Kellen Moore was introduced as the New Orleans Saints' new head coach on Thursday, exuding confidence in his ability to get the job done even while keeping close to the vest some details of how he and the team plan to get the franchise back on track.
"Faith, family and football is what this thing is all about, and those priorities will never change," Moore said Thursday. "I think when you get to team up with special people, you get to do special things. I'm really, really excited about that opportunity. I want to lead this team the right way, surround myself with tremendous leaders on the player side, on the coaching side. Again, this is a great opportunity."
The 35-year-old Moore was hired to lead the Saints following their worst record (5-12) in nearly 20 years. The last time they won fewer games, the franchise fired Jim Haslett and found Sean Payton. If Moore is as successful as Payton was, winning Super Bowl XLIV and averaging more than 10 wins over the span of 15 years, then it will be viewed as a slam-dunk success.
Like Payton, Moore is an offensive-minded coach who confirmed he will call plays on Thursday, just as he did for the Super Bowl-champion Eagles, with Jalen Hurts being named MVP of Super Bowl LIX in the Caesars Superdome, putting on a show for Moore's future employers of what the Saints' offense could eventually look like.
But the question remains which quarterback -- or quarterbacks -- Moore will be calling plays for.
Soon-to-be 34-year-old QB Derek Carr is under contract for two more years, but with salary-cap hits of more than $51 million and $61 million the next two seasons, Moore was noncommittal in saying whether Carr would be the Saints' Week 1 starter in 2025. He did praise him as a starting-level NFL QB and indicated he wanted to work with Carr going forward.
"Derek's a tremendous quarterback in this league," Moore said. "I've had so much respect for him, the journey that he's been on. He's a starter in this league. He's a premier player in this league. He's had a great journey. Obviously, going from Fresno State to the Raiders and now here.
"Really excited to team up with him and go through this process, and so just like any player on this roster, you know, I just got here a few days ago, and I'm excited to go through this journey with all of them."
Pressed again on Carr's future in New Orleans, Moore once again stopped short of guaranteeing his spot on the roster.
"I view it as Derek Carr is a tremendous starting quarterback in this league," Moore said. "We're fortunate to have him, and we're excited to go through this process as we build this roster together."
But therein lies a potential problem. The Saints may have "a talented roster," as Moore said, indicating that it was one of the big appeals of the job. Moore even got a firsthand look at the Saints back in Week 3 at the Superdome, a game the Eagles barely escaped with a 15-12 win.
But the Saints' financial situation is far less appealing. They currently sit dead last in the NFL in effective salary-cap space, per Over The Cap. They're projected to be nearly $60 million over the 2025 cap, hindered by more than $48 million in dead-cap money.
Moore indicated that the salary-cap conundrum was a talking point during his head-coaching interviews with the team, even while declining to talk specifics on how the Saints will remove themselves from cap purgatory.
"Certainly, the opportunity to go through the interview process allows us to have those conversations and quickly, again, it's evident -- the leadership here is tremendous," Moore said. "They're best in the business, from a business side of this operation and we feel very comfortable with where we're going."
In addition to Carr, there might be other key Saints players whose futures remain murky for salary- and age-based reasons. One would be running back Alvin Kamara, who turns 30 prior to training camp and carries cap hits of $10.1 million and $18.6 million the next two seasons.
Moore said he has "tons of respect" for Kamara as a player and indicated there was a future for him in New Orleans.
"Obviously, one of the premier players in our league," Moore said of Kamara. "His ability to play in the pass game, in the run game, all the different versatile roles that he can play. A lot of people for a long time have been looking, 'How can we find an Alvin on our football team?' So that's been a really important piece.
"He'll continue to be a really important piece, and we're really fortunate to have him."
The son of a longtime high school coaching legend, Moore has risen up the coaching ranks quickly since being a former backup QB with the Cowboys in the mid-2010s. He was elevated to Cowboys offensive coordinator, spending four mostly productive years there before moving on to the Chargers in 2023 and the Eagles in 2024.
Even as one of the NFL's youngest head coaches -- and with the Saints' salary constraints -- Moore wasn't speaking like a man who was settling in for a protracted rebuild. He said he believes the Saints can compete right away.
"I think, certainly, we're going to compete for this division," he said. "We have a great opportunity in the NFC South, and we're gonna focus on that while building this team the right way."
