Kellen Moore recaps Week 13 vs. Dolphins | New Orleans Saints

Kellen Moore recaps Week 13 vs. Dolphins | New Orleans Saints

[Music] tough game. We battled. I I I thought that was a, you know, there was some fun in that game as far as just the back and forth element and we were right in it till the end. And so I love the way our guys responded. We didn’t start very well um in all three, you know, certainly on defense and and on offense. We certainly did not start well uh but our guys battled and um I love the way our guys responded. I thought coming out of the second half, you know, you just felt a little bit of an energy of um okay, let’s go, let’s go turn this thing up a little bit more. And so offensively got the score and then defense I thought settled in. Just played some really good football in the second half. I thought special teams we did some good stuff. And so um you know as frustrating as this loss is and and these you know they’re they’re tough. They’re there’s nothing easy about losing um I love the way our guys battled and I love the way uh the positives that are coming out of this game are going to be uh be able to be built off of. So specifically to Tyler, what do you think of him uh especially in the second half? Yeah, I thought, yeah, if he, you know, lean in that second half. I obviously the first half we just didn’t do enough uh at all. And so second half, I thought he battled, hung in there. I thought uh there were some big uh big time plays in there. Um you know, some resiliency. Um you I think that’s certainly a big thing that came out of that game for him. Um there’ll be plenty of lessons to learn. Uh, and I think that’ll be the good out of this thing for Tyler is there’ll be plenty of things that he’ll get to correct and and improve from, but uh, you know, for him to be right in there at the end, give us a chance, um, you know, make a couple big time plays in the red zone, you know, to score both those touchdowns in the red zone obviously gave us a chance at the end. Is that part is that part of it sometimes with the the rookie quarterback is just kind of going through some of the es and flows, highs and lows, or do you do you have to kind of put that beyond you when you’re dealing with pro? Well, I think at the end of the day, I mean, our goals and intentions are all the same. Uh, we’re going out there every Sunday to to win a football game and put oursel in the best position to be successful. And so, uh, I think Tyler’s had a lot of good through this journey. Uh, there, yeah, there’s going to be some things that he gets to navigate for, um, you know, and navigate, you know, both positively and and things that we’ll he’ll have to improve on. And so, uh, again, I thought, you know, that game had the recipe early in the game to, uh, get away from us. I thought our guys hung in there, battled. Um, you know, I thought Tyler’s resiliency showed up and, uh, you know, gave us a chance. That second one shot to at the end of the game, is did you guys get the look? Like, is that what you guys wanted there? Yeah, I just felt like a second and one um, you know, cuz you have the two potential downs behind it if you need to. Um, take a shot. It’s going to be our best chance of getting a one-on-one opportunity downfield. Um, you know, the longer that drive goes, the more likely they’re going to start playing with two deep safeties and, you know, three deep safeties and, um, so I felt like it was a ideal time just to take a shot, see if we can get it. Uh, we’re close and then obviously the third and fourth down, you know, didn’t turn out our way. Was that the same play you guys ran against Carolina and head on or something? No, no, it was just this one was just straight calling four verts and just told Tyler, “Take a shot if you got it. It’s second and one.” Uh, we still have the timeout in our pocket and so uh, let’s be aggressive and see if we can get this one right now. Does Chris need to catch that in that situation or what’ you make of just him not hauling it? There there are opportunities down in field. everyone has a bunch of plays throughout this game that uh they get to get to watch and so uh you know there’s nothing easy about you know catching it between guys and obviously he’d love to love to make that catch and you know the these things are these things hurt for everyone you know when you have opportunities in games and so um you know obviously you know we had an opportunity there but we had a couple more opportunities uh within that game certainly behind it we had two more opportunities to convert and extend that drive was he a full go yesterday in terms of like he was on a snap out because of his back or anything So now we play a ton of snaps. What’s the process like for y’all in terms of like building off of that really strong second half and trying to translate it to the beginning of the next game knowing you have a week in between those two things. I think it’s a big focus for us. Uh if you can replicate what the second half felt like, looked like, played like, and we get that going earlier in the game, I think we have a formula right there that we can lean into. And so uh you know, the first half, you know, simply we just didn’t get it done. I got to do a better job of finding the path to allow oursel to uh play better in that first half. Uh we didn’t execute or give oursel as many opportunities as we needed to. What’s the approach to I mean to creating that feel? You talk about creating like that same feel that you had in the second half in the first half. like how do you go about I think it’s just something we just need to talk about and u create the urgency early in the game to to get going and so um you know they had that opening drive touchdown and then four of our first five drives are three and outs and so