2023 NFL free agency rumors: Derek Carr leaning slightly towards Jets over Panthers, Saints

Gang Green has made an impression on Carr

Derek Carr's NFL future is starting to come into focus. The Saints, Panthers and Jets remain in the conversation, but Carr is slightly leaning toward signing with New York, according to ESPN. 

The Jets are also continuing to wait for Aaron Rodgers' decision regarding his future. A trade for Rodgers, however, won't be easy given that Rodgers is due $58 million in guaranteed salary in 2023. Rodgers' situation has made Carr going to New York a much more realistic possibility. 

The Jets met with Carr a second time last week in Indianapolis. During the NFL Scouting Combine, Jets coach Robert Saleh offered a glowing review of his meetings with Carr. 

"Derek's got an elite makeup with regards to football IQ," Saleh said, via the team's website. "He's got tremendous accuracy and arm strength. He can put the ball anywhere you want. He's underrated in terms of a scrambler, being able to move out of the pocket and all that stuff.

"He's been asked to do a lot in his career. He's more in line with what [Matt] Stafford's career has been in terms of if you can just get him to a place that can surround him with all the pieces and allow him to just quarterback, it'd be pretty cool. He's a solid young man."

Saleh compared Carr to Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, who won a Super Bowl later in his career after changing teams. 

Carr's and Stafford's careers are similar. While their career stats are extremely similar, Carr actually has four times as many Pro Bowl selections as Stafford, whose only Pro Bowl season was in 2014. Both quarterbacks also toiled on subpar teams for large chunks of their careers. Stafford finally tasted postseason success in his first year in Los Angeles after spending the first 12 years of his career in Detroit. He threw the game-winning touchdown pass during the Rams' Super Bowl LVI win over the Bengals. 

Carr is surely hoping to have similar success during the back nine of his career. That success could come in New York while playing for a coach that clearly values him. 

"He's a tremendous young man," Saleh said of Carr. "He's a father of four. His mind's in the right spot. He understands, he keeps the main thing the main thing. He's an impressive young man, for sure."