Kellen Moore on waiving Brandin Cooks, Tyler Shough’s progression | New Orleans Saints

Kellen Moore on waiving Brandin Cooks, Tyler Shough’s progression | New Orleans Saints

All right. Uh we’ll start medical. Uh Ty uh was a DMP with his ankle. Limited was Alvin with his ankle. And then full participants Chris with an ankle, Jack with an ankle, uh Barry with the hip coming off of um IR, and then Cooks. He was uh uh not a practice just for personal reasons. So, we’ll start there. Uh roster-wise, the one uh thing that kind of came out, but uh we’re going to release Brandon Cooks. uh he asked to be released and uh obviously it took a few days just to kind of go through that process just to make sure it it worked for for both parties and so his contract was kind of adjusted just to make it um um something that benefited both parties. Uh he was awesome about it. Obviously he’s uh this is a personal thing and he’s uh he’s been great for us. He’s been great uh the way he’s handled himself uh the way he’s helped our team and so uh you know those are those are challenging things but appreciate everything he’s done for us and so uh feel like this is in the best interest of the team moving forward it’ll be good for the Saints and uh you know Cookie you’ll have have his plan moving forward as well so it’ll all work out. Why did you guys want to accommodate that request or you could have taken a hard line? Yeah, obviously um you know Cook’s done a lot a lot of good here over the course of a number of years. I felt like uh you know once uh once we’re able to kind of talk through the thing, find something that was beneficial to us as far as adjusting the contract a little bit and uh providing us with something that uh should benefit fit us in the future and so we’ll uh we’ll go with that. Do you like the idea why he approached Shaw about this? Did it have to do with his role in the offense? I think just everything’s on the personal side of this and so u you know obviously we’ve had plenty of conversations about this. Um I I have nothing but respect and appreciation for Cookie. He’s done everything we’ve asked and he’s battled and so uh you know he’ll have uh potentially opportunities in the future that he can pursue and so it’ll all work out. Like the idea of having those snaps to give to younger guys and is there a guy that in your head is going to benefit from those snaps? Well, I think naturally Tipton’s going to play a ton of football now. Uh and obviously we’ve we felt good about him. Uh he had a phenomenal preseason. He he’s been a guy that’s we felt good about and so this will provide him an opportunity to hop in there. Um, we feel like we got a younger group there with those guys um that’ll be ready to ready to go compete. We feel great about these guys and so it’ll be a lot of fun to watch them go out there and go for it. So you see it as like Bay, Tipton, and Chris like in your your kind of core 11. Yeah. Yeah, those will probably be the three guys and you know, obviously we have some other guys that’ll earn roles and earn more opportunities as we go. We got a number of other guys that’ll be available to us and so um we’ll still have plenty of opportunities there. What do you like about Jon bringing him on to the practice? Yeah. So, we worked him out uh a few weeks ago and um felt good about him. Felt like he he had a good workout and so u you know, as this opportunity kind of presented itself, felt like it was a great chance. Uh I think it was when we uh worked out Bell uh probably a month ago and so um yeah, he had a great workout. We felt good about it and excited to get him out here. He seems like a great kid. Can Jaquin help you as a kick returner potentially? Yeah. Yeah. Um, obviously we’re he literally got here this morning ready to roll and so uh this will be fun just to get him acclimated for for our program and and get him going. So Trey Palmer is still a bit of weights, right? Yes. Yeah. And um you guys had a lot of heavier personnel usage against Carolina this last time. What does that allow you? Obviously the run game was big part of that, but like what else does allow you to do besides the run? How does it open? The big personnel stuff. Um yeah, obviously there there’s a run game component of it. I think there is some from a defensive perspective, it can stress you a little bit as far as there’s more gaps to be accounted and so sometimes it can provide you with some looks that are a little bit more uh you can anticipate a little bit more be a little bit more specific on what you anticipate getting. Uh I feel like our guys um you know there’s some good run game stuff there. There’s always some action game available to you as well and so I think something we’ll continue to pursue. Why Kevin Austin off the practice spot? Like what did you like about him? Yeah, Kevin’s been a really steady player. He’s he’s played ball for us obviously uh going back to last year as well. And so um Kevin again we felt good about Kevin as through this process. Felt like we had some depth um you know obviously at this point these guys are being