um you know what it looked like in the second half we need to remind oursel of that moving forward and really put that at the forefront of our mind um you know and do whatever psychological game you know individually you have to play to to create that. Can I ask a dumb question? Like what why like why is it why can’t you just like flip it on its head? You know what I mean? Like why like obviously it’s not that easy and there’s a lot that goes into it, but like you know as an idiot like that’s that’s kind of the question that’s in my head right now. No, and it’s it’s it’s in everyone’s head I think is just how do you replicate what that second half looked like into the first half? And um again, we we just have to find that because obviously that’s been a a thing that we’ve uh stumbled a little bit with some early starts in these games. And again, it’s u you know, it takes all of us just coming together and and playing a little bit better, coaching a little bit better early in games and giving oursel opportunities cuz there’s a bunch of good, you know, second half football uh throughout a number of these games that we put oursel behind behind a little bit too much along those dumb lines. And this is I realize it’s oversimplifying it, but like what took so long to get a Blee involved? Like why did it wait take until you know the 12th game of the season for him to to finally come up like that? Yeah, obviously his roles increased as we’ve made a few transactions and so uh he’s played a lot of snaps the last few weeks. Um obviously really since we u you know lost lost she in the trade uh he’s played a ton of snaps. He’s basically been our starting Z and you know targets naturally you know go certain ways based off the defense and uh yeah I thought he played an excellent game. Was there something he was doing yesterday like or or were the plays fall simply for him more yesterday or like you know he was playing a ton of snaps the last three weeks. Was it something he was doing to get open better yesterday or anything? I thought he made some really physical contested catches. Uh there’s some that weren’t easy at all. Um, you know, I think they played some shell defense, some cover two defense, allowed us for inbreakers and we were throwing in breakers to the boundary where he was lined up a lot and so she’s caught a lot of those in the past uh weeks when we played cover two teams and so uh I thought he did some really good stuff in there. Ask about the contested catches from him just you know as a guy with quarterback experience yourself. Is it is that something is that a trust that you can build between quarterback and wide receiver in any other way than just doing it during a game or like how do you go about building? No question. I think you you earn those opportunities as you go and uh you know he he’s been a very productive player for a couple years now in the NFL. I think he’s going to have a big role in our offense moving forward for for quite a while. And so uh I feel great about him. Um you know I’m excited with where he’s going. I thought you know his combination of doing some of the dirty work in the run game and then creating some of these hard down pass game stuff uh certainly showed up. Are his instincts on the scramble drill like as good as it they seem like there was a lot of that last year and then the one on the sideline. It looked like he was just like saw out of there before like he even broke the puck. Yeah, he had two really good ones in the game. The one on the sideline with the drag, you know, catch drag and then the touchdown late. Um, you know, his ability to quickly redirect, find the green grass. Um, you know, I did think that was something that was really good from our game. You know, uh, Chris had the one for a touchdown as well. And so guys quickly recognizing, okay, we’re in the second phase of a play. Let’s find green grass. Taesm had one uh, in the third quarter on the sideline. I thought, uh, there were some positives out of that. Is that something you feel like is a big part of the identity of the offense as you’re continuing to build that is the ability to make those plays on those sort of second chance opportunities? Well, I think a lot of the a lot of the best quarterbacks in this league, uh, they play off schedule. And so, uh, you know, I think when you embrace that there’s a second phase to a play, uh, big plays can happen because of it. And so, um, you know, while you know, you’re always trying to, you know, fine-tune the the initial intent of the play and execute it as high as possible, there’s still big plays that are that are out there and available. And so I think our guys have done some nice things over the last few weeks with that. What’s the balance on that? Like do you do you want a quarterback that’s like comfortable leaving like a clean pocket because he feels like he can create something or do you want him to stay in there until like it’s time to go? Like how do you how do you balance? I think the intent’s always to, you know, execute the initial play. And so you’re always trying to fight that element of how can we, you know, win the initial play recognizing there’s going to be off schedule plays and you’re going to have to do it. um ideally as much as you can when you can stay in the pocket and execute and let’s let’s play ball from that confined space and so um but again these quarterbacks are going to have to make really quick split decisions. They’re going to have to trust their instincts and um you know you got to make some positive plays out of it when you do have that opportunity. How do you feel like the balance has been like that for Tyler so far? I thought there’s been some good um there there’s definitely been some good. I thought he used his legs a couple times in this game. Probably had