34-year-old New Orleans Saints quarterback Derek Carr retires after 11 seasons, the NFL announced on May 10 via their X account. A fan commented, “Are you surprised that Derek Carr decided to retire?” The reason for his retirement is a significant degenerative injury to the rotator cuff of the right shoulder.According to the official website of the New Orleans Saints, “In late March, while ramping up his preparation for the 2025 NFL season, Derek experienced pain in his right shoulder.It was his first time throwing a football at a significant volume since recovering from both a concussion and left-hand injury sustained during play on December 8, 2024. Derek immediately contacted the Saints Medical Team. Eventually, medical scans determined objectively that Derek sustained a labral tear and also had significant degenerative changes to his rotator cuff.” Since the shoulder injury, Derek Carr thought of a pathway to follow after consulting with his medical staff - surgery was an option but it would ruin his 2025 NFL season, and could not guarantee the kind of play he would have as a quarterback post-surgery.Derek Carr shared with the New Orleans Saints official website, “Upon reflection of prayer, and in discussion with Heather, I’ve decided to retire from the National Football League. For more than 11 years, we have been incredibly blessed, and we are forever grateful and humbled by this experience. It’s difficult to find the right words to express our thanks to all the teammates, coaches, management, ownership, team officials, and especially the fans who made this journey so special. Your unwavering support had meant the world to us.”NFL shared an X post with the caption: “Saints QB Derek Carr is retiring after 11 seasons. (via @rapsheet, @tompelissero, @mikegarafolo)”Fans reacted to it with varied emotions. Some expected it, while some did not see it coming. “The Saints future is looking ROUGH 👀”“Are you surprised that Derek Carr decided to retire?”“Doing this after free agency and the draft is nasty work. I love it 😂”“Just when we thought the Saints could have been competitive this upcoming season”“One of the best average QBs ever somehow”“Damn. Rough way to end it”“I’m pretty sure he retired about 2 years ago”“Wow.. his shoulder must be screwed like mine.”“Now he can ride of into the sunset with his millions of dollars“Felt like much longer, 11 seasons is an eternity in football days”“I’ll admit, Saints now have the worst QB room.”“Makes passing on Shedeur seem worse”“This is possibly the biggest surprise of the season”Also read: “Tip toed all around that question”: Tom Brady took a moment of silence before speaking on Cleveland Browns rookie QB Shedeur Sanders | NFL News - The Times of India