Saints head coach Kellen Moore introductory press conference, media updates, February 13, 2025 (60 Viewers)

[Elvis]

It's seems like every offseason it's always the same salary cap "doom and gloom" posts. Yet we always seem to field a good team.
The Saints problems have not been lack of talent because of salary cap issues, it's been staying healthy. I believe that will be Moore's
biggest challenge.

Depth to handle injuries is part of the salary cap. Our starters were ok, but there was zero depth behind them. Yes, last year was a terrible year for injuries. But depth was non existent because we couldn't back fill depth during free agency and our drafts haven't been good for a few years. The one position group that actually tried to stand up was WRs and we kept that coach. Good on Loomis and Moore for recognizing that.

 

[ELLIASJWILLIAMS]

Ohh

He actually didn't. He, or rather his agent, knew that it would be more lucrative for him to force the Raiders to cut him and not keep his old contract with less guarantees than a new one would get him.

The Raiders made the right decision. Hopefully the Saints will too.

Derek Carr informs Raiders he won't accept trade to Saints; Las Vegas expected to release QB

Ha that’s right I forgot we got him in FA. Are the scenarios similar. In the 26+ games he’s played wouldn’t it make more sense this time for him to waive it, knowing it’s likely any contract he signs will be FAR less than what he’s getting in FA?

Based on his recent body of work there is no team that will value him like we did 2 years ago

 

[Elvis]

Ohh


Ha that’s right I forgot we got him in FA. Are the scenarios similar. In the 26+ games he’s played wouldn’t it make more sense this time for him to waive it, knowing it’s likely any contract he signs will be FAR less than what he’s getting in FA?

Based on his recent body of work there is no team that will value him like we did 2 years ago

I'm not sure. The guarantees left on his contract are only $10m unless the Saints or the trade team let's his $30m base become guaranteed on March 15th. If he's cut don't you think SOME team will give him more than $30 guaranteed over a few years? I think some team would.

 

[ELLIASJWILLIAMS]

I'm not sure. The guarantees left on his contract are only $10m unless the Saints or the trade team let's his $30m base become guaranteed on March 15th. If he's cut don't you think SOME team will give him more than $30 guaranteed over a few years? I think some team would.

Hell No. That’s why Trip keeps pointing out that he wouldn’t pay any QB in Carr’s tier the amount of money we owe him.

When we got him there was still I guess some “untapped” potential w/ Carr. 2 years later and I think the leagues view and ours is more clear on Carr.

His stock is lower. Darnold’s is higher, and Rogers is a FA again too. Russel Wilson is out there and Justin Fields. Lots of names and no desperate AF Saints team.

 

[DSnfla]

We'll need TE's and another back, like Jeanty to surround Carr with.

I agree on the TE . My stance has been if Carter , T-Mac or Graham are gone by #9 I'd want to trade down to 13 and pick up a 3rd and take Warren. @ 13. Then hopefully Grant the DT is there for us in the 2nd.

 

[Elvis]

Hell No. That’s why Trip keeps pointing out that he wouldn’t pay any QB in Carr’s tier the amount of money we owe him.

When we got him there was still I guess some “untapped” potential w/ Carr. 2 years later and I think the leagues view and ours is more clear on Carr.

His stock is lower. Darnold’s is higher, and Rogers is a FA again too. Russel Wilson is out there and Justin Fields. Lots of names and no desperate AF Saints team.

I agree with you 100%, but there seems to be some smoke that says otherwise. But it could just be smoke.

NFL Insider Expects Derek Carr to Draw Interest from Multiple Teams If Saints Cut QB

The New Orleans Saints will need to make a decision with quarterback Derek Carr this offseason, but the veteran reportedly doesn't have to worry about finding…

bleacherreport.com

 

[ELLIASJWILLIAMS]

I agree with you 100%, but there seems to be some smoke that says otherwise. But it could just be smoke.

NFL Insider Expects Derek Carr to Draw Interest from Multiple Teams If Saints Cut QB

The New Orleans Saints will need to make a decision with quarterback Derek Carr this offseason, but the veteran reportedly doesn't have to worry about finding…

bleacherreport.com

I hope it’s smoke, likely not but hopefully it is. Still think he’s better on the team than off it. I guess option D is ask a bunch of other guys to take pay cuts and leave his contract untouched?

