Latest / AFR Saints / Is Saints Coach Kellen Moore on the Hot Seat? 5 Games Into Year 2 | AFR

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Is Saints Coach Kellen Moore on the Hot Seat? 5 Games Into Year 2 | AFR · AFR Saints

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  Speaker 2: Obviously this point game for us, um, I thought our
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  Speaker 2: defense created a couple turnovers, which were big in this game. Ultimately,
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  Speaker 2: we had three of our own doing, and we weren't
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  Speaker 2: able to play efficient enough football to give ourselves a
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  Speaker 2: chance to win that game. Not enough stability on offense
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  Speaker 2: to move the football. It's a good defense, but we
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  Speaker 2: didn't do our part in sustaining drives and giving ourselves
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  Speaker 2: the opportunity to score points at the end. They played
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  Speaker 2: better than us and coached better than us. For our guys,
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  Speaker 2: it's about getting back to work, and that's the path
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  Speaker 2: we have to focus on.
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  Speaker 1: Kellen Moore after the Saints lose 23-13 to Minnesota. They're
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  Speaker 1: just a team right now that they're not a good
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  Speaker 1: football team. And Kellen Moore doesn't seem to have the answers.
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  Speaker 1: And when you reach that point is when you start
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  Speaker 1: to have the conversation. Like, is he the right guy?
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  Speaker 1: I was actually listening to the point after. after the
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  Speaker 1: game yesterday, and I was interested because a caller mentioned
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  Speaker 1: to Bobby Hebert, you know, Kellen Moore being on the
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  Speaker 1: hot seat, and Bobby entertained it. And that's not an
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  Speaker 1: insignificant thing when you're talking about, you know, the Saints
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  Speaker 1: flagship postgame show and the host who played in the NFL,
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  Speaker 1: and everybody loves Bobby, but he's entertaining the conversation about
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  Speaker 1: Kellen Moore being on the hot seat. And It caught
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  Speaker 1: my attention because you wouldn't think five games into year
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  Speaker 1: two is when you're talking about firing a coach. And
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  Speaker 1: I don't think you're there yet. It's not like, man,
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  Speaker 1: you lose to the Giants, they're going to fire. The
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  Speaker 1: Saints have been patient almost to a fault with coaches
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  Speaker 1: and players and things of that nature. Historically. This is
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  Speaker 1: a patient organization. And I actually like and respect that
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  Speaker 1: about ownership. It's not reactionary, and you don't have an
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  Speaker 1: owner that meddles. That's the good thing about Mrs. Benson
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  Speaker 1: and Tom Benson before her, which was to say, in
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  Speaker 1: my opinion, just my opinion, you ask me what makes
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  Speaker 1: a great owner, someone who's willing to spend money, and
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  Speaker 1: it'll get out of the way. You hire people to
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  Speaker 1: do their jobs, you get out of the way and
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  Speaker 1: let them do their jobs. When you meddle, and no
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  Speaker 1: great operator would run their business that way. You hire
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  Speaker 1: people with an expertise in a certain area of your
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  Speaker 1: business and you let them do their job. If they
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  Speaker 1: don't do it well, you replace them with someone who can.
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  Speaker 1: It doesn't mean you go meddle and try to do it.
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  Speaker 1: And so by and large, Tom Benson and now Gail Benson,
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  Speaker 1: they don't meddle. And they have been willing to spend money.
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  Speaker 1: The whole cap hell thing, the way they got out
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  Speaker 1: of that with all the cap gymnastics was you have
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  Speaker 1: to have an owner willing to front cash. When you
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  Speaker 1: start restructuring, I'm not trying to go down this tangent,
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  Speaker 1: but when you start restructuring deals, that's how it works.
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  Speaker 1: You convert salary to a signing bonus and you defer
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  Speaker 1: that salary over future years. But the way you get
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  Speaker 1: around that is you have to be willing to write
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  Speaker 1: a check up front. Well, that's an owner who's willing
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  Speaker 1: to spend money to entertain your cockamamie scheme of cap gymnastics,
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  Speaker 1: which the Bensons were willing to do because they're giving
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  Speaker 1: them the tools they need, they say, to do their job.
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  Speaker 1: And if you're winning, great. But if you're not, what
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  Speaker 1: are you paying for? That's the problem. And so you're
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  Speaker 1: kind of getting there right now. Now, I could see
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  Speaker 1: this two ways. First is to say there are examples
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  Speaker 1: of coaches who struggled early in their tenures with their
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  Speaker 1: respective organizations and and then ultimately found their footing and
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  Speaker 1: had great success. Dan Campbell is one that comes to mind.
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  Speaker 1: Dan Campbell goes to Detroit in 2021, and they go
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  Speaker 1: 3-13-1 out the chute year one. It's not good. And
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  Speaker 1: in 2022, the Lions had a really miserable start as well.
