{"id":779584,"date":"2026-02-27T09:44:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T09:44:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/779584\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T09:44:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T09:44:32","slug":"three-takeaways-from-kellen-moores-nfl-combine-comments-saints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/779584\/","title":{"rendered":"Three takeaways from Kellen Moore’s NFL combine comments | Saints"},"content":{"rendered":"

INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 Kellen Moore<\/a>\u2019s second offseason with the New Orleans Saints has been a lot less hectic than the first.<\/p>\n

Without the whirlwind of winning the Super Bowl in his future home city, finalizing a coaching staff and then sprinting to the offseason, Moore finally has had time to take a breath \u2014 and to put his energy into different projects.<\/p>\n

After the Senior Bowl, for instance, Moore met with college scouting director Jeff Ireland and his staff to begin a deep dive on the prospects for the upcoming NFL draft. As a coordinator, Moore would usually wait to dig into the draft until after he completed his free agency evaluations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve already gotten the first lap, first impression for all these draft-eligible guys,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n

Moore made another lap this week at the scouting combine, where he sat in on prospect meetings to collect additional information.<\/p>\n

In between, he made time to speak with reporters. Here\u2019s what stood out from the session.<\/p>\n

Helping Shough<\/p>\n

Moore knows the Saints have to run the ball better in 2026.<\/p>\n

That was among the glaring issues Moore noticed during a thorough review of his first season. The Saints failed to have a 500-yard rusher for the first time since 1998, the year before they gave up the farm to draft Ricky Williams. Moore said they have to be better on first and second down, so that can open up explosive plays. He stressed improving in the red zone and in short-yardage when it comes to the run, too.<\/p>\n

But any changes will be made with quarterback Tyler Shough in mind, with the goal of building around him for Year 2.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny offense is going to be steered by the quarterback position,\u201d Moore said. \u201cOnce that narrows its focus, it allows me to be a lot more specific as what you want to do. That\u2019ll be a full offseason journey. I\u2019m excited about that just from Tyler\u2019s perspective, just to be able to go through a full offseason, go through in his training camp and clean up the system and narrow our focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Free agents TBD<\/p>\n

Moore was asked repeatedly about the Saints\u2019 key free agents, such as cornerback Alontae Taylor, linebacker Demario Davis and defensive end Cam Jordan. But Moore kept close to the vest how the Saints and general manager Mickey Loomis will approach each of those decisions<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are obviously conversations that Mickey\u2019s having with those guys just to see where they\u2019re at, first and foremost,\u201d Moore said. \u201cAll those guys we love to death, and we\u2019d love to keep as many of these guys as we possibly can.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll let that process take care of itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

That includes running back Alvin Kamara, who technically isn\u2019t a free agent but has an $18 million cap hit that looms large over next season.<\/p>\n

Moore didn\u2019t indicate whether the Saints would ask Kamara to take a pay cut or consider moving on but did note it was unfortunate that Kamara missed the last six games with a knee injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur team was finally starting to play a little bit better collectively, (and) I think he would have reaped some benefits from that,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n

Kamara finished with a career low 471 rushing yards, and his 3.6 yards per carry average before the injury was also a personal worst.<\/p>\n

Getting the band back together?<\/p>\n

Because he\u2019s been an offensive coordinator at three stops before landing in New Orleans, Moore has overlap with some notable players who are set to be free agents.<\/p>\n

The 37-year-old, for example, coached tight end Dallas Goedert and running back Kenneth Gainwell in Philadelphia. He worked with Chargers guard Zion Johnson in Los Angeles and Chargers guard Mekhi Becton in Philadelphia. Even less significant pieces like wide receivers Jalen Tolbert (Dallas) and Jahan Dotson (Philadelphia) have crossed paths with the coach.<\/p>\n

Moore couldn\u2019t speak about any specific of those individuals because they\u2019re still under contract.<\/p>\n

But generally, is he a fan of getting the band back together?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good question,\u201d Moore said. \u201cI think there\u2019s value in just having people that are familiar with a system or familiarity with yourself on a personal level, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s the necessary thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially now, the rest of the team we\u2019ve been invested with over a year. More than anything, when you have coaches who have worked with those guys (before), you just have a better understanding probably who you\u2019re getting and what their strengths are and how they\u2019ll fit into the culture of the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore\u2019s first year saw the Saints bring in tight end Jack Stoll and wide receiver Brandin Cooks to help others acclimate to his offense. And on defense, defensive end Chris Rumph, defensive tackle Jonah Williams and safety Terrell Burgess reunited with defensive coordinator Brandon Staley.<\/p>\n

But those were smaller-scale moves that hardly encompassed New Orleans\u2019 offseason approach, which involved signing safety Justin Reid, trading for defensive tackle Davon Godchaux and re-upping defensive end Chase Young and tight end Juwan Johnson.<\/p>\n

A mix of the two strategies again makes sense for Moore\u2019s second season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 Kellen Moore\u2019s second offseason with the New Orleans Saints has been a lot less hectic than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":779585,"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-779584","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\/116141953266791603","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779584","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=779584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/779585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=779584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=779584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=779584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}