called upon and we’re excited about the opportunities that they’re going to present. Kevin can do a number of things. He’s a physical player. He can do some of the dirty work. He can do some of the blocking. Obviously he’s got good catch radius and um he’s been he’s had production. I know we’ve asked you a lot about Tyler Shock in the last couple weeks, but I assume when you’re when you’re getting ready to start a guy, you kind of want to see certain things out of a starting quarterback. And how have you seen him like take on that role? I think it’s just one of those his leadership builds each week, each time that he’s in front of this group leading the charge. Uh you can sense that. Um I think that’s a great part of this thing. Um I think practice has been better and better each day. I think you’re getting more and more comfortable with it and now he’s starting to, you know, be able to make some of those adjustments here and there and have a great feel for this thing and anticipate what’s coming and um and I think our guys are building a good rhythm together. How were you with his ability to extend plays so well so early and has that been something that you’ve seen him get better at at practice? And it’s got to be pretty encouraging to see him be able to do that so well this early on in his NFL career. Yeah, he’s done done a really good job. You can go back to the Rams game before half stepping up in the pocket, finding CO downfield. Obviously, a big factor in that Carolina game was those third downs where he was able to extend plays and I think credit to him, you know, his work, his fundamentals, his his progress that he’s been on uh stepping up in the pocket, finding lanes and uh remaining a passer and so obviously it had a huge impact on the last couple games and uh he’ll continue to be that be that way. Sorry, I didn’t get I apologize. Were you a little surprised by how like even as you’re watching on the sidelines, how quickly he got some of those things in in Charlotte? Like did you have any like wow moments as you’re watching him that well man he got that quicker than I thought he would? Well, I think the first third down was a big time play in that game. Uh they got a sack on second down. Uh kind of knocked us back. We’re in a challenging situation and for him to pull through a lot of traffic and step up and make that play, I think, you know, they had just scored a touchdown. Uh I thought that was a huge play in that game. just kind of spin spin the uh momentum in that game and create a big play that that obviously sparked us. We’re able to at least get points out of that drive. Maybe probably a better question for Tyler, but um is there any anything different about first start at home versus starting a couple on the road? Like yeah, I’ll I’ll defer that mostly to Tyler Tyler’s uh feelings, but uh you know, I think this will be a fun one. Everyone loves playing at home. Everyone’s excited about those opportunities and so this will be a lot of fun for him with the first chance to do it. and you know, no better uh situation as far as the opponent and the division and all that fun stuff. I I know you wanted to give everyone a lot of time off during the by, but I mean, did you were you able to have more hands-on time going over tape and concepts with him uh than you maybe normally would during a by week because I think it was somewhat somewhat normal, but I think it allowed us individually to spend a little bit more time, you know, going through a self scout and re-evaluating everything. And so I think that was good for everyone to kind of step away and see it from their own lens and re-evaluate theirel. And so uh certainly I did a lot of that from an offense perspective. I think a lot of our players obviously did that from an individual perspective. And um yeah, I thought Monday was a great day. Everyone came back ready to go. Uh we had a kind of a short little practice uh just to get our guys acclimated back into the football and uh you can just feel like everyone’s ready ready to go. I know you didn’t plan it out like exactly when you were going to make a switch, but I mean, as it turned out, having like two and a half games now to review uh with Tyler, did that end up making it a pretty good time to have ample film to work? I think there’s certainly some benefits with that. You know, two, like you said, two and a half games of Tyler playing football. uh you kind of get to evaluate that, look at that more in a focused uh cylinder than the whole, you know, obviously you look at the whole season as well, but you can look at his specific snaps and kind of see, okay, here’s some great growth in this this two and a half game uh window here. We’re excited about what move forward. Here’s some of the things maybe we can emphasize and keep expanding with him. And so, um I’m excited with where it’s going. Are there ever like legitimate breakthroughs like when you argue yourself, Scott, like throughout your whole coaching career? or is it more kind of like loose ends and like are you picking up the pieces as usually as you got like Yeah, I