Can Kellen Moore succeed with Saints? New head coach faces uphill climb with franchise full of question marks

The New Orleans Saints became the final NFL team to fill their head-coaching vacancy on Tuesday by hiring Kellen Moore, who just won a Super Bowl as the Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator

However, there are plenty of reasons why Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady withdrew his name from consideration for the job and why Washington Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury pulled out of the running as well. Moore, who is 35 years old and will be 36 on July 12, took the plunge into the Saints job for his first NFL head-coaching gig because he’s seen how things can go haywire in the NFL coaching ranks. Moore coordinated high-scoring offenses with Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, but then he left Dallas after then-head coach Mike McCarthy took back play-calling duties in 2023. 

That’s when Moore spent a season with the Los Angeles Chargers as their OC, but he hit the unemployment line briefly after head coach Brandon Staley was fired. He landed softly with the Eagles as their offensive coordinator, and he oversaw running back Saquon Barkley becoming the 2024 NFL rushing champion with 2,005 yards and quarterback Jalen Hurts earning Super Bowl LIX MVP honors.

Moore now dives into an ecosystem in New Orleans that’s akin to a murky swamp after a 5-12 campaign in 2024, the team’s worst record since going 3-13 in 2005. That was the year before the team hired Sean Payton as their head coach. Here’s what Moore and the Saints front office have to sort through this offseason. 

Quarterback dilemma

Moore will now be tasked with getting the most out of four-time Pro Bowl quarterback Derek Carr — who will be 34 years old when the 2025 season kicks off — because New Orleans doesn’t really have the resources to upgrade at the position this offseason. 

Carr missed seven games in 2024, including the last four with a fracture in his non-throwing hand, as an injury-ravaged New Orleans team suffered a historic collapse. The 2024 Saints became the first team in NFL history to lose seven games in a row after winning their first two by 20 or more points.

Injuries to wide receiver Chris Olave, wide receiver Rashid Shaheed, offensive lineman Erik McCoy, cornerback Paulson Adebo and Carr wrecked the roster. The Saints went 5-5 in Carr’s 10 starts while going winless (0-7) with backups Spencer Rattler and Jake Haener filling in. As a result, New Orleans didn’t have a wide receiver with over 400 receiving yards last season; Olave’s 400 yards receiving led the position while tight end Juwan Johnson’s 548 led the team overall.

When Carr played, he was solid overall, but the key is keeping him upright for an entire season. He was sacked on the lowest rate of his dropbacks in 2024 (2.8%), but he still faced some pressure on 31.9% of his dropbacks, which ranked as 13th-lowest rate in the league. Rattler could potentially blossom into something, but he’s a project as of now.  

Salary cap hell 

General manager Mickey Loomis’ roster management, combined with regular contract restructures and a refusal to go head first into a rebuild, has New Orleans hamstrung entering the offseason. The franchise is $59.5 million over the cap in terms of its effective space, which ranks as the least amount of effective cap space in the NFL, according to OverTheCap.com. However, they’ll begin to have room to maneuver in 2026 ($53.3 million projected) and 2027 ($198.3 million projected.)

Making fixes through free agency/draft  

Moore is taking on a job where he isn’t set up to succeed right away — even though the Saints have the ninth overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft — because of New Orleans’ aforementioned salary cap woes. In order for the Saints to truly bounce back, they’ll need to let to let go of a number of veterans in order to free up cap space and let young guys develop for better or worse in 2025.

Carr will likely be around another season because the Saints don’t have a real replacement on the roster already nor the means to go get one externally in a shallow quarterback draft class after Miami’s Cam Ward and Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders. 

Edge rusher Cameron Jordan, whose 121.5 career sacks have him two sacks away from passing Rickey Jackson (123.0) for the most in team history, needs to be let go. He has the second-highest cap hit on the team ($20.1 million) for the upcoming season ahead of turning 36 on July 10, and Jordan’s least two productive seasons since his rookie year in 2011 in terms of sacks have come in 2023 (2.0) and 2024 (4.0). 

Tight end Taysom Hill is a fun gadget player, but he’ll be coming off of a torn ACL injury at the age of 35 in the upcoming season, and his $17.98 million cap hit is the third-highest on the team in 2025. Other aging vets like linebacker Demario Davis (36), offensive tackle Ryan Ramczyk (30, missed entire 2024 season with knee cartilage injury) and safety Tyrann Mathieu (turns 33 on May 13) don’t make sense for a cap-starved team that hasn’t been to playoffs since 2020. That year was Drew Brees’ last of his future Hall of Fame career. 

Top Saints cap hits in 2025

• QB Derek Carr ($51.5 million)
• DE Cameron Jordan ($20.1 million)
• TE Taysom Hill ($17.98 million)
• OL Erik McCoy ($15.5 million)
• LB Demario Davis ($12.5 million)
• OT Ryan Ramczyk ($12.33 million)
• OL Cesar Ruiz ($12.3 million)
• DE Carl Granderson ($11.73 million)
• S   Tyrann Mathieu ($11.3 million)
• RB Alvin Kamara ($10.1 million)

Moore also needs to get Loomis more focused on building through the draft. The Saints had a foundational 2017 draft in which they selected cornerback Marshon Lattimore (first round), Ramczyk (first round), safety Marcus WIlliams (second round), Kamara (third round), linebacker Alex Anzalone (third round) and edge rusher Trey Hendrickson (third round). Since that epic draft run, New Orleans has just one draft class in which it made a pick in each round on the first two days and made at least seven picks. That was in 2023. 

Ripping off the band-aid and taking their salary cap medicine while retooling through the draft in Year 1 of Moore’s tenure could position the Saints for a meteoric rise in 2026 and 2027. He and the rest of New Orleans will just have to power through an uncomfortable opening season together. 

Grading every 2025 NFL coaching hire: Saints pull nice coup landing Kellen Moore, Cowboys barely pass muster

Will Brinson