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    New Orleans Saints Hire Kellen Moore: Fantasy Football Impact on Alvin Kamara, Chris Olave, Rashid Shaheed, and Others

    How does the arrival of Kellen Moore as the New Orleans Saints' head coach impact the fantasy values of key offensive players for fantasy football?

    The most important factor in the success of an NFL team will always be the players. However, coaching does matter, especially for fantasy football purposes. We’ve seen several highly regarded offensive coordinators become great head coaches.

    After making a name for himself as the Dallas Cowboys’ offensive coordinator, Kellen Moore bounced around between the Los Angeles Chargers and Philadelphia Eagles the past two seasons. Now, coming off a Super Bowl victory with the Eagles, he finally gets his first head coaching opportunity. What can Moore do for the New Orleans Saints in 2025?

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    Kellen Moore’s Fantasy Football Impact as the New Orleans Saints’ Head Coach

    The Saints were the second team to fire their head coach this season (Nov. 4, 2024), but the last to hire a new one. Of course, it wasn’t their fault. With the Eagles advancing to the Super Bowl, the Saints had to wait until the last game of the season, as they could not officially hire a member of another organization.

    Moore’s name has been on the head coaching radar for quite some time now, and the more the rules shift toward the offensive side of the ball, the more it’s no wonder. Not only did Moore throw for 14,667 yards during his time as a player at Boise State, but he’s led successful offenses in Dallas, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia as a coordinator.

    He’s largely had the benefit of a franchise QB on his roster, but his ability to elevate those talents has been evident since he helped Dak Prescott up his yards per pass rate by 10.8% in his first season with the Cowboys.

    Derek Carr

    Now entering his 12th NFL season, Derek Carr has yet to ever finish as a QB1. He’s averaged 17.6 fantasy points per game (ppg) twice, and 17.8 ppg once, which represents the closest he’s come.

    Moore’s presence is unlikely to turn Carr into a weekly fantasy starter, but it’s hard to paint this as a negative.

    As a younger mind, Moore understands the modern passing game and how to succeed by utilizing pre-snap motion and play action. The play-action pass is the most effective pass in the NFL. Unfortunately, it’s something the Saints have not utilized enough during Carr’s time with the team.

    In 2023, the Saints averaged 5.12 play-action pass attempts per game, 31st in the league. In 2024, that rate improved but only marginally. They were 24th with 7.06 per game. Here is how Moore’s teams have performed utilizing play action:

    • Cowboys (2019-22): 103.5 play-action passer rating
    • Chargers (2023): 107.9 play-action passer rating
    • Eagles (2024): 116.1 play-action passer rating

    The Eagles did only attempt 7.0 play-action passes per game. On the surface, that looks like very few — it was fewer than the Saints. However, the Eagles only threw the ball 448 times all season. New Orleans’ quarterbacks attempted 551 passes. That’s a 26.5% rate vs. a 21.7% rate.

    Without a mobile quarterback, the Saints should be in the top half of the league in play-action passes. In 2023, Prescott averaged 9.88 play-action pass attempts per game, second in the league.

    Last season, Carr was third in the league in passer rating when throwing out of play-action. He’s good at it. The Saints just didn’t use it enough. Moore should be able to get more out of Carr simply by calling more play-action passes.

    Alvin Kamara

    Where Moore’s impact will likely be felt the least is on Alvin Kamara. The longtime Saints RB’s effectiveness will come down to how much he has left in the tank in his age-30 season.

    Last season, Kamara proved his bounce-back 2023 was no fluke, averaging 19.0 fantasy points per game, finishing as the overall RB5. While Kamara may not lead all running backs in target share at 21.5% again, we’re talking about a player whose lowest single-season target share in his career is 18.2%.

    Kamara is going to catch plenty of passes. Historically, even when running backs do decline, their receiving ability is the last thing to go. This makes Kamara a safer option than you’d typically expect a 30-year-old back to be.

    Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed

    With Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed on this roster, splash plays are very much an option. While we’ve seen Carr thrive throwing the deep ball for the majority of the past five seasons (10th in completion percentage, sixth in touchdown rate, and fifth in yards per attempt), he has been a bit prone to turning the ball over in such spots.

    Olave, specifically, could see his star take off with this hire. The Eagles had two top options at WR in 2024, but in Moore’s two previous years, the WR1 finished the season with more catches than any of his teammates had targets. Olave wasn’t healthy in his third season, but he’s one of seven players all-time to open their career with consecutive campaigns in which they averaged at least 12.5 yards a catch and hauled in 70 passes.

    Shaheed has emerged as a legitimate NFL WR2 and proven to be a fantasy WR3, but the biggest beneficiary should be Olave. The gap in talent between these two, with no slight to Shaheed, is similar to what Moore had in Dallas with CeeDee Lamb and whoever the Cowboys put at WR2 post-Amari Cooper.

    Taysom Hill

    I didn’t want to completely ignore Taysom Hill. However, it’s hard to project anything for Hill, as he is recovering from a torn ACL. Hill is no lock to be ready for Week 1, and it remains to be seen how effective he can be when he does return from tearing his ACL at 35 years old.

    If Hill can recapture his old form, expect Moore to do the same thing with him that previous offensive coordinators did: use him all over the field. Will Hill be healthy enough to be fantasy-relevant this year? My guess is no.

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