think there’s little details, little nuances. Sometimes there’s things that maybe you lose track of that you just got to reinforce whether you you know um you know situational maybe a tendency on our end or or something or or you look at it more from how are people attacking us and you find a trend line that says hey um a lot of times in this league if you have an issue uh the next team’s going to see that issue and maybe try and attack you in another way and so you can look at it kind of in reverse order and recognize okay there’s we need to address this this has kind of been starting to become a trend line for us and so um lots of good stuff I think it’s always an awesome experience like taking a look at at Tyler before the buy. Is there a benefit to just having like a little bit of data there so then like when it does slow down you can kind of maybe like re retol it more towards like what fits. Yeah. Yeah. I think definitely essentially you have two weeks to kind of build this one out. Um you know going from Tampa right into LA. You can make a few adjustments here and there, but we obviously are going to continue to build based off what we have and um and then Carolina was kind of that that push right before the by-week. So, uh, I think this is a great opportunity for us to kind of, uh, you know, refresh oursel a little bit, both mentally, physically, schematically. There’s there’s a lot of things that can go. Was there that trend line when you went back and watched it this year? Yeah, there’s always different things that pop up, you know, protections, run game, pass game. There’s always little things that you just keep an eye on. Was it important to not be kind of stubborn in that way? Like obviously you go into a season, you’re like, “Okay, this is what we’re going to And then throughout the course of the season, like with the Rams and how much 13 they’ve started to since like week five, you know, that being willing to adjust some of your kind of thought processes, how important is that? Yeah. Uh seasons always take a lot of different paths and so you got to be able to navigate some stuff from a personnel side or a schematic side and so uh sometimes there’s a humbling process associated with it of recognizing, hey, I I love this, but you know, it may not be working the same way it’s worked at a different place or or you anticipated. And so you got to be able to adjust and find some different paths. And so um yeah, I feel like there’s some stuff that has come out the last couple weeks that I feel like were some positives for us that we can hopefully lean into. Is there like a flip side of that though? Like not sticking like the other side is like you you don’t have an identity like is kind of maybe like the the flip side of that like do you have to be careful of like not leaning too much into adapting for the sake of adapting? Yeah. Yeah. There’s always there’s context within the data. uh you know is it you know we’re simply not executing something or we are executing something um or is it just you know the circumstances of the particular plays I think you know you look at the data and then you really dig into the film just to evaluate it and so um some stuff may be hey we need to teach this a little bit better or we need to uh maybe just adjust something within this concept or maybe hey we need to go down a different route and so it provides you with you know all the context needed running back into yeah uh this a really good one-two punch uh really good one-two punch. Their ability to make plays, physical run game, um but in the pass game, you know, th those backs come alive and so they’re going to create some matchups and it’s going to be a big challenge for us. And obviously the way their offense is operated, when these guys get going, they have a ton of success. You uh when you were in Dallas and LA and Philadelphia, I know every situation’s different, but you were brought to those places for like instant success and win at the highest level immediately. And in recent weeks, Mickey Lumis and Gail have both used the term rebuild and this is a rebuild year and we’re in a rebuild situation. Does that change how you coach or approach it or handle anything because it is different than where you came from and what you’ve done before? Yeah, that’s that’s a really good question. I think uh you know our jobs to win games and be as successful as we can on the field. Uh and that’s the most important task at hand. um you know from a global perspective, big perspective obviously um you know we got some younger guys playing. We got some other opportunities going through in different situations like that. But I think at the end of the day um the goal is always to win. Always put oursel in the most successful possible situation to be successful. Um you I feel like you know the last couple weeks I think our guys have battled and I feel like we got some positive juice and energy coming out of this bye-week that we got some great opportunities ahead. We got four division games. Uh we got you know three other games in within this within the rest