowout of the Cowboys in Dallas in Week 2, recording 432 yards of offense in a display that impressed none other than the GOAT himself, Tom Brady.

"I think that gives you a sign of things to come for this New Orleans offense," Brady said. "Now the question is, can they do that consistently well?"

Tom Brady: 'super impressed' with Derek Carr, Saints' dominant win vs. Cowboys | NFL on FOX

Brady was particularly impressed by new Saints offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, who he described as "on fire as a playcaller."

"They mixed personnel, they mixed formations, they had these challenging motions, and then they got these chunk plays early in the game off the play action," Brady said. "Derek Carr, we had a lot of questions about him. He made some A-plus throws today down the field, hitting guys in stride. In this scheme, if you play from ahead, then the defense has to deal with every bootleg, every gimmick play, and then high-percentage passes that they have in the offense. It's very hard to stop.

"We were thinking that halftime, when you're [Cowboys defensive coordinator Mike] Zimmer, what do you tell [your players] to do? Guys, what do you want to stop? You've got to stop the long ones. But then you got the inside run game, the outside run game, the reverses, the bootlegs. It was just a real challenge for Dallas to actually get them into a third down and use what their strength is, which is their pass rush."

Brady also said that Saints fans should be encouraged by Carr's performance after the veteran quarterback underwhelmed last season in his first year in New Orleans.

"He looks so comfortable in this offense," Brady explained. "One of the knocks on him in his career is throwing the ball under duress. And I think what Kubiak has done a good job of is he's not allowing these defenses to tee off with their pass rush. So in the last two games, Derek has just been standing back there finding the open guys, and no one's ever criticized Derek's arm or arm strength, his ability to get the ball down the field. He's just got to do it consistently well throughout the entire season. You have games like this. You have games like last week. Can you string together a whole season of that?

"Those are the types of questions Derek has a chance to answer for himself. If [he does] that, they're certainly going to be a team to deal with in the postseason."

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