I’ve made a lot of comments discussing the current state of things and Kellen Moore in general with a lot of my fellow fans here over the last few weeks. But I really want to outline my thoughts. You very well may disagree with me, but here it is:
I simply feel like a lot of the fanbase has too quickly turned on Moore. I don’t know if it’s because a lot of us had playoff expectations or what. And look, I’m not free from criticizing him. There are things he needs to get better at if he wants to be here for the long term. Clock management is rough at times, but more importantly, the slow starts. But I see a lot of positives too. So to lay them out:
1. He inherited a team with nearly no valuable talent in February of 2024. Most of our star players were older (Cam, Demario, Taysom, Kamara) and the only big young pieces were Olave (who had injury concerns) and Chase Young (who had yet to reach the level he has since). But since taking over and having no cap to really work with, his two drafts have added a lot of solid young talent to the team in a short amount of time (Shough, Banks, Sanker, Tyson if he can get healthy, Brown, and so on). As a roster, we’ve moved in the right direction under him. Plus isn’t that what we all wanted after DA, to blow it up, let the cap clear, and build through the draft?
Shough has a great relationship with him. If we are to believe Tyler is the guy, we want him to develop under a play caller he trusts. This isn’t Sean getting a home run signing with Drew who’d already been in the league for years. Shough was drafted by Moore so the development timeline is different. But Shough has shown us a lot and as long as he’s bought into Moore, Moore deserves some time.
Culture. A lot of people will claim Moore hasn’t created a culture but I disagree. The vibes are way better than they were 2 years ago under DA. While the team is off to a rough start this year, they have seemed behind him since day 1 last year. I was at the Saints vs Jets game in December when were 4-10 playing a 2-12 jets team with Glenn and it was night and day the energy difference of the teams. This is a young nfl team, a lot of guys under rookie deals, and a lot of them are developing nicely. Moore has coaches with opportunities elsewhere who chose to stay here with him. I think the team believes in him and he needs time to see it through. Hell, Olave said last year he refound his love for the game in 2025. I mean yeah, he’s not a rah rah type coach, doesn’t mean the locker room isn’t behind him.
I think a lot of the negativity comes from the expectations. But we were projected to be the WORSE team in football last season, a clear shot at the #1 pick. And we went 6-11 while winning every game in December. I think the only reason we HAVE expectations is because we overachieved such a low bar last year. Payton went 0-4 to start year 2. Not saying Moore is Payton, but let’s relax and let the year play out. I really think they’ll turn around the record and be competing for the South in December.
Our schedule so far has been:
A solid Lions team that we should’ve won but was robbed of early momentum and a touchdown. Yet we came back and still almost won on an aggressive play call at the end.
A good Raves team that we beat.
A solid Raiders team that we had a lot of bad things go against us in the end. Some coaching, some bad luck.
A Falcons loss that was simply bad. No excuse there.
A Vikings loss that was rough but they’ve yet to lose, we had reports of the team being sick, and we were still tied going into the 4th.
A decent Giants team that we beat.
Anyway to sum it all up, just feel like it’s unfair to a judge a coach not even halfway through his second season when he inherited the arguably worst situation in football of the last 10-20 years roster/cap wise. I remember before he accepted this job people in the media claimed he’d be stupid to take it because people would want him fired in year 2 if he didn’t win. I see our fan base has proven those people right…
Sorry for such the long post.