of the schedule and so we got some awesome opportunities. I think our guys are excited to go attack it together. You guys haven’t allowed a 100redyard receiver this year. What do you credit that to? Uh it’s a good question. Um yeah, I think our guys, you know, I I love the way our back end has been growing and developing each and every week. And you know, I think uh you know, if you go over the course of the last probably month or so of football, I think there’s a lot of good on our back end. you know, the the the younger group of that that’s working together, that’s getting coordinated. Again, it’s about uh playing assignment sound football, not not allowing explosive plays by um you know, mental errors, mistakes. Um you know, you got to make people go the long way and challenge them and and I feel like our guys are doing that. Kind of a two partner on Taesm. um now that he’s back for a couple games, like have you had to kind of get a sense for for how to use him, the right way to deploy him, and then have you seen Tesa maybe get a little bit more comfortable after coming back from a major injury mostly? Yeah, I think I think Taesm is playing really good football first and foremost. Uh obviously there’s an acclamation component of that. Uh just the way his timeline worked, he’s done an awesome job. I think uh you know we’ve found I think the last few weeks a little bit better um ways in which we can utilize him. You know his unique trait is his ability to play so many different positions and it’s just about connecting all those dots and so uh I like the way he played the last couple weeks. You know we’re able to play him in some multiple spots and play around the field and um you know it’s a matter of just giving them more and more opportunities that way. What would be your like first half of the season scouting report assessment on uh on backs? Yeah. Uh Kelvin, I thought u you know, a really a lot of good uh I’ve I’ve loved having Kelvin here. Uh I think he’s done an awesome job. Uh left tackle is a really hard down. Uh hard position. You play a bunch of uh challenging matchups. It’s different than a lot of the other positions within an offensive line or or the rest of your team. Um I think the thing I love about him is his demeanor and his mannerisms and the way he handles himself. Uh he competes each and every play and if if you if you lose one, you make a mistake, he doesn’t let that mistake dwell on him. I think that’s a key thing about these offensive linemen is, you know, sometimes you may give up one. Uh how you respond is really really important uh for you to be able to continue to, you know, trend in the right direction and you don’t see him make the same mistake twice. Um you know, and so I think uh there’s a lot of positives for him. I’m excited with where he’s going. Were the last couple of games his best games just on the field playing? Yeah, I feel I feel like there’s a lot of good film last few weeks. Um again, I feel really good about Kelvin. um yard to catch a lot less or I guess two weeks ago. What what are some of the keys to just generating that in terms of like what can players do to improve their opportunities? Yeah, I think there’s you know the play design create as much space as we can the individual player and then you know it’s really the other guys as well. Sometimes it’s the the flip and find it’s the effort to go make that touchdown block. I think uh you know that’s where a lot of times these explosives come in all three fashions. mentioned the other day with the South Scout that the red zone stood out. Could you just expand on that? Like what? Yeah. What stood out? Yeah, obviously, you know, I think just the important thing of scoring touchdowns in the red zone uh obviously has huge impact on wins and losses in this league and we just got to do a better job there. And so, uh, a lot of it’s about staying on course, being efficient on first and second down. Uh, you get to third and longs in that area. You can look at every team in this league, it’s it’s not going to be as successful if you’re sitting in third and longs in the red zone. And so, uh, we just got to play clean football down there and take advantage of the opportunities. Can I just ask one more quick one? Um, I know you’re wearing like you haven’t been here that long, but like black on black is the first time ever that the players pick that. Did you pick that? Is that just something the organization did? Yeah. Yeah. Uh, players were definitely involved with that. And so, uh, obviously I think this is going to be an awesome uni. Uh, you know, the All Blacks, I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. Our guys are fired up about it and uh you know they got a little sample of it out of practice just looking at uh their practice unis and so uh it’s going to look look awesome. Thanks. Okay. Thanks guys.

New Orleans Saints head coach Kellen Moore speaks with the media from the Ochsner Sports Performance Center on Wednesday, November 19, 2025 ahead of Week 12 vs. the Atlanta Falcons.
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