Darren Rizzi talks Giants win, Derek Carr injury, Commanders game

Recapping the top five takeaways from the Saints Coaches Show on WWL

New Orleans Saints interim head coach Darren Rizzi joined Voice of the Saints Mike Hoss and Saints legend Bobby Hebert on the Saints Coaches Show on WWL on Monday, Dec. 9 to talk about the win over the New York Giants, Derek Carr’s injury, the upcoming game against the Washington Commanders and more.

Here are the top five takeaway’s from Rizzi’s appearance:

1. Derek Carr dealing with injuries
One of the top stories coming out of the 14-11 win against the New York Giants was the injuries quarterback Derek Carr suffered attempting to dive for a first down late in the fourth quarter of the contest. Rizzi said Carr is dealing with two ailments as a result of that play with an injury to his non-throwing hand and a concussion.

“Obviously got banged up, went up high in the air, came down hard and he’s dealing with the head part of it and then and then obviously the hand as well,” Rizzi said. “So, the NFL concussion protocol, he’s got to come in tomorrow and then has to complete a bunch of different steps. So, we’re dealing with that and then obviously the hand as well. Right now, as I said earlier today, it doesn’t appear as if this is going to require surgery at the moment. And so, with that being said, it’s going to be a situation because if it’s his non-throwing hand, it’ll be more of a week-to-week thing.”

Rizzi refuted reports that Carr was done for the season or would be placed on injured reserve and said Carr is not expected to need surgery and the team does not expect to place him on injured reserve. Rizzi mentioned that quarterbacks in the past have managed to play despite injuries to their non-throwing hands including Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert and Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen.

“It all depends on how it responds and whether we can function,” Rizzi said. “There’s obviously different ways you can do it. You can go shotgun, you can go all gun, pistol, all that kind of stuff and still hand off with the other hand. So that’s what the other teams have done with quarterbacks that have had a similar injury. So, we’re just trying to keep everything on the table and not rule anything out. And let’s see how he responds. Again, I don’t want to keep saying it, but we’re also dealing with the concussion part of it so that that’s also going to be a factor. We’ll see how that that responds as well for this particular week. And, we’ll kind of play it from there.”