 

[Elvis]

I hope it’s smoke, likely not but hopefully it is. Still think he’s better on the team than off it. I guess option D is ask a bunch of other guys to take pay cuts and leave his contract untouched?

I think the only two that might take pay cuts are Taysom (because he's injured and some money is better than none) and Cam (because he wants to stay and what is expected of him has declined). But how much? Maybe $8-10 million between them? Still hard to get under the cap with that.

 

[ELLIASJWILLIAMS]

I think the only two that might take pay cuts are Taysom (because he's injured and some money is better than none) and Cam (because he wants to stay and what is expected of him has declined). But how much? Maybe $8-10 million between them? Still hard to get under the cap with that.

Demario missed 21 tackles, tied for 8th most in the league. Paycut is on the table.

Mathieu same as well as Nathan Shepherd

I’m guess you could restructure Granderson and get some money

 

[Bayou_City]

I really hope to we can turn this team around in one season like Sean did in 2006.

Maaaaaaaaan hold up

 

[StudioSaint]

Depth to handle injuries is part of the salary cap.

I don't think any team has enough depth to handle the volume of injuries the Saints suffered on offense this year and I don't think there's any way that any team could.

The Saints didn't just have some injuries on offense. This is what they had to deal with and a lot of the injuries overlapped for several games:

They lost their starting QB for 7 games.​

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They had 3 of their starting OL miss a whole bunch of games and had some of their second stringers miss a bunch of games on top of that. Losing the starting center by itself is hard for offenses to overcome. The Saints lost their staring center for several game and then lost their backup center on top of that. I don't think there's a team in the league that has a 3rd center that's not a big drop off from the backup who's a significant drop off from the starter.​

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Their top 2 WR's missed a lot of games and so did a lot of their 3rd to 5th receivers.​

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I don't recall what TE injuries were like.​

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Kamara missed games and played injured most of the season, one injury being a broken hand. Miller missed a bunch of games. I don't remember if Williams or their 4th RB missed games.​

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All of that could have been better mitigated if Hill hadn't missed games. Conversely, Hill missing games could have been mitigated if not for all of the other injuries on offense.​

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No team can sustain that many offensive injuries without a serious drop off in talent and production. There were a few games last season in which they were missing starters and 2nd stringers on offense. They had a few games that were almost as bad as the COVID game against Miami. Payton was the coach for that game and even he couldn't get any production out of offense.

I think it's unrealistic to think that any team has enough depth to get through that many injuries on offense without having a huge drop off in production. The Saints lost a lot of starters and then lost a lot of their second string depth on offense.

 

[BBarnes]

He sure loves the word tremendous

Better than “keep chopping wood”

 

[St. Geezy]

I don't recall this from the press conference but did he actually say this? If he did, that's some nice swag:

Haha, no he didn’t say that unfortunately. Jono is a jokester.

Great for some laughs, does lots of Saints and Pels related skits. He’s definitely clowning around here.

 

[StudioSaint]

I've been thinking some more about Moore's answer to being asked if Carr was the starter. I started thinking "if" and "why not" regarding Moore's answer. This is just scenario brainstorming and I'm sure there are plausible possibilities that I haven't considered

The first thing that popped up was what if Moore has decided Haener or Rattler is the starter, then why wouldn't he say that? They are both under contract and neither one of them would likely balk at being told they're the starter. So if either of them are Moore's choice, why wouldn't he say so?

They would know they have to move on from Carr, because he's not going to stick around as a backup and he's not going to waive his no trade clause. If they've decided that the starter will be Haener or Ratter, I think they would have let Carr know straight away, because Loomis has a history of being upfront with players like that.

The only possibility I came up with is that he did his research on the local media and decided he wanted to start off his relationship with the media by letting them know he's not going to confirm or deny anything to the media before the team's process is complete and the team is ready to make an announcement. He gave an almost identical verbatim answer both times he was asked. He had prepared an answer and he stuck to it.

The next question that popped up is if he hasn't made a decision, why wouldn't he say that? Triplet asked him if he thought it was still a decision to be made. If the decision hasn't been made, why wouldn't he say that?

