{"id":338164,"date":"2025-09-03T11:11:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T11:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/338164\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T11:11:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T11:11:10","slug":"kellen-moore-as-saints-next-sean-payton-hes-just-himself-saints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/338164\/","title":{"rendered":"Kellen Moore as Saints’ next Sean Payton? He’s just himself. | Saints"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hours before they stood on opposite sidelines for a preseason game, Sean Payton and Kellen Moore<\/a> greeted each other and took a few minutes to chat. Their conversation centered on the trade they had made days earlier, when Payton\u2019s Denver Broncos sent wide receiver Devaughn Vele to Moore\u2019s New Orleans Saints.<\/p>\n

But the meeting was also a glimpse into the Saints\u2019 past and present.<\/p>\n

Inside the Caesar Superdome, where the men stood, no coach has delivered more victories \u2014 more hope \u2014 to the city of New Orleans than Payton, the former Saints coach whose reign lasted 15 years. And then there\u2019s Moore \u2014 the Saints\u2019 newest coach tasked with reviving the franchise<\/a>\u00a0coming off its worst season since 2005, the year before Payton\u2019s arrival.<\/p>\n

The parallels between the two are unavoidable.<\/p>\n

Moore, like Payton when the Saints hired him, is a first-time head coach known for his offensive intellect. Moore, like Payton, worked as an offensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys, though in Moore\u2019s case, that was his first play-calling gig before stops with the Los Angeles Chargers and Philadelphia Eagles. And Moore, like Payton then, is young \u2014 but still old enough to have been in the mix for head coaching jobs before landing the Saints.<\/p>\n

Moore started hearing the comparisons well before the Saints hired him \u2014 and the 37-year-old even joked that general manager Mickey Loomis \u201cmight have a type\u201d at his introductory press conference, given the executive hired Payton, too.<\/p>\n

They continue to loom into Moore\u2019s first season, which begins Sunday when the Saints host the Arizona Cardinals at noon.<\/p>\n

But is Kellen Moore the next Sean Payton?<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t have to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to be your authentic self,\u201d Moore told the Times-Picayune. \u201cIf I become some raging screamer, the guys are going to look at me like I\u2019m an idiot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Searching for Sean?<\/p>\n

Sitting in his office, Loomis let out a small laugh after he answered the question posed to him: Does he have a type?<\/p>\n

The general manager said he doesn\u2019t know. What he does know, however, is that he didn\u2019t go into the Saints\u2019 coaching vacancy with the intention of finding a Payton clone. He noted he interviewed offensive and defensive coaches. Loomis said he found the pool of candidates to be the strongest of the three coaching searches that he\u2019s conducted.<\/p>\n

But Loomis didn’t shoot down the similarities.<\/p>\n

He said there are \u201cnatural comparisons\u201d between Moore and Payton, from their coaching backgrounds to their days as college quarterbacks. Loomis said there\u2019s a lot of overlap in the things that they talk about, as well. He said he even thinks the two look \u201ca little bit alike.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, Sean\u2019s the standard for the Saints,\u201d Loomis said. \u201c… So everyone, no matter who it is, is going to be compared to him. It\u2019s not a bad thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dennis Allen, Moore\u2019s predecessor, could attest to those comparisons. The Saints promoted Allen from defensive coordinator to head coach after Payton\u2019s resignation in 2021 in an attempt to maintain continuity, but he was unpopular with the team\u2019s fanbase and fired midway through his third season. Darren Rizzi, who took over as an interim, wasn\u2019t seen as much of a direct link to Payton, but he still was part of the previous staff.<\/p>\n

The Saints\u2019 lack of success in recent years is why many wondered if Loomis needed to completely move on from the Payton era for the franchise to have a fresh start this offseason.<\/p>\n

But this narrative always seemed to baffle Loomis. Didn\u2019t the Broncos and the Detroit Lions launch two of the more successful rebuilds of late? Each of those franchises held ties to Payton or his assistants, he pointed out at the end of the season.<\/p>\n

