Saints head coach Kellen Moore introductory press conference, media updates, February 13, 2025 (24 Viewers)

[JackDiesel]

The Saints don't ever seem to have the same concerns about over paying players that some fans do. I get that you have an issue with it, but I don't think the Saints do, so it's not the same factor to them in their decision making process.


Because of the of the contract? What has Moore said that has given you this impression?

Because it's been working out so great for us... Worst division in football and we're in a multi year playoff drought. Loomis has already admitted that we need to start to work out way back to the middle, unfortunately Carr was signed before that.

He isn't the caliber of QB you want to build your franchise around. He's on the same level as Cousins and he's about to be looking for employment too. If Moore had Herbert or Hurts as his QB you'd think he'd dance around the answer like he did with Carr?

 

[singlehighsafety]

I've got a good feeling about this dude !

Wish the damn season would start already...

 

[VPCajun]

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

I think I "reported" on something similar right after the Eagle's Victory:

saintsreport.com/threads/saints-hire-kellen-moore-as-head-coach.519681/post-9808722

 

[StudioSaint]

MSN

That's the possibility that not many people seem to be considering. I think the most likely starter next year will be either Carr or a free agent veteran that they bring in. Moore may end up starting Haener, Rattler or rookie that they draft, but I think that's less likely to happen.

 

[St. Widge]

I don't have a problem with them asking if Carr is the starter. Of course, they're going to ask that question. In my opinion a good journalist wouldn't have stopped there, which was the point that I made.

If you disagree, you disagree.

What's the point of asking about Rattler or Haener? Should they have asked about each player on the team?

 

[St. Widge]

That's the possibility that not many people seem to be considering. I think the most likely starter next year will be either Carr or a free agent veteran that they bring in. Moore may end up starting Haener, Rattler or rookie that they draft, but I think that's less likely to happen.

There would be no point to moving on from Carr only to sign a lesser and older journeyman QB to start. Not to mention that if they part ways with Carr they may not have the cap space to sign any of those guys. The only guy that might make sense in that group is McKee who is at least young with upside and might come at a number we can afford given that he would be on a 5th round pick salary.

 

[StudioSaint]

Because it's been working out so great for us...

When did it stop working? When DA became head coach. I think it stopped working, because DA made some bad choices in player selection and didn't properly develop other players.

With Kubiak and a healthy offensive, the offense played a lot better. After DA was fired and the DL coaches change, the DL started rushing the QB better. Coaching is a big factor in a teams success level.

It worked well under Payton until Covid caused a salary cap setback. Loomis has slowly been course correcting for the unexpected bump in the road that Covid was. Paytons last season was mired by injuries to several QB's and Covid. Then DA took over.

Worst division in football and we're in a multi year playoff drought.

Covid and DA coincide with that drought. Could just be a correlation, but I think it's signficant causation.

Loomis has already admitted that we need to start to work out way back to the middle, unfortunately Carr was signed before that.

The middle is not "not at all." Covid is what through them out of balance, because the cap went down instead of up. I also think he started to course correct the same season they signed Carr.

He isn't the caliber of QB you want to build your franchise around.

That's your opinion. It may not be Loomis and Moore's opinion. I don't know if Moore is giong to choose Carr as the starter, but Moore made it clear that he thinks Carr is a high caliber QB. He used the words tremendous starter and premier QB.

He's on the same level as Cousins and he's about to be looking for employment too

That's clearly your opinion.

If Moore had Herbert or Hurts as his QB you'd think he'd dance around the answer like he did with Carr?

I don't think he danced around the answer. I think that's a matter of opinion. He spoke higly of Carr, said the team was fortunate to have him, that he was excited about to get the process started with him and that he hasn't really had a chance to do that yet. That's not dancing around an answer to me, but it's just a matter of opinion.

 

[StudioSaint]

What's the point of asking about Rattler or Haener?

The obvious point is to find out if he thinks of either Haener or Rattler as the starter. It's self-explanatory.

 

[St. Widge]

The obvious point is to find out if he thinks of either Haener or Rattler as the starter. It's self-explanatory.

You already know he's not going to say that either is the starter since he wouldn't say it about Carr. It was absolutely clear from the answers he gave about Carr that who will be the starting QB is not settled. It may well end up being Carr, and likely will end up being Carr given the cap implications. But it's also possible that it's Rattler or someone not even on the roster right now.

Asking if Rattler or Haener was the start was just going to get an answer like "I like what I saw of those young guys. And I'm excited to go through the process with them" or "I haven't really had an opportunity to look at their film, but they are both good young QBs and I'm excited to go through the process with them."

 

[Elvis]

There would be no point to moving on from Carr only to sign a lesser and older journeyman QB to start. Not to mention that if they part ways with Carr they may not have the cap space to sign any of those guys. The only guy that might make sense in that group is McKee who is at least young with upside and might come at a number we can afford given that he would be on a 5th round pick salary.

