METAIRIE, La. — New Orleans Saints head coach Kellen Moore didn’t make a firm commitment to quarterback Derek Carr in his introductory news conference Thursday.
“Derek’s a tremendous quarterback in this league. I’ve had so much respect for him, the journey that he’s been on, he’s a starter in this league,” Moore said. “He’s a premier player in this league. … Really excited to team up with him and go through this process and so just like any player on this roster, I just got here a few days ago and I’m excited to go through this journey with all of them.”
Moore, 36, is the youngest head coach in the league and inherits a team that is expected to be significantly over the 2025 salary cap, although that number has not been set yet. The Saints must get cap compliant by the start of free agency on March 12, which includes addressing Carr’s $51.4 million salary cap figure.
Moore called Carr a “tremendous starting quarterback in his league,” when asked whether he felt the team had a decision to make at the position.
“We’re fortunate to have him and we’re excited to go through this process as we build this roster together,” Moore said. “Again, I’m meeting these guys for the first time the last few days, really excited to meet more of them. This will be a lot of fun.”
Moore said he hasn’t met most of the players and staff members after officially accepting the job Tuesday.
Moore is coming off a one-year stint as the Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator and a win in Super Bowl LIX. He said he plans to call plays in New Orleans and utilize motion and tempo.
“We like to use a lot of tempo every place that I’ve been,” Moore said. “We’ll use shifts and motions when we huddle, but we want to stress the defense. Now whether we have to throw it 50 times or run it 50 times, I really don’t care, however we’ve got to win a football game. We’ll do that based off who we have available to us and who’s on our roster, but we want to be a team that stresses the defense, challenges them, utilizes our entire roster, the depth that we have and take advantage of all these different players superpowers.”
Moore worked with Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, who led the league with 2,005 rushing yards this season. In New Orleans, Moore will have running back Alvin Kamara, who just signed a contract extension in the fall.
“Tons of respect for Alvin as a player,” Moore said. “Obviously one of the premiere players in our league, his ability to play in the pass game and 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?’ And so that’s been a really important piece. It’ll continue to be a really important piece. We’re really fortunate to have him.”
The Eagles beat the Saints 15-12 in Week 3 this season, and Moore said the Eagles’ 15-12 win against the Saints in Week 3 showed him the talent on his new roster and he said he “absolutely” feels they are still contenders.
“Obviously injuries were a challenge this year and those things sometimes are challenging and uncontrollable circumstances and so we recognize there’s so much good going on here,” Moore said. “We want to embrace the good, don’t lose any of the good while building this thing the right way.”
Moore said, “it’s a collaborative effort,” when asked if he’ll be involved in the roster building process, but didn’t say whether or not he feels the team needs to rebuild this year.
“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 going to focus on that while building this team the right way.”