a couple more in this game than probably most games. Um but but that happens sometimes and so uh he was able to make some big plays from it both run and pass and so um that was good. Is the like the the sack number I think the sack percentage is around like almost 8% 7 n but like are you I don’t know the right way to ask. Do you know like is are you worried about the the number of sacks he’s taken or or is it like just like the decision- making is good and um on that sorry that’s not that’s a bad question. Um, I guess I just say like from a sack perspective, obviously I think a couple of these have occurred in some scramble phases where he’s tried to extend plays and that’s the give and take of that. And so we got to continue to look at every example um you know and continue to evaluate it and he gets to do that and you know kind of go through that process of okay should I have saved in the pocket here? Should I have thrown it away? Should I have bought some time? Every single one is another example that he gets to build off of and build that repertoire of u you know times that he’s done it. And so, um, you know, there’s been a couple because of that, I think. Um, again, we got we got to do a better job, you know, from a protection standpoint. Just, uh, giving ourselves some ops. You know, the the fumble was just a, you know, miscommunication up front. We got got to execute the protection plan and, um, you know, we got to be out there and, um, you know, Bay shouldn’t be a B’s not blocking the defensive end or anything. He’s there just to give a little presence and go run around. When you see Tyler operate as well as he did in the no huddle in the fourth quarter, do you think more about maybe going tempo earlier in the game or is that strictly dictated by the game situation? I think you got to earn some first downs to get to tempo. uh you know last week we tried to you know second play of the game we tried to go we went with the intent of playing a bunch of tempo the week before and you know we had a fumble on the second play and then we had some three and outs in there and so uh I think when you earn first downs you earn the right to play with tempo and then um you know obviously there’s a lot of positives with that you know I think uh that’s something that’s definitely a strong suit for our players I think there’s a high comfort level there but again um going three and out and taking you know 12 seconds off the clock isn’t going to be effective for our entire team but when we in right to get into it. I think absolutely we need to do it. When you’re evaluating a young quarterback, what’s the balance of kind of looking at everything from the broad picture of maybe the run game wasn’t working. He’s in a lot of second, third, and longs. And how much of it is the situation is the situation. It’s his job to, you know, execute with what he has. Yeah, I think that’s more just from our own whole entire offense perspective. I think early in the game, not efficient runs. Uh we got better as we went. I thought um you know Devin had some really just downhill hard runs you know late second quarter that last drive before the interception then the second half I thought there was a bunch of really good hard runs and uh when you create that and then you can create all the things off of that you know that’s a positive environment for us to to have success and so u you know I think that’s an important aspect of our offense and so Tyler you know early in the game there were some third and longs we’re kind of playing in too much behind the sticks thought guys settled in there played better um you know we got to continue when when you had a chance to not to kind of believe the the slow start point, but like when you had a chance to go back and look at those those three outs early, like was was there any like kind of consistent theme with that? Anything that was kind of holding you back? Yeah. Uh you know, inefficient runs, not getting um not getting enough on the first and second down, putting oursel in third and longs a couple times, and then when we did have a third and manageable, we missed the opportunity there. And so, uh, you know, we just got to play cleaner football. Do you have an update on Justin? Justin? Yeah, he’s got his knee. Uh, we’ll see how that progresses. Obviously, potential for some miss time there, but uh, we’ll let it progress. This is kind of off the wall, but did you see Nusa’s catch on the sideline? We did see N’s catch on the sideline. That was that was a good one-hander. Go over that. We saw it as a staff. We definitely gave him a shout out. Um what was it about um Evan Hull that you know maybe that he showed maybe throughout the week that allowed him to kind of propel us into some steps? Yeah. Um really have liked his progression hopped in here. You know you I think scout team’s always a fun experience just because guys get a chance to just go out there and play trust their instincts and kind of just improve and get better. And he was one of those guys he kind of just hopped out there and scout team and you know our first week with him it’s kind of like there’s something here. The next week you know more and more production. and it just, you know, you can sense it. And then his preparation was really, really, uh, on point that allowed him to be prepared and ready to go. And so, u, felt like, you know, he’s got some juice. He’s got some big play potential ability, which I think is intriguing for us. We need to create some of those in the run game. So, I think giving him a couple ops gives us at least, you know, an opportunity for that. And, um, I thought there were some good runs in there. He ran some he ran downhill pretty physical and, you know, he was clean in protection. He had a he had one really good p blitz pickup. And so, uh, there’s