Kellen Moore Praises Tyler Shough as Saints Turn Attention to Lions

Head coach Kellen Moore took the podium on Monday ahead of the first game of the season for the New Orleans Saints. The Saints are coming off of a 6-11 season that saw them miss the playoffs for the fifth season in a row, the longest playoff drought in franchise history since the Saints did so from to 2001 to 2005. However, there is plenty of hope around the Crescent City as the Saints won four of its final four games thanks to Tyler Shough, who is hoping to build off the momentum and put New Olrenas back into the playoffs. New Orleans will travel to the Midwest to take on the Detroit Lions at Ford Field on Sunday at noon CT. Good morning, guys. Start by expressing our sadness at the passing of Mike Detillier. He was such a nice and kind person, very welcoming to me and our family as we came into New Orleans. Certainly, my short time getting to know him, his passion for football in this entire state at all levels was pretty awesome. And he'll certainly, definitely be missed as we go through all this. As far as the football aspect of this thing, our guys are back in the building today. We're going through a lift as we speak, medical, all that good stuff. They'll have like a phase-two-type practice this afternoon where we just kind of get our guys back rolling. Puts us in position to have a really good week. So they'll have some football out on the field this afternoon, some meetings, and then our guys will vote on captains today. So we'll announce that shortly here once we go through that process. They'll have a fun captains' dinner tonight, always a fun tradition. So it should be good. On the roster side, Jonah Williams (defensive end) just signed back to our practice squad. We had Jonah last year, so fired up to get him back. And then we'll be ready to go for a normal week. You've had an entire offseason now with Tyler Shough. What have you seen on and off the field that gives you confidence that he is now one of the leaders of this team going into Week 1? I think just his consistency through the entire offseason. Obviously, he does a great job. Like so many of our guys, our guys are really well connected. But I think his work that he's put into this thing has been awesome. These seasons are going to be a lot of fun. There's going to be some ups and downs, but I think he's wired the right way to be able to handle that week in and week out, play after play, game after game. That's what you need. Q: Was it important for Tyler to be as visible as he was this offseason in terms of a leader? I know guys lead different ways. Yeah, I don't know. I think that's a good question for Tyler. I think he's done a great job this offseason of applying himself with this football team, with the work that he needs to put into this thing. Obviously, being naturally a fairly visible person in our community, I think he's done an awesome job of that. And so we got a lot of guys like that. I think our guys are really connected with this community, which is really, really cool. And you see it throughout the offseason, just the different things guys are at, whether Mardi Gras, jazz, basketball games, all the different activities. Our guys are just really well connected here. Lions, good football team. I think they got a ton of talent. They've obviously played some really high-level football for a number of years now, really well coached. That's going to be a fun environment. That place, what they've done in Detroit, they've created a really, really challenging environment for everyone to come into that place at Ford Field to play. And it'll be a lot of fun for our guys. Our guys will be excited about it. Q: Is Amon-Ra St. Brown as good of a test for Jonas (Sanker) and getting used to a new position as you could have in Week 1? Well, I'd say he's one of the premier receivers in our league. He obviously plays a lot of times in slot. He can play all over the field. His versatility, his route detail, his ability to catch the football in contested situations, his run blocking is as good as anyone in this league. I think a lot of receivers in our league can learn from him. A lot of players can learn from him. And so it'll be a fun test. Q: When they have injuries like they do, like at safety, is that kind of like you go in, test, and then adjust as you get information? How do you approach that when it's kind of a little bit of a blind spot? I would just say Week 1, there's going to be an element of unknown for every team. It's about playing really good football, really sound, clean, fundamental football. We've had a whole offseason, they've had a whole offseason. They're going to look a little different. We're going to look a little different. There's some personnel things that they've known for a while that we're going to have these guys or we're not going to have these guys. Again, these guys have had a lot of success as a football team. And so they know the type of formula that it needs to be successful in this league. And so it's going to be a really fun game. Wednesdays, On SI Saints will answer your questions about what we see from our vantage point. To submit your thoughts or inquiries click here. This article first appeared on New Orleans Saints on SI and was syndicated with permission.