Loomis said he\u2019d be concerned only with finding the best candidate for the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could do a lot worse than trying to emulate Sean Payton,\u201d ESPN analyst Louis Riddick said. \u201cThe NFL truly is a copycat league. \u2026 I wouldn\u2019t blame Mickey for leaning into the similarities, if that\u2019s what he did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, there are plenty of differences between the two \u2014 especially in their personalities. Payton is a Bill Parcells disciple and had the fiery persona to match. Moore is more even-keeled, stemming the influence of watching his dad coach high school football in their small hometown of Prosser<\/a>, Washington.<\/p>\n

The situations the men stepped into aren\u2019t nearly the same, either. Payton was tasked with taking over a franchise whose city had been devastated by Hurricane Katrina, but he had at least successfully recruited Drew Brees to be the team\u2019s starting quarterback. Moore, on the other hand, has a far less definitive answer at the position: Second-year signal-caller Spencer Rattler beat out rookie Tyler Shough to start the season.<\/p>\n

Loomis was drawn to Moore nonetheless. During the interview process, the general manager was struck by Moore\u2019s intentionality. Every answer, Loomis recalled, had a well-layered reason behind it. The answers felt genuine, no matter the topic.<\/p>\n

The Saints, for instance, held part of training camp in California because Moore brought up the idea as a way of building chemistry over the course of a long season, Loomis said. Moore also brought up the ways he\u2019d go on to incorporate team-bonding activities, such as the team\u2019s afternoon at a paintball course.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s what I like about him: He\u2019s open-minded,\u201d Loomis said. \u201cHe\u2019s not looking for \u2014 and Sean\u2019s the same way \u2014 he\u2019s not a guy who thinks he has every answer, particularly early on. He likes having opinions and likes dissent. We grow from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Creating a culture<\/p>\n

Charlie Smyth knew to keep it brief this time.<\/p>\n

After an August practice in which the kicker nailed a 58-yarder to win the simulated game, Moore told the Ireland native to break down the team\u2019s huddle. It was only the second time Smyth, who didn\u2019t start playing football until August 2023, had ever been given such a task \u2014 and he caught flak for his first speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember I did one at the (International Player Pathway program) \u2026 and the boys were like, \u2018Is this a novel or whatever?\u2019\u201d Smyth said.<\/p>\n

Smyth appreciated Moore’s invitation, which extended beyond a single practice kick. To Moore, it was a small way to praise the second-year kicker\u2019s progress after an admittedly rough start to training camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it really is a cool example of development in our league,\u201d Moore said. \u201cCharlie, he\u2019ll be probably the first one to tell you that the start of training camp wasn\u2019t great. He was missing more than he made for a couple days, and he just kept going for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

This, to Moore, is culture.<\/p>\n

The 37-year-old is not the kind of football coach who stands at a lectern, pounds his fist and goes on and on about the importance of culture. Moore, like Loomis, views the term as a misnomer. Culture is the result of creating an environment that allows every player, every coach to be their best, he said. That still matters to him, of course, but that differs from a team\u2019s core values.<\/p>\n

The approach is also why Moore wasn\u2019t determined to make changes for the sake of change.<\/p>\n

Moore said he wanted to understand what the Saints already had in place, adding he recognized there was a \u201clot of good here.\u201d He opted, for example, to keep some of the key messaging from the Payton era \u2014 including the \u201cCompete Street\u201d signs installed in 2015 at the team\u2019s practice facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to lean into competition, because that\u2019s part of the NFL,\u201d Saints director of sports science Ted Rath said. \u201cYou have to compete now. We can do it in a healthy manner. \u2026 We\u2019re going to build upon those things and continue to keep that competitive edge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, Moore has focused on blending all parts of his background to put his imprint on the Saints.<\/p>\n

His assistants can recognize the influences. Rath said the flow of the Saints\u2019 schedule \u2014 aimed at optimizing efficiency \u2014 can be traced back to Jim Caldwell\u2019s days in Detroit, when Rath was an assistant strength and conditioning coach and Moore was a backup quarterback.<\/p>\n

Defensive coordinator Brandon Staley, once Moore\u2019s boss as coach of the Chargers, ran the same kind of \u201ccall-it\u201d periods of unscripted play calls in Los Angeles that Moore frequently utilized in training camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe tries to perfect that (borrowing),\u201d said Saints senior offensive assistant Scott Linehan, who also overlapped with Moore in Detroit and Dallas. \u201cHe takes those pieces, logs that away and says, \u2018I\u2019m going to use that someday.\u2019 It might be something from 12 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pieces extend to the building’s aesthetics. Downstairs outside the Saints\u2019 locker room, Moore had the area remodeled so that the right side of the hallway would pay homage to the Saints\u2019 past, and the left side of the hallway would recognize the Saints\u2019 future.<\/p>\n

