Kellen Moore
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New Orleans Saints coach Kellen Moore's philosophy is rooted in a Steve Kerr principle
First-year head coach of the New Orleans Saints Kellen Moore is only 37 years old, but he’s been in training for this job for over 30 years. Dating back to his days as a water boy for the Prosser High School football team, a team his father coached from 1992 to 2009, Moore has been accumulating knowledge, taking notes, and establishing his own coaching philosophies.
Every coach has a guiding set of principles, and according to Moore, the three best words to use to describe his coaching philosophy are “together, joy and tough,” per Katherine Terrell of ESPN. Now none of those descriptors are exactly groundbreaking, nor should we expect that they would be. Moore has played for his father, Chris Peterson while at Boise State, and he has familiarity with the likes of Jason Garrett, Brandon Staley and Nick Sirianni in the NFL.
But it turns out, “joy” is a principle that Kellen Moore has borrowed from Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, who like Moore, had plenty of experience with noteworthy coaches — such as Lute Olsen, Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich — before his own coaching career began.
Joy is a guiding principle that Kerr has leaned on since he became head coach of the Warriors ahead of the 2014-15 season… a season in which he led Golden State to 67 regular season wins and their first NBA Title in 40 years during his first season as Golden State’s head coach. He’s won three more NBA Titles and an Olympic gold medal since then.
“I think I have a good feel for what wins,” Kerr said in the Netflix documentary Court of Gold. “It’s a combination of competitiveness, joy, and joy in others’ success. That’s the common thread to winning.”
This doesn’t sound all that different than what Moore told ESPN.
“There’s just a joy element to playing a kids’ game for a living,” Moore said. “There’s a lot of challenges associated with this profession, both players and coaches and everyone associated with it. But there’s an element of joy that we need to have doing it.”
The question for Kellen Moore and the New Orleans Saints is whether the team can maintain that joy even if the upcoming season goes as many believe it will.
‘Super Steady’ Kellen Moore Could Be Exactly What Struggling Saints Will Need
Heading into the 2025 campaign, the Saints have the worst Super Bowl odds (300/1) and lowest over/under win total (4.5 wins) in the NFL, per ESPN BET. Their quarterback situation is arguably the most dire in the league, and there isn’t an overwhelming amount of talent anywhere else on the roster.
This is all to say that there will likely come a point in the 2025 season where New Orleans is in the midst of a rough stretch. That point may come sooner than later. But whenever that point does come, to a man, every player in that locker room will look to their young head coach to lead them out of the darkness. The Saints are making a bet that a joyful and consistently positive Kellen Moore is the right guy to do it.
“You’re not going to see an emotional roller coaster out of him. He’s super steady and I appreciate that,” says Saints quarterback coach Scott Tolzien. “There’s no surprises with him. He is a super positive guy, but yet he’s super detailed and he’s a really, really smart dude. I mean, he can handle a lot of things on his plate at once.”
The Saints better hope that Kellen Moore can handle a lot on his plate, because starting Sunday afternoon when the Arizona Cardinals visit the Superdome, Moore’s plate will indeed be full.