Kellen Moore on injury report, facing Dennis Allen’s defense | New Orleans Saints

Kellen Moore on injury report, facing Dennis Allen’s defense | New Orleans Saints

All right, you guys ready? You guys all good? Okay, so uh injury-wise, uh your DMPS for today is Alvin with the ankle, Ike with the hamstring, the limited guys would be Olive with the hip, Alante with the knee, and then John Rididgeway’s uh full with the shoulder coming off of uh injury reserve there. So, uh those will be the injury report and other than that, I’ll open it up. Well, is having Alvin limited or out on going to be his normal schedule going forward? I don’t think it’ll be normal per se for like an entire season, but obviously, you know, he’s just doing some maintenance stuff and so um obviously last week kind of had a similar plan a little bit and so um you know, we’ll navigate this thing with him and so he he’s he’ll be in good position. That that suggests you’re suggesting it’s a similar severity as last week. It didn’t get worse. No. No. We talked about how Many of these games have been one score games at the end and just haven’t gotten over the hump. What are the different ways you can address that because it might just be one play in any different? How do you approach trying to make that happen? Yeah, I think you got to acknowledge we’re we’re right there. You know, we we do have the opportunities. You got to start with having opportunities to to compete and to win games at the end of the game. And so then it comes down to the specifics and the details. Um, you know, it’s fundamentals, it’s techniques, it’s execution. Um, you know, from from my standpoint, always trying to figure out, you know, from a game management standpoint or from a schematic standpoint. Uh, we’re giving ourselves the best opportunity. Is there another way to uh navigate this? And so, I think everyone’s everyone’s embracing that, you know, we can all keep growing and keep finding better opportunities to to move forward and, you know, make the plays or take advantage of the opportunity that’s presented. So notice in the in the game you ran kind of a traditional sneak rather than a tush push. Is that something you kind of decided game planning ahead of time? Yeah, you can do either. Obviously by game plan it kind of varies from game to game. And so um you also have to be conscious of just you know the way that play has been uh policed necessarily you know the last few weeks. And so um you know we did feel like there was an opportunity there to run a more traditional sneak and so it worked out well. So the the officiating maybe being a little tighter on it. That’s that’s a fact. You just got to be aware of it. Yeah, you just got to be aware of that. And so, um, you know, by no means is it, you know, gone forever or anything like that. Week to week, you kind of present short yards, see what the opportunities present theirel, what advantages there may be, and so we’ll see what happens. What do you think the challenge has been for you guys on like third and long? I know this, but like just in general, what’s tough about that situation? Yeah, we we we obviously haven’t taken advantage of those and those are challenging situations. The numbers are down, but we’re you know, we got to at least convert on a few of these and so um you know, I think there’s couple different ways you can go. There’s obviously the plays where we got to protect it a little bit longer, give ourselves the opportunities to get past the sticks. At the same time, there are opportunities where there’s catch and run, you know, chances. And so, we got to play the fine line between those two philosophies. Um you know, every week’s a different challenge and we just got to take advantage of a few more. When you’ve been studying Caleb, um is it noticeable to see how much he’s improved under Benj? Yeah, he’s doing he’s doing a really good job, I think. Um, you know, when you watch it, second year tends to be a big jump. We always call it the sophomore jump or whatever you want to call it, second year jump in the NFL. And so, you can tell he’s just so much more comfortable. Ben’s doing an awesome job of giving him um, you know, different tools and and and they do a great job of schematically, you know, getting to the best calls in some situations. And so, uh, you can tell there’s a comfort level there. There’s an anticipation that, uh, certainly is growing from his standpoint. And, you know, in his back pocket, he always has the playmaking ability that he’s always had going back to college. And so, uh, you know, it’s a really challenge challenging thing because, uh, you can feel like maybe you cover something up and he’s going to make a play out of it. And, and then he’s doing a much better job as he’s gotten more experience of just playing the the original play really well. when you were evaluating that 24 quarterback class. I mean, Spencer’s in that one, you got Caleb, you had Drake May. Yeah. D. What did you think of that group when they were coming out? Played out like it. It certainly was a really talented group. And so, um, I was in Philly that year, LA two years ago, and so we’re in a little different situation. I didn’t get to get the depth of the evaluation. I evaluated purely off of film. um you know really talented group and a group that you know could could certainly see a lot of these guys contributing in a lot of fashion around the league and so um you know the high picks you know they’re kind of playing the way you anticipate them playing you know they’re they’re growing and they go through different experiences than their first year and then the second year you can tell all three of them I think are playing at a really high level and and the depth of that class is starting to show up you know Spence is doing a really good job and uh really proud of the way he’s continued to grow each and every week. Now that you’ve studied the Bears a bit more, are you seeing new wrinkles with Dennis Allen’s team? Every place is going to be a little bit different just because, you know, you’re going to have a foundation from a systematic approach and then you’re going to, you know, evaluate your roster and kind of make the adjustments necessary. I think, you know, the biggest thing is their defense is playing fast, physical. They’re playing obviously with a lot of confidence. The turnover