After weeks of reports saying that it would happen, the New Orleans Saints are finally hiring Kellen Moore as the team’s next head coach. New Orleans was the last head coach vacancy that needed to be filled, and the team had to wait until after the Super Bowl, but New Orleans finally has its guy.
Moore is a big reason why the Philadelphia Eagles just won Super Bowl 59, serving as the team’s offensive coordinator this season. Leading Philly’s explosive offense, the Eagles were hoping to run it back with Moore again, but he decided to take the next step and become the head guy for a franchise.
#Eagles OC Kellen Moore is finalizing a deal with the #Saints to be their new head coach, per The Insiders. What was expected for more than a week will be official soon.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) February 11, 2025
Moore leaves Philly a Super Bowl champion, and now the work begins in New Orleans. pic.twitter.com/4IITmmwarB
This completes a quick ascent up the coaching ranks, as Moore was still playing quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys in 2017. He started his coaching career a year later, staying in Dallas as the quarterbacks coach in 2018. By 2019, he was the Cowboys’ offensive coordinator, and held that role until 2022.
He then moved on to the Los Angeles Chargers, serving as their offensive coordinator in 2023, before joining the Eagles in 2024. Now, he’s the head coach for the Saints. While his rise to the top position in coaching may be complete, his work is just getting started— and he has a lot of work to do in New Orleans.
Kellen Moore must immediately make some big decisions for the Saints
The first order of business in New Orleans is building a staff. While this is something every new head coach has to do, it’ll be especially tough for Moore, because the Saints have a lot of openings, and it’s late in the hiring cycle. While New Orleans was waiting for Moore, the team was losing assistant coaches, and potential candidates were getting hired elsewhere. Moore still has a lot of people to choose from, but he’s not afforded the pool of candidates that were available earlier this offseason.
After that, the team will focus on roster construction. While that’s mainly the general manager’s job, it’s safe to assume Moore will have a say in the roster he’s coaching— especially on the offensive side of the ball. On offense, the Saints must decide if they want to keep Derek Carr or move on from him. The team must make a decision before March 14, because that’s when $30 million of Carr’s contract guarantees.
These are all massive decisions to handle in the first few days on the job, but this is the life of an NFL head coach. Moore has quickly gone from a Super-Bowl winning, play-calling coordinator, to a head coach with a ton of responsibilities, tasked with pulling the Saints out the mud.