some positives there. If Reed misses time, I think Terrell is probably your fourth or fifth Greenwood Tyrant in there of your safety of the year. Like, what do you just make of the depth that you’ve had at safety and how does Terrell kind of fit into that and just where you Yeah, just been really impressed. Uh, you know, TB, Hen, these guys have been like prepared all year long and they prepare like pros. They do all this stuff on special teams that has a huge positive impact on our team. uh when their opportunity is called upon, they seem to make plays every single time out there. I mean, Hen’s got the, you know, touchdown this year. Um you know, against the Giants, uh Terrell seems to pop out there and make a big play on some critical down. The Giants last week, this week, uh PBU’s back-to-back weeks. And so, uh you know, we feel fortunate. These guys have played a bunch of football. They’re really smart players. They got really good futures in this league. And so, uh for us to have acquired that kind of depth and that position has certainly helped us as we’ve navigated all these different pieces. Has the exposure plan changed at all or or even maybe upticked at all for KD? Danny’s doing an excellent job. Uh he has a big role on special teams and then his ability to kind of play uh a couple spots. You know, obviously he’s backing up Deario and then he’s playing his rotation spot at the at the off the ball backer. And so, uh again, impact play. Makes a big tackle for loss. Uh huge play. Again, I think he’s just playing some really good football. And um you I think when you look at Deario, Pete, him, you know, Isaiah playing his third down role, we feel like there’s a group there that’s kind of built some roles that are really valuable to our team and they’re all playing I think some really good football. At one time it was kind of the third series of the first half and the third series of the second half. Has that maintained the plan or do we just notice him a little bit more rotationally for spelling? Yeah, it’s been similar and you know at times you may steal one more possession in there here and there and so um you know obviously sometimes the flow of a game impacts that a little bit but you know I thought you know he’s been really productive. Do you believe in the concept of having a number one receiver like that like do you believe in kind of having one like or is it just the ball gets spread around like is it important to have like a true star receiver you can go to? Um, I guess the way I’d answer that is, um, you want to put your players in the best position to be successful. When you have really premier players, you try and move them around and get them the ball as much as you can by play design. Now, from a quarterback’s perspective, read it out, trust, trust what you see, let your instincts take over. And so, um, you know, I think it’s, um, you know, anytime you have players like that that can impact games in all, you know, a bunch of different positions, awesome. you know, and I think Chris has done some really productive things playing in a bunch of different roles and, you know, Vay stepped up this week and so that’s been awesome and Tips, you know, gone from no snaps to 50 some snaps for a couple weeks in a row now and and he’s he’s doing really well. So, uh, I feel like that group’s, you know, progressing well. We we’ve asked we’ve asked you a lot this year just about the young players and I don’t know, we’re 12 games into this now. it like how important was it for you this year in your first year on this job to to get the exposure to to the young players to see what they can do and and to see growth in players like Kool-Aid who makes a big tackle on fourth down and you know just from where you want to take this. Yeah. Um from a developmental standpoint we understand there’s some developing that we’re doing. Um there’s some young guys that have made huge strides. You know Kool-Aid’s made some big time plays. Quincy, you know, as close of an interception as you can have in a game. Uh they’re right there. And so, uh, you know, the back end, Jonas is playing a ton of snaps, you know, and so he’s gonna get to experience all the highs and lows of an NFL season this year. And so, uh, what I think we have a what we’re fortunate to have is these young guys are, you know, getting better each and every week. And then they have these veterans who have been here and have done a lot of good for this organization for a ton for a ton of years or a lot of years, excuse me. and um and they’re really, you know, embracing bringing these guys along and and the leadership’s been excellent, you know, to have Cam and to see him have the two sacks in this game and him to keep rushing the way he’s been rushing and Deario the way he leads. Uh God, you know, coming over from New England and, you know, he’s makes a couple big time plays in that four-minute stop to give us a chance. um you know what I think is this nice blend of these young guys are coming up but they’re coming up with this leadership of these veteran guys who’ve kind of helped us along the way which um you know I think while you’re frustrated with the lack of wins uh and that’s ultimately everyone’s goal uh there’s a bunch of these good small stackable things that we’re able to kind of build off of and u you know every guy’s going to be frustrated when you lose that’s the goal of this thing as far as uh if you if you don’t get frustrated then you know you’re probably not in the right situation uh Every single guy comes into this thing wanting to win each each week and that’s our goal. And so while we’re doing that, some of these young guys are going to get some awesome exposure. Quincy definitely picked that off. [Music] I’m 0 for three on challenges. I don’t know. Did they give you