thing is real. Uh seems like, you know, every year there’s a couple of these teams that just, you know, they’re they’re making them happen each and every week. And so certainly they’re on that trend line. uh they’re doing a great job of attacking the football. They had three this past game. You can argue they had they had three more opportunities that they could have gotten as well. And so um you know they’re they’re playing a very confident brand of football on that side of the football right now. There was report over the weekend that um Vicki went to Alvin to ask if she wants to stay here longterm Davis commitment with the trade deadline. What’s kind of your role in that? Are you checking with players to see if they want to be here long term as approaches? I mean certainly my main goal is to you know take care of the players but also you know be as successful as we can each and every Sunday. And so that’s that’s really my focus. You know I certainly care about these players as people. You know that’s that’s a really important aspect of this thing for me. Um you know as far as that part that part is uh you know I allow Mickey to kind of roll with that and u you know defer to him in a lot of those situations and certainly we’ll have conversations as we go. But um we love this group. We love this group. It’s a bunch of really good people. Uh we got the right people in the room. Uh love these guys. guys. I want these guys to be really successful here, you know, first and foremost. Do you think Alvin like his philosophy with that and his loyalty and his love for the team organization or what how much of a positive effect do you think that can have on on the other players and really everyone else in the building? Yeah, I mean, just speaking from my experience with Alvin, Alvin’s a phenomenal player, phenomenal person. Uh he represents so much of what we we want to be and you know, he’s represented this community really really well. And so, uh you know, we love having him here. We love having uh you know I’m excited for his opportunities to keep growing this year. Uh we’ll keep getting opportunities. Uh he deserves them. He’s earned them. Uh he’s had a huge impact on this organization for a really long time and we look forward to you know him having that impact you know moving forward for a while as well. Tom when you evaluate the quarterback like you got your data points over here and there’s like winning also like how do how do you weigh those two things together? How much does like getting a win matter? Like how do you weigh that into like kind of kind of evaluation? Yeah, that’s a that’s a fun healthy conversation. That’s that’s certainly uh a good conversation I think. Um you know, you got to trust uh ultimately our job is to win win games and and we got to win games and you know, I know that Spence knows that. We all know that. Um but as you go through the process, you really got to hone in on you know the details of it. You know, the details, the opportunities that you’re presented and are you taking advantage of those opportunities? And so, um, what I do see is, you know, playing a lot of really successful football, a lot of clean football. We do have some small margins that we can grow in in some situational football in particular. Uh, all these QBs go on different paths, different journeys in this league. I think that’s the cool example. This, if anything, this year’s, I think, emphasizing the journeys that these all these quarterbacks take are all different. The guys that have gone to their second or third stop that are having success, the guys that were in last year’s class that are kind of having that big bounce this year. Um, you know, obviously there’s there’s plenty of the the crafty vets who’ve been doing it like Matthew and you know, Dak and these guys for a long time. And so, um, you know, all these guys are on different journeys, different paths, and it’s about growth and taking advantage of opportunities. Spencer’s history with Caleb, what happened to Oklahoma? How do you think of going through that? We really haven’t talked about it. Um, so I I yeah, it’d be unfair for me to even really comment about the context of what happened there. Um, all I know is Spence is a resilient person, resilient player. Um, again, I think, you know, if you look at our quarterback room, you’ll recognize a trend. A bunch of guys who faced adversity and had to have some resiliency in their life, navigating some things. Um, certainly in college, you know, all of our guys kind of had to go through a challenging aspect there. And so, I I respect that out of people. I I have a ton of appreciation because that’s what ultimately playing quarterback in this league is about is we got to win. We got to go be successful, but every game, every week, there’s going to be challenges. There’s going to be obstacles you got to be able to navigate. And so, uh, you know, that’s that’s certainly a superpower of Spencers in my opinion. Do you uh obviously coach in different places and I know people move around and it’s a nomatic business, but like when you went back to Dallas for the first time, was there extra juice or do you understand maybe that could be for Dennis and even for the players in some capacity here, you know, for this game. Yeah, no doubt. We all have these kind of reunion games, so to speak, or, you know, fall back to our past experiences and and you play, you know, common places, common opponents, common people. Um, you know, you have a love and appreciation for people. You know, a lot of guys got drafted here because of Dennis and so there’s an appreciation for that. And Dennis has done a lot of good here. And so, you know, there’s there’s that element of uh there’s going to be a lot of appreciation to see Dennis on the other side of the field. I have a ton of respect for, you know, like we said, we’ve competed against each other a bunch of years over the over the years. It seemed like whether I was in Dallas or wherever, uh we always played New Orleans and so u you know, I think it’ll be a great experience for those guys. Obviously, uh you’re always excited to have that opportunity, you know, if you go somewhere else to coach and so it’ll be a fun opportunity for everyone. So, the common parlance would be revenge game. Do you prefer the term reunion game? Yeah, pick your pick pick your noun adjective. I