On the right side of the hallway, there are decals featuring franchise legends, their positions and the years they played for the franchise through the decades. On the left side of the hallway, there are the core values \u2014 big, bolded type that shows Moore’s vision for the Saints, backed up by photos that capture the moments.<\/p>\n

There are five core values down the left side: Takeaways, Play Style, Team Fundamentals, Situational Masters and Ball Security. Each value also has key components written out, such as \u201csmart, fast, physical\u201d under play style and \u201crip, punch, strip sack, second man, locked shot, linger and tips and overthrows\u201d under takeaways.<\/p>\n

Moore got the idea after seeing the Eagles and the NBA\u2019s Golden State Warriors execute similar concepts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really important for our players to see the focus of what\u2019s happening right now,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n

And the coach is quick to get the walls updated with relevant examples: Less than two weeks after Jonas Sanker\u2019s game-tying interception in the preseason, a decal of the rookie was put up near the takeaways section.<\/p>\n

It took Sanker by surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s awesome,\u201d Sanker said. \u201cThey emphasize it all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unexpected challenges<\/p>\n

When he meets with candidates in person, Loomis likes to toss out hypothetical scenarios to see how they\u2019d react.<\/p>\n

But nowhere in the interview did Loomis ask, \u201cWhat if your starting quarterback suddenly retires?\u201d Not even the Saints could have seen that coming.<\/p>\n

\u201cMickey and I had some fun conversations there for the first few months,\u201d Moore said with a grin. \u201cA couple of times where we\u2019d joke, \u2018You wanted to be a head coach in the NFL? Here we go.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Derek Carr\u2019s unexpected decision to retire in May because of a shoulder injury marked the stunning conclusion of a months-long saga that saw Carr disclose in late March he was hurt, with the quarterback and the Saints trying to determine the severity of the ailment.<\/p>\n

During that time, Loomis said he never saw Moore panic; instead, the coach pivoted to find a solution. The team\u2019s scouting of college quarterbacks \u201cintensified,\u201d Loomis said, but work had already been underway given Carr\u2019s age (34). In some ways, Loomis said he couldn\u2019t tell a difference in Moore \u2014 which the executive viewed as a strength.<\/p>\n

\u201cDifferent coaches react differently to \u2014 I think all eventually are going to attack the problem, but how they react initially can be different,\u201d Loomis said.<\/p>\n

Moore\u2019s tendency to attack the problem is nothing new. When Linehan served as the Lions\u2019 offensive coordinator in 2012 and 2013, he noticed how Moore, a third-string quarterback, would study TV copies of games to steal defensive signals, and then he\u2019d share those observations with the rest of the room. Linehan could tell that Moore thought like a coach, that Moore\u2019s father raised him to be a coach.<\/p>\n

In 2016, with the pair now in Dallas, Linehan started to expand Moore\u2019s responsibilities when the quarterback was out for the year with a leg injury. At first, Linehan had Moore compile the defensive signals just as he did in Detroit. But one week, Linehan asked Moore to put together clips from the red zone. Another week, Moore\u2019s task was two-minute situations. The work got to the point where Linehan had Moore start presenting the information to the rest of the quarterbacks in the room.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could tell he was on the fast track,\u201d Linehan said. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t promoting himself. \u2026 He was just working behind the scenes, getting himself ready (to become a coach).\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyone familiar with Moore\u2019s story knows that fast track: In 2018, he made the decision to retire once the Cowboys offered him a job to coach the team\u2019s quarterbacks. By 2019, he became Dallas\u2019 offensive coordinator after Linehan was fired.<\/p>\n

Moore spent a total of five years as an assistant in Dallas. Of all his NFL experience, the time perhaps best prepared Moore for the realities of losing a starting quarterback on the fly. The Cowboys lost starter Dak Prescott twice in Moore\u2019s tenure, once for most of the year in 2020 and again for the first five games in 2022.<\/p>\n

When Moore thinks of Carr\u2019s retirement these days, he said he thinks of a sign that Jason Garrett used to hang in the Cowboys\u2019 training room:<\/p>\n

