New head coach, quarterback dubbed Saints' best reason for optimism in 2025
Bleacher Report's Kristopher Knox recently went through what he believed to be each team's 'biggest reason for optimism' in 2025. For the Saints, it was the fact that they are going to have a new head coach and quarterback after last year's disappointment. Here's some of what Knox wrote to explain that call:
Moore isn't a proven head coach, but he's had multiple successful stints as an offensive coordinator. The Saints don't have an established quarterback yet, but they'll have an intriguing competition between youngsters Jake Haener, Spencer Rattler and Tyler Shough.
It remains to be seen whether these changes will yield positive results. However, they do mean that the days of trying to contend with a holdover head coach and bridge quarterbacks like Carr and Jameis Winston are over.
Dennis Allen took over once Sean Payton left and had a rough couple of years at the helm. Fans were calling for him to be fired well before he did, and he was only in charge for two and a half years. The best record of his tenure was 9-8 and that team failed to make the playoffs. Things did not seem to be improving under him, so getting a fresh face in town could be fun.
Kellen Moore isn't the most explosive personality in the league, but he is coming off a Super Bowl run with the Philadelphia Eagles and is a great offensive mind. At worst, fans should be able to look forward to more consistency on that side of the field. There is an excitement of the unknown in the first year of an NFL coach's career at the helm.
The change at quarterback will be even more exciting for many, given that Derek Carr had become public enemy number one within the fan base before his retirement. There were flashes of greatness, namely the first two games of 2024, but the consistency was a massive issue.
Even though the quarterback play might not be better right away, two young quarterbacks are going to make a push for playing time next season in Spencer Rattler and Tyler Shough. Similar to the unknown with Moore, it will be fun to see how these young passers separate themselves and compete in training camp.
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Miami Herald
2 minutes ago
- Miami Herald
Cote: Cowboys owner Jerry Jones still chasing glory -- and attention
The Dallas Cowboys' best player, defensive end Micah Parsons, is upset to the point of asking for a trade, and this seems just fine with Jerry Jones, the NFL's and all of professional sports' most famous and in some eays infamous team owner. 'I'm not losing any sleep over it,' said Jones of Parsons' dissatisfaction. We have seen this before. Saw it with Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb. Heck, saw it what Emmitt Smith in 1993. Unrest over contract matters, Jones playing hardball, absorbing the attention that is as necessary to him as oxygen, then ultimately paying up. Expect that again. Few think Parsons actually will be traded. It's just Jerry being Jerry. Then again, what a windfall Dallas would get in return. The controversy, the specualtion, it's all good to Mr. Jones. 'Never fails dawg,' as Lamb tweeted after Parsons made his trade request public. 'Just pay the man what you owe [him]. No need for the extra curricular.' Said Prescott: 'He deserves to get paid. I think he should get paid, and, ultimately, going off the history of what I've seen, he will get paid. Hopefully, it's sooner than later.' Jones is seen as a smart businessman, but erred in not extending Parsons' contract a year ago when the player first wanted that. Since then, the pricetage has ballooned. Since then, Parsons made his fourth straight Pro Bowl as his four-year sack total rose to 52 1/2. Since then, comparable talents Maxx Crosby, Myles Garrett and T.J. Watt all received new contracts elsewhere that re-set the market to a point Parsons should now command a position-record deal worth well over $40 million per year. Guess Jones is not losing any sleep over that, either. Jones is cantankerous but to me still oddly entertaining at 82, a man forever fascinating to the media because he is always out front chasing headlines, but frustrating to fans because he has not chased championships nearly as effectively for decades now. Jones, also his team's general manager, is hands-on like no other owner, always a hovering sideline presence. In March he met 'informally' with Parsons, 1-on-1, but it turend into what seemed like a negotiation for a new contract that left Jones thinking --erroneously -- a new deal had been agreed upon. Parsons had other thoughts, as his agent was not involved in those talks, a seeming violation of NFLPA protocols. Again, no sleep lost. The erosion of Jones' legacy is happening gradually, like that of a rock formation, too slowly to see in real time but apparent across generations. In lockstep with the owner's diminishment, 'America's Team' as the Dallas Cowboys nickname has become archaic and taken on almost a mocking quality. The Jones Boys last won a Super Bowl 30 years ago, in '95. They have not come close, not advanced past the playoff's divisional round, since, despite a lineage of well above-average quarterbacking from the last of Troy Aikman to Tony Romo and now Prescott. It would be harsh and wrong to call Jones a failed owner. Not with three Super Bowl rings on his resume', and a decent 13 playoff appearances in the 29 years since the last title. Sports has know too many notorious, genuinely failed owners across history to count Jones among them. That dubious list may have started with Red Sox owner Harry Frazee, forever the man who traded away Babe Ruth. In Washington until recently, Dan Snyder as an NFL owner of repugnant reputation. Jerry Reinsdorf, Mike Brown, James Dolan, Jeffrey Loria in Miami, Donald Sterling and yes, Michael Jordan -- those and more names arise when the topic of controversial or lousy owners comes up. But if Jones is not by any means a failed owner it would be fair to call him a fading owner, one fighting time and his own standard of ever-more-distant success to be relevant again, relevant once more. Reputation battered but ego intact, Jones still preens as an NFL titan, though the game seems to have passed him by. Surely the rival and reigning champion Philadelphia Eagles have in the NFC East, with Washington fast-rising as the Cowboys try to rebound from a 7-10 season. South Florida's major pro-team owners — the Dolphins' Stephen Ross, Heat's Micky Arison, Marlins' Bruce Sherman, Panthers' Vincent Viola and Inter Miami's Jorge Mas — are benign by comparison. Who isn't? Those five have had varying places on the success to failure scale, but none is close to the outspoken, attention-magnet lighting rod the Cowboys' man out front is. Jones, of course, owns a special, notorious place all his own in South Florida sports history. It is how he introduced himself to the world, to Dallas and the NFL ... and to Miami. In early 1989 Jones was a wealthy but little known 46-year-old Arkansas oil and gas billionaire. Soon, everybdy would know his name. He bought the famed Dallas Cowboys, quickly fired legendary coach Tom Landry, and hired his friend and former Arkansas Razorbacks teammate Jimmy Johnson away from the Miami Hurricanes. It was a stunning, beyond-blockbuster sequence that quaked pro and college football — and Miami — and set the tone for an NFL career chasing championship and the national spotlight, not necessarily in that order. For Dallas it was not love at first sight. Many Cowboys fans initialy were shocked and bruised by the firing of the legendary Landry, then Johnson went 1-15 that first season. But Johnson's back-to-back Super Bowl wins in 1992 and '93 made Jones seem a genius, before a falling out led Johnson to briefly retire before resurfacing as Dolphins coach. When Dallas won a third Super Bowl in '95 with Barry Switzer inheriting most of Johnson's guys, it made Jones further beloved in Dallas. It has been the 30 years since that gradually have seen the owner's legacy not age especially well. No worry, though. Jerry Jones won't lose any sleep over it as long as the power is his and the attention keeps coming.
