Kellen Moore believes his experience growing up as a coach’s son outweighs any concerns about his age 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 the team’s headquarters on Thursday.
“I’ve been preparing for this my entire life,” Moore added. “I feel ready.”
Moore, who is now the NFL’s youngest head coach, comes to the Saints after winning a Super Bowl as the Philadelphia Eagles’ offensive coordinator. He now takes over a Saints team that hasn’t reached the playoffs since 2020, Drew Brees’ final season.
The Saints’ quarterback for the past two seasons has been Derek Carr, who is 14-13 as a starter with New Orleans and has two years left on his contract.
Moore spoke highly of Carr, whom he faced once in college, but he did not commit to Carr being 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.”
Former Saints coach Sean Payton was 42 when he became the team’s head coach in 2006, and he led the Saints to their only Super Bowl title four years later. Moore’s path to head coach is often compared to Payton’s.
Both played quarterback in college—Payton for Eastern Illinois and Moore for Boise State—and 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.
Payton was replaced 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 team in the NFL to hire a new coach this season.
“It took longer than we anticipated simply because the Eagles kept winning,” said general manager Mickey Loomis. “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 before the Super Bowl working out of the Saints’ headquarters, which the Eagles used as their practice site. He spent Super Bowl Sunday in the Saints’ locker room and on their sideline before celebrating the biggest moment of his coaching career in the city where he will now live.
“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 time in New Orleans, Moore will call offensive plays.
Kellen Moore set to interview for Saints head coach job after Super Bowl (Philadelphia Eagles)Moore said he has certain coaching philosophies but believes in adjusting strategies to fit the players’ strengths
“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 his father Tom’s footsteps, who was a long-time high school coach in Prosser, Washington.
After playing at Boise State, Moore spent six years as an NFL player, mostly as a reserve or practice quarterback, before transitioning into coaching with the Dallas Cowboys in 2018. He was only 30 when he began his first training camp as a coach with players who had been his teammates the previous season.
His youth didn’t hold him back then, and he said it won’t now.
“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 the Cowboys’ quarterbacks coach before being promoted to offensive coordinator at age 31, a position he held with the Los Angeles Chargers in 2023 and the Eagles in 2024.
Moore’s experience with the Chargers and Eagles helped him grow as a coach. “I think that’s really, really important as you grow as a coach or a player,” he said.
Although Moore enjoyed coaching with Nick Sirianni in Philadelphia, he saw the opportunity with New Orleans as too good to pass up.
He said he had long admired the Saints, even though they had their worst record since 2005 last season due to injuries, including to Carr, who missed seven games—all losses for New Orleans.
“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.”