The only thing that matters is what we do now.<\/p>\n

Carving his own path<\/p>\n

At the NFL\u2019s owners meetings this past spring, Payton said he thinks Moore will do well as the Saints\u2019 next coach.<\/p>\n

There are impossible jobs and good jobs, he said. And to Payton, New Orleans\u2019 front-office structure and ownership still make the Saints a good NFL job.<\/p>\n

\u201cGenerally, you\u2019re going somewhere that\u2019s broken and you\u2019ve got to fix it quick,\u201d Payton said. \u201cI think Kellen has that calmness about him. And I think there\u2019s a uniqueness to that city, that maybe\u2019s not for everyone, but I think he\u2019ll do well there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore and Payton know what it\u2019s like to wait for the right job. Before the Saints hired them, both men were part of the league\u2019s annual coaching cycle. Moore was linked to head coaching jobs as early as 2021, when he interviewed for the Eagles\u2019 head coaching job. He was later a finalist in the Miami Dolphins\u2019 2022 coaching search. Payton turned down the Oakland Raiders in 2003 after Parcells and others convinced him to stay in Dallas.<\/p>\n

For Moore, each rejection was an opportunity to refine what he needed to work on. Before the Super Bowl, Moore admitted he was too pass-happy as a play caller earlier in his career.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fitting, then, that his first job comes after he designed an Eagles offense that led the league in rushing en route to winning a championship.<\/p>\n

Rath, coincidentally, was part of the Eagles\u2019 hiring committee in 2021 when Philadelphia hired Nick Sirianni instead of Moore. Though Philadelphia went in a different direction, the sports science director recalled how Moore \u201ccrushed\u201d the interview and how evident it was he\u2019d be a head coach one day. The Eagles, too, obviously brought on Moore as their coordinator last season.<\/p>\n

Rath said Moore\u2019s growth since then has stemmed from his changes of scenery.<\/p>\n

\u201cExperiencing new organizations and different methods, that\u2019s a blessing in this business,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Now, Moore gets to run the show in New Orleans. So far, players have eagerly embraced the approach. That excitement seems to extend well beyond the jolt that teams typically experience when changing coaching staffs. The vibes are always high in scenarios like these, but this offseason, long snapper Zach Wood and tight end Juwan Johnson remarked that this was the best it has felt in a long time.<\/p>\n

The two are also part of the handful of players left who experienced the team\u2019s success under Payton.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Sean here, he was very aggressive and (had an) assertive personality,\u201d Wood said, bringing up Payton unprompted. \u201cKellen is laid back. Just himself, which I think everybody appreciates when somebody can get up in front of a room of a bunch of guys who think they\u2019re alpha males and lead a team and not try to be anybody but yourself. Because people can usually see right through that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Kellen, he\u2019s super genuine up there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mood can quickly change if losses start to pile up. As high as those within the Saints are on Moore\u2019s future, New Orleans is still widely expected to be one of the NFL\u2019s worst teams<\/a> this season. Challenging times may very well lie ahead.<\/p>\n

But they did for Payton, as well. As much as the Saints took the league by surprise with an NFC championship game appearance during the 2006 season, it can be easy to forget now that Payton\u2019s teams went 7-9 and 8-8 over his next two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing that happens is (people) are going to talk about Sean like the Sean that left here and was here for 15 years,\u201d Loomis said. \u201cBut you should be comparing (Moore) to the Sean that was here in Year 1 and 2. \u2026 He evolved and was different in the mid and latter part of his career than he was at the beginning of his career.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Moore\u2019s future still excites Loomis. He is confident that the 37-year-old is the right man for the job, just as he was once confident about a 42-year-old quarterbacks coach who just needed a chance.<\/p>\n

Is Kellen Moore the next Sean Payton?<\/p>\n

All he has to do is be himself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hours before they stood on opposite sidelines for a preseason game, Sean Payton and Kellen Moore greeted each…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076],"tags":[7,4095,896,55,2572,2571,6,397],"class_list":{"0":"post-338164","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-saints","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-hardwall","10":"tag-new-orleans","11":"tag-new-orleans-saints","12":"tag-neworleans","13":"tag-neworleanssaints","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-saints"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115140066384967922","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}