Darren Rizzi isn't yet pressed for time to make a decision, so the New Orleans Saints interim head coach said he'll wait before he names a starting quarterback for the upcoming game against the Packers in Green Bay, Wis.
New Orleans (5-9) receives a bonus day this week due to playing the Packers (9-5) on Monday night at Lambeau Field.
That's one more day for starter Derek Carr's injured left hand to heal as Carr completes the final stage of concussion protocol. Carr suffered both injuries in the Saints' 14-11 victory over the Giants on Dec. 8 and sat out Sunday's 20-19 loss to the Commanders in the Caesars Superdome.
"With the situation with the way Derek is right now, that really is the reason we would take it day to day right now, week to week," Rizzi said. "And we do get the extra day this week because of the Monday night game, so we'll wait and see what's doing on with Derek's situation first, and then kind of go from there.
"There's really no reason to declare any starter at the moment. Naturally, if Derek can get through the injury situation and get out there and start practicing at a regular pace, then that will certainly factor in. But if he can't, then obviously we'll have to have Plan B."
Carr first will complete concussion protocol, which will happen as soon as he practices.
"It's a little bit of a unique situation because the final step of the concussion protocol is a little bit of a formality in that, anybody in the concussion protocol has to have a quote-unquote 'practice,'" Rizzi said. "And so, we didn't feel comfortable having Derek out there in a practice scenario (last week), he just wasn't quite ready for that.
"And so, by the letter of the law he's still got to complete that protocol. The first time he practices, the expectation would be that he would clear the concussion protocol. So that's really not the limiting factor at the moment."
Carr missed his fourth game of the season Sunday; Jake Haener started against Washington and was replaced by Spencer Rattler at halftime. Haener completed four of 10 passes for 49 yards and an interception, and was sacked three times as New Orleans trailed 14-0 at halftime.
Rattler completed 10 of 21 passes for 135 yards and a touchdown, and wasn't sacked, in the second half as the Saints scored on all four possessions – touchdown, field goal, field goal and touchdown – before an unsuccessful two-point conversion attempt with no time remaining ended the game.
"In light of the situation, it was obviously a tough decision that I had to make to make the change at halftime," Rizzi said. "That's never easy, because Jake didn't really have that many plays, but I thought Spencer handled it great. I thought he provided the spark that we were looking for.
"It's a credit to him how he handled the whole thing. You see his leadership skills come out. He's kind of got that fire in him. He's got that competitive, passionate fire that we all love.
"There's a couple of plays I'm sure he'd love to have back, but I thought the way he operated that final drive – the way we managed the drive, managed the clock, understood the situations, all those little things – not forgetting this is a guy playing in his fourth game ever in the NFL, really, really impressed with what he did."
Rizzi expects Carr to return to action before the regular season ends.
"At this point I would say he would get the chance to play at some point before the season is over," Rizzi said. "I don't think that's a reach. At the same time, his hand is like any injury, it's improving. He's just not there quite yet."
AK UPDATE: Running back Alvin Kamara injured his groin on his 21-yard touchdown reception in the third quarter. Rizzi said Kamara further will be evaluated this week.
"We got some imaging back, he's kind of dealing with a little bit of a groin abductor type of situation," Rizzi said. "I think suffered on that diving touchdown catch, which was outstanding, by the way. He's going to get a couple more opinions, a couple more imaging things taken care of today so we'll kind of see where he's at. We have the first set of images and we're going to see what happens with the second set."
TANOH'S TIME IS COMING: Defensive end Tanoh Kpassagnon didn't make his 2024 season debut Sunday, but he's close. He was inactive for the game but it's just a matter of time before he plays; Kpassagnon has recovered from a ruptured Achilles in the offseason.
"It really just came down to more of the gameplan," Rizzi said. "Right up literally until the last moment before we had to announce the inactives, we were in discussion about who gave us the best chance on the game roster. Tanoh is ready to go, he'll be in the equation this week and hopefully we can get him going this week."
THIS WEEK: The Saints will have a hybrid day Wednesday – Rizzi called it a combination Monday/Wednesday schedule – before having normal practices Thursday through Saturday.