an explanation on it? There was no clear. I don’t think there was a clear. It looked like there was a lake. Maybe it looked like Yeah, it looked like Alante when I watched the TV portion of it, you guys uh probably got more context of it than me, but it seemed like Alante might have been right as he was moving through that that phase there. Did uh anything when you went back and watched the two-point attempt? Um that was anything changed from your kind of initial assessment yesterday? Yeah, they they they obviously got to a two-point player from the seven yardd line. They’re able to play a little bit more coverage oriented. So, they played brackets, they doubled CO. CO actually did a phenomenal job on the route. And uh you’re trying to find one-on- ones and you know, obviously Minka is a phenomenal player and he he did an awesome job diagnosing it and making a play and so um you know, we’re close there. Uh frustrating one though. Something Tyler said that uh Bailey was like a really smart route runner. What makes him that? Like what is it about his game that is it see? I think it always comes down to spatial recognition, recognizing the defense, where the voids are, understanding how to set up routes and then um you know that stuff all leads into I think that you know really smart football player and he also I think one of the cool things about Vy is his understanding of how he pieces into the whole puzzle. You know when is he a complimentary route? When’s he you know creating traffic for another guy or he’s running this route to open up another receiver on a particular route. I think his global perspective um the best receivers it seems like you know those are the guys you need a couple of those guys on your team and so we’re fortunate to have him. Is it something that you’re able to identify watching him on tape you know when the idea of pursuing him maybe becomes an option or is that something you kind of figure out once he’s in your system? I think you can recognize some tidbits just watching how he has played in Denver, you know, when he was there. And you can recognize, okay, he’s he’s asked to do a lot of different roles, a lot of different responsibilities. And then you can see some of the routes, you know, some of the route detail that he would run with, uh, you know, setting up a route or finding a voided voided spot in the zone. Uh, like he alluded to, like the scramble drill when he was in Denver showed up, you know, and it’s showing up again for us. You know, he was able to make some big time plays there. And so there’s a lot of uh hints on film to uh make us really encouraged with what type of role he can provide. Uh this maybe another one of those dumb questions, but uh do do you continue rolling with with Charlie? I mean obviously like you guys don’t have him active kicker on your roster. So it’s um is this a week to week thing or or did he do enough to you know? Yeah, we’ll we’ll let it progress. Obviously, we feel really good about Charlie and, you know, I think that he’s he’s earned the right to continue to kick and so we’ll let that thing play itself out. Charlie did an awesome job. Uh that kick was phenomenal. Uh his on-site kick was phenomenal. Um he’s an awesome kid that I think everyone’s rooting for. You’ve seen a lot of teams uh like kind of carry kickers on the practice squad and stuff. Are you surprised more teams don’t try and like poach from them in that sort of situation or like I don’t know if the team’s going to come I mean to poach you’d have to have two up then uh that would be the tricky thing but um yeah I I feel fortunate I think uh for us to have had Charlie developing through this entire journey I think um it was really fortunate he’s done an awesome job you go back to what training camp looked like to in season to preseason to inseason he’s just developed and he’s continued to grow and you know I think we’re in a good space. You know Kade Kade I think he’s still a young player that we feel good about and so uh he’s going to be able to develop as well. Does Charlie’s situation with the pathway impact anything as far as getting claimed by your team or anything? How long did y’all work on that style of onside kick with him? Like is that something he’s kind of been doing on and off or was that I think they’re always you know they’re always trying new things. You know Charlie’s always trying new kickoffs, new new onsides. uh they’ve obviously worked a lot at it and so um you know I think it was a good example of translating from practice because we had you know when you practice it and it ends up very very similar the way it played out and um you know it was a close call right there on the 10 yard line those are close margins those on-site kicks are you know the percentages are really low and so you got everything’s got to be perfect and um you know we were right there. Was is there anybody in the organization whose whose idea specifically was to send him to to Dallas to work with specialists or was that was that something Charlie came up with? Like how did you guys reach that conclusion? Uh Mickey Mickey and I just talked about it at one point. Um you know just with uh you know just the way our schedule was timing up it felt like it was a good space for him to continue to develop and continue to grow. And um you know there’s there’s constant conversations how can we get these guys you know more opportunities to get better. All right. Thanks, guys.

New Orleans Saints head coach Kellen Moore speaks with the media from the Ochsner Sports Performance Center on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025 the day after the Saints’ Week 13 game against the Miami Dolphins and ahead of Week 14 at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
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