San Francisco Chronicle
2 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Chiefs rookies have shined in camp, helping turn positions of weakness into a strength
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — After watching his Kansas City Chiefs get dismantled by the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl, general manager Brett Veach identified two specific areas where the three-time reigning AFC champions needed to improve. One was left tackle, where a rotating cast struggled all season to protect Patrick Mahomes. The other was wide receiver, where injuries prevented the Chiefs from ever having the group that they expected to have on the field. Now, it appears two positions of weakness in February could be positions of strength by the season opener in September. On the left side of the offensive line, Veach signed Jaylon Moore in free agency, then drafted Josh Simmons in the first round out of Ohio State. He was widely considered to be the most talented tackle prospect available, but a knee injury that robbed Simmons of most of last season also sent his stock falling, and allowed him to fall right into the Chiefs' lap at No. 32 overall. Three weeks into training camp, not only has Simmons showed no lingering effects of last year's surgery, but he has routinely punished teammates in 1-on-1 drills, and solidified the starting job ahead of Saturday's preseason opener in Arizona. 'He's very talented, man. Very, very good rookie so far,' right tackle Jawaan Taylor said. "He's been soaking up all the things we've been teaching him — Coach (Andy) Heck, the players, the veterans, and I feel like he's going to have a great career here.' The Chiefs need him to have one. They haven't had a true franchise left tackle since Eric Fisher left after two Pro Bowls following the 2020 season, and that came back to haunt them, especially against the Eagles in February. Mahomes was sacked six times in the 40-22 Super Bowl loss, and he was forced to throw under duress on at least twice that many plays. In training camp, Simmons has consistently given Mahomes more time to throw, and that has resulted in the kinds of explosive downfield passing plays that have been absent from the Kansas City offense the past few years. 'First of all, he's getting a lot of reps, which I think is important for a rookie,' Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. "He's been in there and consistently showing up every day and working and not taking plays off or anything like that. 'But he's a worker,' Reid continued. "I mean, he's willing to do it. It's just a matter of keep on going. But he's done a nice job with what we've asked him. He's working on all the fundamentals and techniques, so that's a challenge for him.' At the receiving end of all those downfield throws are not only the wide receivers that Mahomes and Co. expected to have last season but a potentially improved group with the addition of fourth-round pick Jalen Royals. Rashee Rice has shown no issues after a torn knee ligament cost him most of last season, while the shoulder injury that kept Marquise Brown off the field for months has likewise healed. Throw in a year of growth for Xavier Worthy, their first-round pick last year, and the Chiefs' wide receiver group is deeper, faster and more potent than it has been in a while. 'Not to take anything away from any receivers that we've been with here or anywhere else (but) for me, this collective group of wide receivers from top to bottom is extremely competitive and talented,' Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said. 'I don't want to take for granted is JuJu Smith-Schuster. Unbelievable right now with what he is doing, as far as a leader in that room,' Nagy added. 'Watching guys out here in walkthroughs, he's taking these young guys and using his experience and giving his knowledge to them, and it is exciting because he is a great player. So, from top down we have a lot of speed. The guys have knowledge, they're smart, they play fast and tough. Now, it is just the timing of Pat.' That timing has been on point so far, thanks in part to the voluntary passing camps that the two-time MVP has run the past few years at his home in Texas. Most of the receivers on the roster show up for at least some of it, and that typically gives them a big jump on training camp, when they begin facing defenders rather than just air. 'In order for our offense to be great,' Mahomes said, "you have to be able to complete those passes. It opens up everything else. ... If we can do that, I think it is really going to open up the offense and make us a better team in general.' ___
Washington Post
33 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Chiefs rookies have shined in camp, helping turn positions of weakness into a strength
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — After watching his Kansas City Chiefs get dismantled by the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl, general manager Brett Veach identified two specific areas where the three-time reigning AFC champions needed to improve. One was left tackle, where a rotating cast struggled all season to protect Patrick Mahomes. The other was wide receiver, where injuries prevented the Chiefs from ever having the group that they expected to have on the field.
