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Katherine Terrell, ESPN Staff Writer
METAIRIE, La. — New Orleans Saints quarterback Derek Carr has been ruled out of Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, ending his season.
Saints interim coach Darren Rizzi repeatedly disputed the idea that Carr’s season was over after Carr fractured his non-throwing hand against the New York Giants on Dec. 8. Rizzi has said in each week since the injury occurred that he would keep the door open for Derek to play.
“I got frustrated with reports in the beginning because I witnessed and watched this guy every single day, come in here, and rehab with a purpose of getting back,” Rizzi said on Friday. “At no point in the rehab process was there ever a ‘I’m done for the year’ and it was literally ‘We’ll see how I feel tomorrow.’ He’s been progressing every day. I think it goes without saying … he really wanted to try to get back for the last two games being the Raiders honestly, and then this game, it just didn’t go as planned. Sometimes that happens and as I said, we never want to put out there in a position where he felt like he couldn’t function at a high level and that’s just not how we feel right now.”
The Saints listed Alvin Kamara, who has missed two games with a groin injury as doubtful and Rizzi said they would put him through tests Saturday to see if he could play. Chris Olave, who sustained multiple concussions this season and has not played since Nov. 3, is officially questionable.
Rizzi on Monday said Carr would need to go through at least one successful simulated game scenario in order to play in the season finale. The team attempted to do that last week in order to bring Carr back against his former team, when the Saints played the Las Vegas Raiders, but it did not go well enough to have him play.
Rizzi said that the team tried to inject Carr’s hand with pain medication, and he did not have the full functionality at the level they wanted.
“We already tried once before. We did try to eject the hand and see if he could function. We’re just not there yet,” Rizzi said on Friday.
“I know that’s all been behind the scenes and that’s not seen by everybody every day, but it’s seen by me and our staff and our players and so I do want to commend him on the effort to try to get back out here on the field,” Rizzi said on Friday. “He really did everything humanly possible to do that.”
Rizzi said on Monday that they would try to do that simulation again early in the week before the Saints resumed practice on Wednesday.
“If you see him out there with that red jersey running around then that means he did well Tuesday or Wednesday prior to [practice],” Rizzi said.
That simulation had not been run by Wednesday and Rizzi declined to say on Friday when they ran a second simulation, explaining that he did not want to give details on that.
“It’s because of where he is with his rehab,” Rizzi said on Wednesday. “I’m following the lead of the medical side. It’s just where he is in the rehab. It’s better off waiting. In layman’s terms, it’s better if you get the hand as strong as possible before you do that to see if he’s going to be able to function.”