New Orleans Saints head coach Kellen Moore speaks during a news conference after an NFL football game against the Carolina Panthers, Sunday, Nov. 9, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Rusty Jones)
Rusty Jones
As he reviewed his team’s offense over the bye week, New Orleans Saints coach [Kellen Moore](https://www.nola.com/tncms/asset/editorial/685a2975-9b94-47aa-85eb-d64e87362d59/) focused on moments he calls “situational football.”
He closely studied the red zone, an area the Saints have struggled in this season. He looked at the team’s run game, which finally got on track in the last game before the break but largely has lacked explosiveness in 2025.
Moore found the exercise productive.
“There’s always all these little margins that hopefully we can improve on,” he said.
The self-scout also may have crystallized how Moore wants his offense to attack over the back half of the season.
The first-year coach has fundamental beliefs about what his offense should look like. He wants his players to play fast with tempo. He wants his quarterbacks to take “3s and layups,” which means deep shots and easy completions. He wants the offensive line to be physical and control the trenches.
But over the first 10 games, the Saints haven't always played to that standard. If anything, it seemed that Moore spent large chunks of the season figuring out how to utilize his personnel. Some weeks, the Saints would be a spread-it-out, shotgun-heavy team. In others, New Orleans tried to be more under center and establish the run.
When it works, such changes can be portrayed as a versatile coach willing to adapt the game plan to an opponent. But when it doesn’t, the shifting can be perceived as the offense lacking a true identity.
The final stretch will provide answers.
“Each team is different and what they're really good at,” quarterback Tyler Shough said. “And obviously every team has to deal with moving pieces, so you're trying to just week to week, really hone in on what you're good at. And I think continually, you know, (we’re) finding our identity.
“Whenever you can have this thing you can hang your hat on — whether that's running the ball or throwing the ball — that's cool from a social-media standpoint, but at the end of the day, teams really want to hang their hat on winning and whatever that is going to be to get it done.”
Before the bye, the Saints might have settled on a new offensive direction. Without Rashid Shaheed, the deep threat who was traded to the Seattle Seahawks, the Saints went with heavier personnel groupings. They opted to run 11 personnel (three wide receivers, one tight end, one running back) at their lowest rate (49.3%) of the year. In the nine games prior, the Saints deployed 11 personnel 71.5%, the third-highest rate in the league.
With one less receiver on the field, the Saints saw the run game finally take hold. To seal the win, New Orleans literally ran out the clock over the final 7:35 with nine different rushing attempts before Shough knelt on three straight plays. Moore said the execution was what the Saints “want it to be,” adding there was a “much cleaner operation” that allowed them to avoid negative plays.
“It’s a deeply cathartic feeling when you can (run out the clock),” tight end Foster Moreau said. “We had some really big-time plays on that drive from all different people.”
If the game plan wasn’t a one-off, Moore said the heavier groupings also open up the play-action game and allow the offense to dictate matchups based on how the defense responds.
Moore won’t completely abandon his principles, but he is willing to tinker with his tendencies. Remember how often the Saints ran no-huddle to begin the season? That happens less frequently now. New Orleans went from averaging 19 no-huddle snaps per game over the first four weeks to 10 such plays over the next six.
Moore suggested the shift was more based on the game’s situation than determining they weren’t working — tempo is still an essential part of the offense, he said — but he noted that pushing the pace risked going three-and-out too often.
“Seasons always take a lot of different paths, so you’ve got to be able to navigate some stuff from a personnel side or a schematic side,” Moore said. “Sometimes, there’s a humbling process associated with it, recognizing, ‘Hey, I love this, but it may not be working the same way it has worked in a different place.'
“You’ve got to be able to adjust and find some different paths.”
Moore indicated he’ll first look at the data to determine whehter a concept is working, and then dig into the film to see the specific issues.
From there, he’ll either tweak the scheme, adjust the way he teaches it or abandon it all together.
“I think you’re learning the whole season,” center Luke Fortner said. “There’s Week 16, Week 17, Week 18 (where) you’re like, ‘Man, I wish we had done more of this. We’re really good at it.’ But I think it’s definitely a season-long process.”