METAIRIE, La. (AP) — Kellen Moore figures his upbringing as a coach's son outweighs any concerns about his relative youth as he begins his first NFL head coaching job with the New Orleans Saints.
“Everyone likes to say it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert,” the 36-year-old Moore said during his formal introduction at team headquarters on Thursday.
“I’ve been preparing for this my entire life,” added Moore, who became the NFL's youngest head coach on Tuesday. “I feel ready.”
Moore is less than a week removed from winning a Super Bowl as the Philadelphia Eagles' offensive coordinator. Now he takes over a Saints franchise that hasn't been to the playoffs since 2020, the final campaign of record-setting quarterback Drew Brees’ career.
For the past two seasons, the Saints quarterback has been Derek Carr, who is 14-13 as a starter with New Orleans and has two years left on his contract.
Moore was highly complimentary of Carr — against whom he played once in college — but stopped short of guaranteeing he’d be the starting QB in 2025.
“Derek’s a tremendous quarterback in this league,” Moore said. “I have so much respect for him for the journey that he’s been on — a starter in this league, a premier player in this league.”
Sean Payton, the most successful coach in Saints history, was 42 when New Orleans general manager Mickey Loomis made him a first-time head coach in 2006. Four years later, the Saints won the franchise's only Super Bowl.
Comparisons are easy to make between Moore and Payton, who briefly retired after the 2021 season and is now coaching the Denver Broncos..
Both played quarterback in college, Payton for Eastern Illinois and Moore for Boise State. Both served as NFL quarterbacks coaches and offensive coordinators before getting their first head coaching jobs in New Orleans.
“Everyone has so much respect for what Sean’s done in this league," Moore said. "Certainly the standards have been built based off his foundation — and we love that. We want to embrace that.
“And maybe Mickey has a type,” he added with a grin. "I don’t know.”
Payton was succeeded by his former defensive coordinator, Dennis Allen, who went 18-25 in two-and-a-half seasons before being fired in November.
The Saints were the last of the NFL teams looking for a new coach this season to hire one.
“It took longer than we anticipated simply because the Eagles kept winning,” Loomis said. “His experience and success as player and as a position coach and offensive coordinator have prepared him well for this opportunity.”
It has been a surreal week for Moore, who spent the week leading up to the Super Bowl working out of Saints headquarters, which were assigned to the Eagles as their practice site. He spent Super Bowl Sunday in what is normally the Saints locker room and on the home sideline.
Then he got to celebrate what to this point has been the greatest moment of his coaching career in the city that he will now call home for the foreseeable future.
“This place truly is a special place for my family, for the opportunities we’ve had the last couple of weeks," Moore said. "This is such an incredible place and we can’t wait to make it home.”
Like Payton did for most of his tenure in New Orleans, Moore will call offensive plays.
And while Moore said he has certain philosophies that are important to him, he also believes in the importance of being able to adapting schemes and play calls to the strength of available players.
“Whether we have to throw it 50 times or run it 50 times, I really don’t care how we got to win a football game, we’ll do that based on who we have available to us and who’s on our roster,” he said.
Moore grew up wanting to follow in the footsteps of his father, Tom, a long-time high school coach in Prosser, Washington.
After starring at Boise State, Moore spent six years as an NFL player, mostly as a reserve of practice quarter QB before following his father into coaching — albeit at the NFL level with the Dallas Cowboys — in 2018.
He was barely 30 when his first training camp as a coach began with players who'd been his Cowboys teammates a year earlier.
His youth didn't hinder him then and won't now, he said.
“It’s about being authentic, being consistent, and, you know, the players feel like you’re helping them become the best version of their self," Moore said. "That’s all they can ask for.”
He spent one season as quarterbacks coach before being promoted to offensive coordinator at age 31 — the position he also held with the Los Angeles Chargers in 2023 and Eagles in 2024.
His last two stops “allowed me to get out of my comfort zone. I think that’s really, really important as you grow as a coach or a player," Moore said.
While Moore said he loved coaching with Nick Sirianni in Philadelphia, he saw his new opportunity with New Orleans as too good to pass up.
He said he has long been impressed by the Saints from afar, even though they had their worst record since 2005 last season, when they were beset by injuries, including to Carr, who missed seven games — all of which New Orleans lost.
“Obviously injuries were a challenge this year and those things sometimes are challenging and uncontrollable circumstances,” Moore said. “We recognize there’s so much good going on here. We want to embrace the good. Don’t lose any of the good while building this thing the right way.”
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Brett Martel, The Associated Press
