Saints TE Juwan Johnson makes bold comparison between Drew Brees, Derek Carr

New Orleans Saints tight end Juwan Johnson spent only one season playing with Drew Brees in New Orleans. That’s all it took for Johnson to learn what made the former Purdue star so special. Johnson is now getting ready to play his first season with another veteran quarterback who is looking to take his game to another level with the Saints in Derek Carr.

Johnson sees plenty of similarities between Carr and Brees.

“He’s giving me more of a feel, because he’s an older guy, he’s giving me a lot of Drew,” Johnson said on Sirius XM NFL radio. “Going into the huddle, commanding the huddle and guys gravitating to him. These are things I’ve seen, how Drew conducted the huddle, how Drew conducted the offense and things like that. So it’s giving me similar feels. So I’m really excited about what Derek has and how he’s going to move this offense.”

Derek Carr signed with the Saints this offseason after spending the first nine years of his career with the Raiders.

While Carr is just entering his first season in New Orleans, Johnson said it feels like he’s been with the Saints for years.

“It honestly felt like we’ve been working with Derek for quite a while now. OTAs was really good, really smooth,” he said.

If Carr can even come close to replicating the success that Brees did in New Orleans, it would obviously be huge for the Saints. Brees was named the NFL Offensive Player of the Year twice, won a Super Bowl and Super Bowl MVP and was named a Pro Bowler 13 times. He also holds several NFL records.

Carr is looking to bounce back from a disappointing 2022 season, which is part of the reason he is no longer with the Raiders.

Derek Carr rips Las Vegas Raiders after signing with New Orleans Saints

It wasn’t exactly a smooth breakup between the Raiders and Carr. The former Fresno State star admitted to being frustrated with the way the process was handled. Carr was cut by the Raiders, before signing with the Saints this offseason.

With the writing on the wall late last year, Carr was benched before the end of the season. Now, Carr has opened up about that departure, explaining his frustration with how things ended with the Raiders.

“I was, for lack of a better term, I was very upset; I was mad,” Derek Carr said to Anthony Galaviz of The Fresno Bee. “You spend nine years in a place, you have all the records and you can play at a high level and for something to get in the way, whether it was whatever reason, money related or whatever, injury-related, I would have said I don’t even want the money, just to play two more times in front of our fans. I didn’t get that opportunity. So, it definitely lit a fire inside me to keep going.”