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  Speaker 1: Sound familiar? It's kind of like they're looking at, okay,
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  Speaker 1: similar conversation we're having right now with Kellen Moore. Because
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  Speaker 1: they come out to shoot one and six. Remember, they
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  Speaker 1: go three and 13. Then the next year they come
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  Speaker 1: out to shoot one and six. And then what happens?
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  Speaker 1: They get hot. They finish nine and eight. They found it.
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  Speaker 2: It clicked.
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  Speaker 1: They go nine and eight. And after that, They go 12-5,
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  Speaker 1: won the division, made it to the NFC Championship game.
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  Speaker 1: The next year, they're 15-2. They're the one seed, and
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  Speaker 1: they lost. They got upset by Jaden Daniels, the commanders,
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  Speaker 1: in the divisional round. But again, they were 12-5. They
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  Speaker 1: went from 3-13 or 3-13-1 to 9-8 to 12-5 to 15-2.
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  Speaker 1: Last year, in a quote-unquote bad year, they were 9-8.
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  Speaker 1: If that's your floor, you're doing something pretty good. But
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  Speaker 1: it took the patience... of getting through that. Now there's
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  Speaker 1: another example that we talk about sometimes. It's Zach Taylor.
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  Speaker 1: Zach Taylor inherited a disaster in Cincinnati. And year one,
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  Speaker 1: he goes two and 14. They get the first pick
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  Speaker 1: and they draft Joe Burrow. And they go four, 11,
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  Speaker 1: and one the first year with Joe. Now we all
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  Speaker 1: know what happened. Joe also had his knee explode on
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  Speaker 1: him because the offensive line sucked. But nonetheless, they improved.
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  Speaker 1: And the next year, they go 10-7, but they make
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  Speaker 1: the playoffs and go on a run. They make it
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  Speaker 1: all the way to the Super Bowl and lose to
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  Speaker 1: the Rams. And then the next year, they go 12-4,
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  Speaker 1: and they lose in the AFC Championship game to KC.
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  Speaker 1: And then Burrow's been injury-prone. 9-8, 9-8, 6-11 last year
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  Speaker 1: where Burrow missed half the season. And right now, they're 3-2.
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  Speaker 1: We'll see. But what you've seen is they went from
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  Speaker 1: 2-4 to 10-12... to nine, to nine, to six, and
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  Speaker 1: then we'll see what this year does. You cannot ignore
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  Speaker 1: the injury to Joe Burrow, but it is fair to ask, like,
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  Speaker 1: have they peaked with Zach Taylor? That's kind of where
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  Speaker 1: they are in Cincinnati. But it's all to say, patience
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  Speaker 1: can pay off if you see progress. And that's the
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  Speaker 1: difference here with Kellen Moore right now, is I don't
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  Speaker 1: see the progress. I don't see this team that I
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  Speaker 1: thought this year in year two, like I could live
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  Speaker 1: with that 1-8 start last year. I got it. Dennis
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  Speaker 1: Allen was a disaster. You were turning over at quarterback.
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  Speaker 1: You had a young guy in Rattler. Derek Carr retired,
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  Speaker 1: which said it all the time about Carr. You had
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  Speaker 1: a higher floor, but a lower ceiling. You were never
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  Speaker 1: going to compete for a championship, but you weren't going
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  Speaker 1: to bottom out and be a 3-4 win team. And
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  Speaker 1: Carr retires, and now you have Rattler shucked. And that
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  Speaker 1: was never going to be an easy thing. But we
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  Speaker 1: were all encouraged by the way they finished. But the
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  Speaker 1: hope was this year you build off of that. I'm
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  Speaker 1: not saying you've got to go be a contender, but
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  Speaker 1: you have to build off of that. And the problem
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  Speaker 1: is when you identified the issues that you had last year,
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  Speaker 1: inability to run the ball, bad in the secondary, all
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  Speaker 1: that stuff, and so you go and you sign David
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  Speaker 1: Edwards and you sign Aitken and you draft Jordan Tyson
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  Speaker 1: and you draft Oscar Delp and you go get all
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  Speaker 1: that help and you want to get better on the
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  Speaker 1: interior of your defense and you draft Christian Miller. And
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  Speaker 1: then you go into this season, and all of the
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  Speaker 1: same issues that you had a year ago are recurring.
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  Speaker 1: Despite your investment, you are still unable to run the football.
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  Speaker 1: That's where it becomes a red flag to say, do
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  Speaker 1: they really know how to fix it? The Saints right
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  Speaker 1: now are 29th in the NFL in rushing yards per game.
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  Speaker 1: They're at the bottom. Defensively, they're 31st in the NFL
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  Speaker 1: in scoring. And the thing you thought you'd be better
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  Speaker 1: at this year, throwing the football and scoring, you're not.
