Derek Carr isn't promising to be a savior for the New Orleans Saints (2-6), who've lost six consecutive games, the last three while the starting quarterback was sidelined with an oblique injury.
"I'm no savior," Carr said Wednesday. "There's only been one of those. That is not me. I am here to be a great leader and to be a great teammate, and to do my job to the best of my ability.
"Do I feel confident in what I can do? Absolutely. I feel confident in what I can do, I feel confident in what I can bring to our team. And that's exciting. But to save us or anything like that, that's not me.
"I'm going to come in and do what my guys expect me to do – bring energy, bring effort, be a great teammate, encourage our guys, get everybody on the same page, lock into details, hold each other accountable. We've got 10 weeks that are promised to us.
"Just a full commitment from myself to our guys that when I get back, I'm going to be a psychopath. I'm going to be crazy about the details and everything, because we only get one shot at this. I don't have any promises except that I promise great effort. I promise long nights and early mornings, to make sure that we're at our best. I'm looking forward to getting back and excited to finally be back on the practice field."
Barring a setback, Carr is expected to start Sunday for the Saints at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C., when they face Carolina (1-7).
Carr injured his oblique in the Saints' Monday night game against Kansas City on Oct. 7, and missed games against Tampa Bay, Denver and the Chargers while rehabbing the injury. He practiced on a limited basis Wednesday, and will enter Sunday having completed 70.3 percent of his passes for 989 yards and eight touchdowns, with four interceptions, in five games this season.
"We had him on a little bit of a pitch count today, but he did well and I think signs are optimistic for the weekend," Coach Dennis Allen said Wednesday.
Carr's practice activity will increase as the week progresses but after Wednesday's work, he felt fine.
"I felt confident enough to be able to strap it up and go today," he said. "The real test is seeing how I would feel afterwards, and I feel good. Now it's stack some days together to be able and hopefully play this week.
"But felt really good to be back out there with my teammates, because watching – especially when it's tough – it sucks. You want to be out there with your guys. It felt really nice to be back out there playing football again."
Carr said late last week was when he felt capable of playing, even in a limited capacity. He was inactive for the game against the Chargers.
"I feel great now," he said. "We got to a point real late last week where I felt confident in what we were doing. We did some things on Monday, felt real confident. Tuesday, felt confident and then today, it was like, 'OK, we should be good.'
"I felt good. There's really that first ball that you throw in team (drills) that is a real rep – you've got to step this way, throw it that way – that was the test and it felt great."
He said it took 2.5 to three weeks before he could begin doing the things he needed to do to play quarterback. In the early stages, he couldn't, "Throw, sneeze, cough, hold my kids."
"It was a slow process, but our trainers did a fantastic job," he said. "They did a great job with the plan and trusted what I was saying and how I felt and being able to progress that plan. And then, God did what God did. He always takes care of me.
"It sucks having to sit there and watch when it wasn't the most painful thing I've ever dealt with. It wasn't really painful; it was just a lack of being able to do my job. That was the most frustrating part, because I couldn't just play through it."
HAENER NO. 2: Allen said Jake Haener will serve as the backup quarterback Sunday, which makes rookie Spencer Rattler, who started the three games Carr missed, the third quarterback.
CAPTAIN'S MEETING: Carr and the team captains met Tuesday night, which happens once a month to discuss the status of the team and locker room.
"It was a very positive meeting," Allen said, which was confirmed by Carr. "All those guys were upbeat and encouraged. I don't have challenges with where we're at in terms of our team, our locker room. I don't like the record, and I think we need to play better. But any of those other things, I don't have a lot of concerns about."
Allen said he understands fans' frustration, and they're not alone.
"This is a tough-assed business that we're in," he said. "When you lose games like that it's hard. It hits everybody pretty hard. This is the time for the leaders – coaches, players – for those guys to step out front and be out front and lead. And that's what we'll do."
