Aaron Rodgers now has plenty of reasons to join the Saints after Derek Carr retires from the NFL

Derek Carr is out as quarterback of the New Orleans Saints after announcing his retirement on Saturday. Even though the team really likes Tyler Shough, it makes a lot of sense to go after Aaron Rodgers at this point.

Mainly due to the fact that Carr's retirement opened up $30 million in cap room for the Saints. That's plenty of room to work up a contract that would help lure Rodgers to the Big Easy. He recently said on The Pat McAfee Show that he told teams he'd be willing to play for just $10 million, which should be taken with not just a grain, but a huge lump of salt. Regardless, whether it's $10 or $20 million, the Saints now have the money to make it happen.

The new cap space can also be used in the form of contract incentives that are considered likely to be earned, which not only gives Rodgers something to work for, it gives the Saints some "insurance" in case he gets hurt again or simply doesn't play well in his age-41 season.

If he's truly willing to play for $10 million, the Saints could give him that with some incentives that bump it up to whatever number makes sense for both sides. And if it's more than $10 million, they can give him an extra million or two and then plug in the incentives. Rodgers told the Vikings he was willing to come in for a year, do his thing and help J.J. McCarthy, so what would stop him from doing that in New Orleans?

Sure, the Steelers make sense as a destination, but it's hard to make a concrete case for Pittsburgh over NOLA when looking at both situations.

Rodgers has a clear path to a starting job in New Orleans

This is the first and most obvious reason. Rodgers can now come in and compete for the Saints' starting QB job with Carr out of the picture. It's the same situation in Pittsburgh and honestly, he'd probably just be handed the job like Russell Wilson last year. So the Steelers have a little bit of an advantage there, but the rest of the chips fall in the Saints' favor when breaking it all down.

It's fair to say the Saints offense has more -and better- weapons

Not only can the Saints pay Rodgers now that Carr's retired, it's 100% fair to say they have better weapons than the Steelers. The only room to argue against that statement is health. 

When healthy, Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed are one of the league's better receiver duos. Brandin Cooks is a very good WR3 option, as well. That trio vastly outpaces that of Pittsburgh's DK Metcalf, Robert Woods, and Calvin Austin. Alvin Kamara is still one of the better backs in the league and he's certainly a better player than Jaylen Warren or rookie Kaleb Johnson. Lastly, Juwan Johnson isn't as good as Pat Freiermuth, but he's a solid player who can make plays at the tight end position.

The Saints offensive line looks alot better after drafting Kelvin Banks Jr., as well. If Dillon Radunz can simply be OK, then the front five's isn't as nearly as stark when the offseason started.

The NFC South is much easier to navigate than the AFC North

You don't have to be Rodgers himself to understand that the easier road traveled is the best path for him at this point in his career.

He understands a QB-needy team is likely to be one with some flaws that could keep it from being a true contender. The Steelers have plenty of flaws on their roster and so do the Saints. Most NFL teams do - that's just the facts.

So, the division really plays an important role in this and by far and away, the NFC South is much easier to navigate than the AFC North.

Before the Browns went back to being the Browns in 2024, the AFCN was considered by many as the best division in football. It's still very good with the Ravens, Bengals, and Browns. Especially when comparing it to the Bucs, Falcons, and Panthers.

Yes, the Bucs are the Ravens of the NFCS and while the Panthers and Falcons hold promise, they're far away from showing they've reached said promise or have yet to beat anyone worthy of even being taken seriously. They have potential, but they haven't established themselves like the Bengals - they're certainly more on the Browns' level of things.

Final word

Rodgers is going to play by his own rules, as we all know by now. Things just got a lot more interesting after Carr's retirement, though, and there's certainly plenty of logic behind seeing him in the Black and Gold by the time mandatory minicamp rolls around.