Kellen Moore said the New Orleans Saints did not cut Jayden Price to make a point. Price was waived two days after fumbling the opening kickoff of the second half in Sunday’s 23-13 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, and Moore was asked Wednesday whether the move was about accountability. “No. No,” he said. “That was, you know, you’re managing a roster, and we had to lose DeCam kind of for the weekend just to get our roster where it was for the game, and got DeCam back, and obviously had to make a decision there and release JP.”
Moore, referring to cornerback Decamerion Richardson, said he hopes Price clears waivers and returns. “Obviously, it’s an unfortunate turnover JP had. Again, he’s going to get to learn and grow from that,” he said. “We’re hopeful that he can still be a part of this team in some capacity.” Pressed on whether there can be accountability without a consequence, Moore said: “There’s accountability with everything that we do. There’s consequences with everything we do. And a roster spot doesn’t have to be a declaration of an accountability thing. There’s a lot of different ways to hold accountability.”
“Turnovers is the number one factor”
The bigger problem has been giving the ball away. By one reporter’s count, New Orleans has turned it over eight times in its last nine quarters. “Turnovers is the number one factor of games, is the ball,” Moore said. He credited his defense for taking the ball away twice against Minnesota and said the first half was fine before three second-half giveaways decided the game. “We got to do a better job in those situations and learn from them and understand sometimes, you know, it’s not bad to punt in a certain situation if it’s a goofy, challenging situation,” he said.
He called it “a growing experience” for quarterback Tyler Shough and said every turnover gets reviewed: how it happened, why, and how to move forward. Asked whether Shough’s left hand limits the play-action menu, Moore said, “I think it’s fine,” adding that the offense just did not get into the flow of some of those calls last week. Asked about the pressures right tackle Taliese Fuaga has allowed, Moore said there is “plenty of good in there” and pointed to obvious passing downs: “Those become challenging for everyone. And we got to do a better job overall as an offense to just execute and play cleaner football.”
Jameis Winston and the Giants blitz
Sunday brings former Saints quarterback Jameis Winston, now starting for the 3-1-1 Giants. “Always have a lot of respect for Jameis,” Moore said. “I think he’s always been a very effective passer. He’s been able to make plays and have huge impacts on teams.” He added that “he’s got a real special presence about him that teams rally around him in a really special way. And they’re going to play really good football because of it.”
Edge rusher Carl Granderson said the Saints know what Winston brings. Winston is a competitor whose “whole objective is to make plays,” Granderson said Wednesday, and that cuts both ways: he will throw the ball up for his receivers to go get. “So he’s gonna give the defense opportunity,” Granderson said. “And that’s where he make a mistake at sometimes. So we just gonna be ready for whatever come our way.”
The Giants have blitzed more since losing edge rusher Brian Burns to a torn ACL in late September, and Moore said they have “a couple of linebackers that obviously have some really good pass rush traits.” Coming off a Vikings defense that also blitzed heavily, he expects to see more of it. “If someone does something against you, maybe you don’t have the success you hope for, there’s obviously going to be a replication of that plan,” he said. Center Erik McCoy was even more direct. “Blitzing is one of those things that doesn’t stop until you show that you have the answers for it in protection and you can gash it in the run game,” McCoy said. “I expect it to continue until we execute the answers.” He said the answers are finding the right fits in the run game and following the protection plan, and he called D.J. Reader “one of the best run-stopping noses in the NFL.”
A long road trip starts in New York
New Orleans has lost three straight, all at home, and Sunday starts a two-game trip that continues against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Paris on October 25. Moore said the week is normal apart from “a couple logistical things” for going from one trip straight into the next, and that the protests in France have been “acknowledged” inside the building. “We feel great about this opportunity,” he said. Granderson called it a business trip. “We lost a few games at home, so we got to go steal some away,” he said.
Moore said the team practiced outside in pads on Wednesday with good energy, and he is tuning out the noise around a 1-4 start. “I don’t listen,” he said. “We have a task at hand and we focus on that.” He added: “We’ve come up short a few games in a row, and so we’ve got to steer the ship in the right direction and get this thing going in the right way, and our guys know that.” The Saints visit the Giants at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, October 18, at 1:00 p.m. ET.
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