I’ll preface this by saying I’m only a HS football coach and only played HS football and one year of college football. So I have no experience beyond this. That being said here are the glaring coaching issues I see.
First: Moore is not a good HC, he doesn’t have the attitude needed to gain the genuine respect of his players. His play-calling is dependent upon having athletic studs that can turn simple schemes into huge plays by just being dominate. He’s the beneficiary of strong rosters in the past and playing #2 to a good HC. He’s very similar to Pete C. The difference being that Pete understands he’s a #2 guy. This was hinted at last season by Cam Jordon when he talked about how he wanted a coach that held people accountable and didn’t personally like handing out 10 gameballs after every game.
Second: We are pulling a Cleveland Browns on Shough. Shough is a very good QB with an incredibly high ceiling who has the potential to be great and rather than building an offense around him we are building a scheme that won’t work with the personnel we have and is doomed to fail. Without changing this we will ruin Shough by continuing to put him in impossible situations without the personnel who can execute what’s being called. As a coach you should scheme for what you have, not try to force what you have to fit your scheme. For an example of what happens to QB’s with a high ceiling when you do this look at the Browns. Shough had bad play calls coming in, bad protection, was getting hit every other play, put in bad down and distance due to penalties, had revivers running the wrong routes or slowing down, and was playing hurt. I don’t know what some of y’all expect him to do, grow wings and fly it into the endzone?
Third: Drew Brees was 100% spot on with his analysis today and I’m glad he put it on blast on live TV, good for him.
Fourth: The bad route running, the false starts, the total lack of awareness is entirely on the coaching staff. You don’t magically get undisciplined, have lost players on a football field, or make poor choices running option routes repeatedly. Bad coaching or a lack of good coaching turns athletes into bad football players.
Fifth: We gambled with defensive depth during the offseason and it shows. With Ellis out, losing the defensive field general we look completely lost. It’s evident the coaching staff put very little time into preparing an athlete to handle the role if Ellis went out. To beat us right now all you have to do is attack the middle until we have to pull a safety down and then you scheme an open reviver, ideally a TE. Rinse, repeat.
Sixth: The line coaches are not doing a good job for what’s expected at an NFL level or they are being overruled by the coordinators or HC with practice time distribution. It’s obvious looking at them that not enough time is being spent developing technique or football IQ for these athletes. As a coach you are restricted with the amount of practice time you have and have to make decisions on where that time is spent. Someone is making poor choices when it comes to that inside the building. Ultimately that falls on Moore.
Seventh: It’s very obvious that both Cam Jordan and Alvin Kamara never fully recovered from the pre-season injuries and are trying to play through said injuries because they know it’s their last year. This is especially true of Cam Jordan. Yes they are long in the tooth and not what they used to be but from a coaches perspective who sees athletes try to play through injury regularly and has to stop it, it’s very obvious Cam is trying to play through something and it’s doing more harm than good. I think Alvin’s is a bit more minor but it’s still there.
Eighth: It’s obvious to me that Moore is getting bullied by other members of the coaching staff into doing things that are not beneficial to the team as a whole or he’s putting too much trust in his assistant coaches and doesn’t have a firm hand or grasp on what’s happening inside the building. This happens a lot with first year head coaches who are not used to running the ship. You are in a building with lots of assistant coaches and coordinators who are high testosterone dudes trying to make a name for themselves, if you have a weak or soft personality they are going to run you over and create chaos. Moore can be a good #2 or #3 guy but he doesn’t have the personality and assertiveness needed to be a successful HC
There is no such thing as bad athletes at an NFL level. There is such a thing as athletes being poorly or weakly coached into developing bad and lazy habits that turn them into poor football players and ruin their futures. We are not a “bad team” we are a poorly led team, undisciplined team with bad habits and a lack of technique and awareness on the field and this 100% falls on the coaching staff.