Maybe he wanted to set the relationship with the press that he won't discuss anything at all until the process is complete. I can't think of any other reason he wouldn't let everyone know a decision hasn't been made if that's the case.

If he's decided on Carr, why wouldn't he say so? One reason that seems plausible is they haven't reached an agreement with Carr on reworking his contract. If he announces it and then the deal falls through and they have to move on from Carr, then their backup plan at QB knows that he was the backup plan. No reason to have that hanging over anyone. Again, another plausible reason is he wanted to set the relationship with the media.

What if he's targeting a QB that's not on the team, why wouldn't he say so? This one makes a lot of sense to me. Why let Carr, Haener and Rattler know that you want someone else before you actually get deal done with them? If you don't get the deal done, then all those guys know they weren't the first choice. That's an unnecessary thing to have hanging over everyone. And for those quick to say, they don't have the cap to sign another QB, have you not learned anything about saying Loomis doesn't have the cap space to sign someone they want to sign? Again, there's also the plausible explanation of setting the relationship with the local news.

By not giving any kind of definitive answer, he's got the press and fans talking about it a lot more than if he had given a definitive answer. Maybe that's why he chose not to confirm or deny anything other than he thinks Carr is a premiere QB and he looks forward to going through the process with him and the other players. He sure has gotten everyone's attention.

 

[JackDiesel]

I've been thinking some more about Moore's answer to being asked if Carr was the starter. I started thinking "if" and "why not" regarding Moore's answer. This is just scenario brainstorming and I'm sure there are plausible possibilities that I haven't considered

The first thing that popped up was what if Moore has decided Haener or Rattler is the starter, then why wouldn't he say that? They are both under contract and neither one of them would likely balk at being told they're the starter. So if either of them are Moore's choice, why wouldn't he say so?

They would know they have to move on from Carr, because he's not going to stick around as a backup and he's not going to waive his no trade clause. If they've decided that the starter will be Haener or Ratter, I think they would have let Carr know straight away, because Loomis has a history of being upfront with players like that.

The only possibility I came up with is that he did his research on the local media and decided he wanted to start off his relationship with the media by letting them know he's not going to confirm or deny anything to the media before the team's process is complete and the team is ready to make an announcement. He gave an almost identical verbatim answer both times he was asked. He had prepared an answer and he stuck to it.

The next question that popped up is if he hasn't made a decision, why wouldn't he say that? Triplet asked him if he thought it was still a decision to be made. If the decision hasn't been made, why wouldn't he say that?

Maybe he wanted to set the relationship with the press that he won't discuss anything at all until the process is complete. I can't think of any other reason he wouldn't let everyone know a decision hasn't been made if that's the case.

If he's decided on Carr, why wouldn't he say so? One reason that seems plausible is they haven't reached an agreement with Carr on reworking his contract. If he announces it and then the deal falls through and they have to move on from Carr, then their backup plan at QB knows that he was the backup plan. No reason to have that hanging over anyone. Again, another plausible reason is he wanted to set the relationship with the media.

What if he's targeting a QB that's not on the team, why wouldn't he say so? This one makes a lot of sense to me. Why let Carr, Haener and Rattler know that you want someone else before you actually get deal done with them? If you don't get the deal done, then all those guys know they weren't the first choice. That's an unnecessary thing to have hanging over everyone. And for those quick to say, they don't have the cap to sign another QB, have you not learned anything about saying Loomis doesn't have the cap space to sign someone they want to sign? Again, there's also the plausible explanation of setting the relationship with the local news.

By not giving any kind of definitive answer, he's got the press and fans talking about it a lot more than if he had given a definitive answer. Maybe that's why he chose not to confirm or deny anything other than he thinks Carr is a premiere QB and he looks forward to going through the process with him and the other players. He sure has gotten everyone's attention.

I think most everyone is looking too far into it. It's his introductory press conference. He might have an idea of what he wants to accomplish but it might not be guaranteed to happen. I don't see any advantage for the team to say what their plan is now. The cost to talent ratio isn't there for him to say Carr the franchise QB but that doesn't mean he's not a good one that we can make work for another year.

To me the biggest question is do you restructure him and spread the hit over multiple years, let him start this year then cut him or do you not touch it, piss everyone else off by having them take paycuts but not him and do absolutely nothing in FA plus lose your own guys then cut him next year.