Cooper Rush on an incentive laden 1 year minimum salary deal wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. He'd be competition for the young guys to beat and gives him a shot at actually earning the bridge QB job if he was clearly better. It may be Rush's only opportunity to be anything other than a backup in the NFL and he might just take it.

 

[nakadish]

I hear you. The cost to talent ratio analysis is a dynamic that changes based on performance. I don't anyone thought that the cost to talent ratio was an issue after the first two games of the season. I think if Carr and just half of the injured starters on offense don't get injured, then Carr's cost to talent ratio analysis looks a lot better than it does now.

I think if Carr starts under Moore, then his cost to talent ratio will look a lot better under Moore than it did last year.

Regarding Carr being too old to keep or too old to improve, as some argue. I see a lot of those same people being positive about Geno Smith as the Seahawks QB.

Geno Smith is a year older than Carr. He was just one year younger than Carr is now when he turned things around with the Seahawks. I don't see those people saying that the Seahawks should move on from Geno Smith, because he's not their long term solution. I'm not saying Carr will do what Geno did, but no one knows that he can't.

I think it's reasonable to think that Carr probably has 4 more years before his physical abilities start declining, so if Moore and Loomis want to go with Carr I could see them redoing his contract for 4 more years in a way that decreases his cap hit this year and next, has minimal dead money in years 3 and 4, and then is paid in full after the 4th year. It would give the Saints a lot more time time to work on getting the next starting QB sorted out.

I think if they were sold on Rattler as the long term solution, they would have already acted on that. I think Rattler is in consideration, but I don't think they are sold on Rattler. I think that's more of a press thing than a Saints thing. I could very well be mistaken on that.

It occurred to me today that a big part of why some insist on getting rid of Carr and have a lower opinion of him as a QB than the Saints and most of the front offices in the league do is because they can't stop associating him with being DA's guy. I think if Payton or Moore had brought Carr onto the team, some people would not dislike him like they do.

If Moore keeps and starts Carr, then Carr becomes Moore's guy and is no longer DA's guy. Maybe that would be an easier pill for some people to swallow.

He ate at Chipotle. He'll never be accepted even if he wins multiple Super Bowls. Don't mess with food in NOLA.

 

[nakadish]

Moore said he had not had a chance to really speak to Carr yet both times he answered the two questions asking if Carr was the starter. The local media has ignored that in their tweeting and "reporting." The people who insist that Carr has to go are also ignoring it.

I wish the local media would have followed up by asking if Haener or Rattler was his starter. That's the logical follow up, but no one asked it.

The local media knew that Moore wasn't going to say yes or no to that question, no matter which QB they asked about. That's why they only asked about Carr. Get mo' clicks and mo' money with the story "Moore non-committal about Carr starting" than you do with "Moore non-committal on any QB starting."

The biggest part that they were ignoring was when he said, "I just got here".

 

[StudioSaint]

There would be no point to moving on from Carr only to sign a lesser and older journeyman QB to start.

They may think that there's an equal or better QB that they can get that Moore would like.

 

[StudioSaint]

Cooper Rush on an incentive laden 1 year minimum salary deal wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. He'd be competition for the young guys to beat and gives him a shot at actually earning the bridge QB job if he was clearly better. It may be Rush's only opportunity to be anything other than a backup in the NFL and he might just take it.

According to this, Cooper Rush and Trey Lance are both free agents as of 5 days ago.

https://athlonsports.com/nfl/dallas-cowboys-full-free-agency-list-for-2025-with-100-million-to-spend-rico-dowdle-cooper-rush-osa-odighizuwa-zack-martin

 

[St. Widge]

Cooper Rush on an incentive laden 1 year minimum salary deal wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. He'd be competition for the young guys to beat and gives him a shot at actually earning the bridge QB job if he was clearly better. It may be Rush's only opportunity to be anything other than a backup in the NFL and he might just take it.

He's 31 now (likely 32 next offseason) so I don't really see the point in seeing if he's really an NFL starting QB. I'd just rather either go with Carr meaning you are trying to win the Division this year or go with an upside guy like Rattler, Fields, Malik Willis, McKee, etc. And, as you know, my preference is to go with a young guy to find out if you need to draft a QB high in 2026. To me, someone like Rush means you are going to draft a QB high in 2026 because you know he isn't the long term answer and you don't know if Rattler or another young guy is. And I hate the idea of being forced to pick a QB high in 2026 since you just never know if any of the QBs will be worth a high pick, and if they are, you don't know if you will be in range to pick them.

I guess if you bring Rush in as a veteran backup to mentor the young guys I would get it. But, it would have to be a really cheap deal.