There’s little doubt the NFL is a mutual admiration society and that is never more evident than when the season begins and head coach and coordinators are asked about those they will be facing in the upcoming game.

So it was Monday when New Orleans Saints first-year head coach Kellen Moore was asked about the Arizona Cardinals defense his team will face on Sunday.

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Moore is the Saints’ play-caller and for his previous six seasons was the offensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys, Los Angeles Chargers and Philadelphia Eagles.

“Theres a ton of flexibility within their structure and it’s really challenging because some of it feels like it’s according to rules and some of it kinda feels like it breaks rules at times,” Moore said. “(Head coach) Jonathan (Gannon) and those guys have done an awesome job just developing a really, really innovative system that really stresses you from an offense perspective.

“They have a lot of pieces that can play a number of different roles and so there’s some gray. Like to say there’s a lot of gray within it, which can be challenging. We need to put a lot of time and effort into preparing this week.”

Tuesday, Cardinals defensive coordinator Nick Rallis was asked whether Moore’s comments about rules and gray areas were accurate.

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Said Rallis, “You could say there’s some accuracy there. I definitely believe you got to have rules and you got to be ruled out so you’re not giving up explosive plays. But at the same time, I always encourage problem solving and you want your players to play fast, play free. So I think it’s a combination.”

Not surprisingly, Rallis turned the tables and heaped praise Moore’s way.

“I would say the feeling is very mutual with Kellen,” he said. “I’ve had the privilege of being able to go up against him as a position coach, as a quality control coach back in Minnesota and I think he is phenomenal. One of the best play callers; very hard to get a beat on things. He does a great job of varying how he’s calling a game, the tempo he uses, his candy package where he’s getting on the line and then he’s talking to the quarterback because he can see what you’re in. So they do a lot of really good things. It’s a good staff over there.”

Breaking down some of the specifics, Rallis added, “They have a lot of formation variation things that you got to be able to rule out and there’s tackles getting split out wide or they got these wide splits. So he does a good job of what I call stealing yards. Like it’s just so many things that you got to prepare for that they do a great job of mixing it in and it just comes in these doses and then he’s out of it and that by the time you figure it out, it’s over.”

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What say you, Jonathan Gannon?

He noted Wednesday, “If you go back and look at my track record against him, it’s not good, truthfully.”

When Moore was the Cowboys offensive coordinator in 2021 and 2022, Gannon went against him as the Eagles’ defensive coordinator. The game results supported Gannon’s comment.

In 2021, the Cowboys won 41-21 and 51-26, while the Eagles won 26-17 in 2022, but also lost 40-34. That’s a total of 132 points in three of the four games. In fairness, the 51-point barrage, which featured five red-zone touchdowns, 30 points by halftime and 475 yards of total offense, came in the regular-season finale when the Eagles had a playoff spot set and sat out numerous starters on both sides of the ball.

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Still, Gannon spoke glowingly about Moore, saying, “He’s always had really good offenses. He’s very creative. It makes it really hard on a defense how he calls the game. He’s been (at) a couple different stops and his offense is played in a way that’s hard to defend. It really is, and not just because he’s got good players. Take that out of it. Schematically, he’s hard to defend. The pace that he plays with is hard to defend. It puts you on your heels. He’s always been ahead of me, so we got our work cut out for it.

“Now I’m not calling the game, so it’s a little bit different, but I’ve got a high opinion of Kellen.”

As they all have of each other. We’ll hear a lot of that in the next 16 weeks of games.

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This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: Cardinals, Saints coaches exchange praise for each other