don’t really care. So, is that something that you know the guys about at all like the reunion with Dennis and whatever? Because you obviously mentioned all that from your perspective there. You talk to the guys that maybe have, you know, big relationships with him and whatnot beforehand. We haven’t. Uh, no, it’s not really been a topic about, you know, from a team perspective or anything. Um, you know, these things happen a league. They truly do between the players, between the coaches. every week you’re playing someone that you’re, you know, friends with or you’ve worked with or whatever it may be. When you you mentioned the turnovers earlier. Yeah. When you think of it and defense, what are some of the hallmarks of his defenses? Yeah, I think play style. They’re fast, they’re physical, they play with confidence, they got the swagger going, uh they stop the run, they create turnovers, and uh when they put you in third down, you know, obvious passing situations on third down, uh the pressure is alive, you know, and so uh you got to do a really good job planning and preparing yourself. And then you got to understand that there’s going to be some good moments. There’s going to be some challenging moments in every game. Um, you know, just because they’re gonna be able to make plays. We’re doing a story about why quarterbacks do or don’t wear the play sheet on a wrist. Why did you all decide to do that with Spencer? How was it? Really good question. So, uh, last year was my first time. I did it as a player going back all the way to college. Now, college, you don’t have the headset and all that sort of stuff, so it’s a little bit different dynamics. We never did it anywhere else I’d ever been. Um when we went to Philadelphia, that was the first time I had had exposure with it. And um I felt like there was some value to it. You know, being able to speed up just the communication process, be able to give him a wristband number as opposed to reading the whole play out once or twice to him and then having him echo that play. I think it’s helped us speed up the process a little bit. Um sometimes, you know, as much as I don’t want it, sometimes some plays get a little long, a little wordy, and maybe there’s some criteria in there about a potential adjustment to the play. And so he’s able to see all that on that sheet. And so, um, we don’t do it for every play. It’s just kind of select plays, handful of plays. And so, uh, I think it it’s helped us just speed up the process. There’s some teams that don’t do it because they’re concerned the wristband might get lost or a concern for you. We we have not had that experience, but yeah, there’s some experience like that. And there’s some quarterbacks who really don’t want to, you know, don’t want to do it. And so, everyone’s a little bit different. I get it. But, uh, it’s worked really well for us. Do the plays on the band change week to week? Yeah. Yeah. It’s based off the game plan. like to see Spencer take more. Spencer is doing a really good job. Um yeah, we we got to create some more explosives. That’s a lot of different ways, not just chucking it deep. So, he’ll we’ll get him to try and you know, we’ll have some opportunities downfield, but uh explosives come in a lot of different fashions. They can come in runs, quick screens, quick uh quick game, and then break a tackle, and you got everyone else blocking for you. And so, uh we’ll just keep working that way. You mentioned a few times some quarterbacks that have kind of second life What do you attribute that to? Why they might not work early on or is it just experience or is it both guys like Gino Smith? Yeah. No, I I think I think it’s a really healthy discussion. I think it’s really cool that our league’s kind of recognizing it. I think there’s a lot more conversations about these guys. There’s timing and being in the right environment and uh you know the timing thing is real. Being in the right situation that kind of matches you systematically who you’re around. Um, and you got to be built up kind of over the course of time. Uh, I think a lot of these young guys, we throw them out there really fast and we decide yes or no, uh, within a handful of games and then, uh, we move on and try and find the next thing. And so, um, these guys get to continue to grow each and every each and every way. And if anything’s taught us, I think over the last couple years in our league is that these quarterbacks, you know, they’re 23, 24, whatever they are when they come in, uh, these guys all play into their well into their 30s. and uh you know they have tremendous careers as they just continue to progress and so uh you know there’s too many guys that you know we can speak of and create a story line about these guys and I think Spence is you know following some of that trend line as far as just getting better and you know taking advantage of these opportunities versus you think it’s kind of at the point of the cycle where it’s adjusting from broader perspective how much Do you have to adjust your foundations based on this? Yeah, the sneak thing, everyone’s got a different way of approaching it. Uh there’s a lot of different ways. Um it’s truly a trend. It’s going to go back and forth. Uh teams are going to push it still. Some teams may not push it. It may be week to week. Again, um we’ve navigated it from week to week so far. And so we’ll continue to do that. And then as far as just trends in general, I think that’s an important thing. You’re always trying to evaluate the league. um you know what can we continue to improve on what can we maybe expand on get ahead of some of these trends um you know and then there’s always different styles in different ways whether it may be you know the way a certain play is being officiated moving forward or you know the way teams have adjusted to a certain uh formation or play and so uh I think that’s the fun part of this thing you’re just continue to try and evolve each and every week and so we all have foundations we all things we believe in core values but you got to be able to move off the spot and continue to grow each time Thanks. All right. Thanks, guys.

New Orleans Saints Head Coach Kellen Moore speaks with the media from the Ochsner Sports Performance Center on Wednesday, October 15, 2025 ahead of Week 7 at the Chicago Bears.
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