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  Speaker 1: You're 12th in passing offense, right around the middle, in
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  Speaker 1: the top half of the league, but close. And you're
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  Speaker 1: 15th in scoring, smack dab in the middle at 23
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  Speaker 1: points per game. Like, you haven't improved on the things
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  Speaker 1: we thought you'd improve on. Despite all the investment in
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  Speaker 1: the offensive line, you can't protect Tyler Shuck. Tyler Shuck
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  Speaker 1: has not shown that he's taken a giant leap in
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  Speaker 1: the offseason yet. You're five games in. but he hasn't
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  Speaker 1: shown it through this one and four start. Like, can
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  Speaker 1: that come? Will it come if you improve the running game?
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  Speaker 1: But can you improve the running game? Like when Banks
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  Speaker 1: and HN are back, will we see that improve? Maybe.
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  Speaker 1: But this is why it's worth starting to have this conversation.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not saying hit the eject button today. What I'm
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  Speaker 1: saying is when the same problems persist, you can't win
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  Speaker 1: at home. You can't run the football. You start perpetually
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  Speaker 1: slow over and over again. And those things aren't fixed
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  Speaker 1: or addressed. That's when you start to look at coaching
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  Speaker 1: to say, okay, do you actually know how to fix this?
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  Speaker 1: And maybe Kellen Moore doesn't. Maybe he does. Maybe he will.
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  Speaker 1: But it's at this point now where you start to say,
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  Speaker 1: I can't watch New Orleans blow a double-digit home lead
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  Speaker 1: in the second half against the Raiders. Lay down to
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  Speaker 1: your biggest rival on the anniversary of Dome coming. And
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  Speaker 1: then after that horrific... showing come out five days later
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  Speaker 1: against the Vikings, hoping they show a little pride and
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  Speaker 1: watch them absolutely get punked in that building to lose
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  Speaker 1: three straight at home and think, yep, he's got this
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  Speaker 1: thing going in the right direction. It's one thing. If
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  Speaker 1: you're competitive and, and you keep coming up short because
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  Speaker 1: they have Patrick Mahomes and you don't. I don't even
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  Speaker 1: need to use Mahomes as the example. Just to say
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  Speaker 1: they're a more veteran team with a proven quarterback who
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  Speaker 1: knows how to win in the league and a veteran coach,
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  Speaker 1: you can't argue that's the case. You blew an 11-point
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  Speaker 1: lead at home to a team coach by a rookie
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  Speaker 1: head coach. Those are the things that are just glaring
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  Speaker 1: red flags. Now, if you're wondering what Vegas thinks, they
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  Speaker 1: update odds every week on hot seat, like who's going
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  Speaker 1: to be the first coach fired. And right now it's
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  Speaker 1: Dan Quinn. He's 2-1. Nick Sirianni is next, followed by
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  Speaker 1: Todd Bowles, Jim Harbaugh, D'Amico Ryans, Shane Steichen, Brian Schottenheimer,
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  Speaker 1: Matt LaFleur. Notice I haven't gotten them. Kill them more.
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  Speaker 1: Robert Sala, Aaron Glenn, Dan Campbell. That's the list. of
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  Speaker 1: who's going to be the first coach fired. It's not
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  Speaker 1: to say who's on the hot seat or who's going
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  Speaker 1: to be fired, just the odds of who's going to
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  Speaker 1: be first. And right now, that's not Kellen Moore. And
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  Speaker 1: we'll see if as the season goes along, if the
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  Speaker 1: seat gets hotter, and if some of those odds start
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  Speaker 1: to change. But I think as you're here now approaching
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  Speaker 1: the third of the way through the regular season, I
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  Speaker 1: don't think I'm expecting some dramatic about-face in this team
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  Speaker 1: all of a sudden to become a contender. What I
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  Speaker 1: have to see is progress. You could watch that Bengals
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  Speaker 1: team in 2020 with Burrow and see they were better.
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  Speaker 1: They were there late in games, even though they only
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  Speaker 1: won four times. You could tell they were no longer
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  Speaker 1: just the doormat easy out. I can't say that about
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  Speaker 1: New Orleans today. I'm sitting here telling you I think
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  Speaker 1: the Saints... going on the road to the Meadowlands to
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  Speaker 1: take on Jameis Winston and the Giants. That feels like
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  Speaker 1: a really tough game. We've seen a two-and-a-half-point line swing
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  Speaker 1: where the Saints were favored, now the Giants are favored
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  Speaker 1: by a point-and-a-half in that game. It'll probably keep growing.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not saying throw the baby out with the bathwater.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not saying blow it up. I'm just saying Kellen
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  Speaker 1: Moore is on watch. Because you've got to be able
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  Speaker 1: to show progress and the ability to fix the things
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  Speaker 1: that are going wrong. Even if it's not netting you wins.
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  Speaker 1: You've got to see progress. I've not seen it so
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  Speaker 1: far through the first five weeks of this season.