October 18, 2026
October 18, 2026
New Orleans Saints 2025 Season: Kellen Moore, Tyler Shough and a December Revival
The Saints’ 2025 season was a reset from the first day of the offseason. A new head coach, a retired franchise quarterback and a roster in transition left New Orleans facing questions with few easy answers. The record would finish at 6-11, last in the NFC South. Yet the final weeks delivered something the franchise had not felt in years, a genuine sense of direction.
The hire of Kellen Moore signaled that the Dennis Allen era was over in every sense. Allen had been dismissed during the 2024 campaign, and Moore arrived after serving as offensive coordinator for the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. He brought Doug Nussmeier to run the offense and Brandon Staley to rebuild the defense. The message was clear: the Saints wanted a modern, flexible identity on both sides of the ball.
The front office committed to the young core around him. Tight end Juwan Johnson signed a three-year extension, and edge rusher Chase Young returned on a three-year deal. Veterans such as Ryan Ramczyk and Tyrann Mathieu stepped away from the game, closing a chapter that had defined the franchise’s last contending window.
Everything changed in May. Derek Carr retired after two seasons with the club, leaving the quarterback room without an established starter. The Saints had already taken a swing in the draft, selecting Louisville passer Tyler Shough with the 40th overall pick. That was the highest a Saints quarterback had been drafted since Archie Manning went second in 1971.
New Orleans also used the ninth overall pick on Texas tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. to anchor the line. Still, the opening-day job went to second-year quarterback Spencer Rattler. Shough would have to wait his turn.
Preseason expectations were tempered. With an unproven quarterback room and an aging defensive core, the Saints entered the year as a team trying to discover what it had rather than a team expecting to contend.
September exposed how far the rebuild still had to go. The Saints dropped a 20-13 opener at home to Arizona, then fell 26-21 to San Francisco. A 44-13 beating in Seattle followed, and a 31-19 loss at Buffalo sealed an 0-4 start.
Relief finally came in Week 5. New Orleans held off the New York Giants 26-14 in the Superdome, giving Moore his first win as a head coach. The celebration did not last. Losses to New England and Chicago were followed by a 23-3 collapse against Tampa Bay, and Rattler was benched during that defeat.
Rattler had not been the only problem. He completed 174 of 257 passes for 1,586 yards, eight touchdowns and five interceptions across his eight starts. The offense around him simply could not finish drives, and the season was slipping away before Halloween.
The front office accepted reality at the trade deadline. In early November, the Saints sent speedy receiver Rashid Shaheed to Seattle for fourth- and fifth-round draft picks. Shaheed had been one of the few reliable big-play threats on the roster. Moving him signaled that the organization was building for the future rather than chasing a lost season.
By the time New Orleans fell to 2-10 after a Week 13 loss at Miami, playoff elimination was official. It marked the fifth straight season without a postseason berth. The franchise had not started that poorly since 1999.
The running game offered little relief. Alvin Kamara, long the engine of the offense, managed just 471 rushing yards on 131 carries. Without a consistent ground attack, the passing game carried an unfair share of the load.
Shough’s first start came on the road against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 9, and it ended in a 34-10 defeat. One week later, the rookie responded. He threw for 282 yards and two touchdowns as the Saints clawed out a 17-7 win at Carolina. It was the first proof that the rookie could steady a struggling offense.
The weeks that followed were uneven. Losses to Atlanta and Miami tested the new starter. Moore stuck with the rookie, trusting that experience would sharpen his decision-making.
That patience mattered. Every snap the rookie took in November became an investment in the larger rebuild. The losses stung, but they also revealed a quarterback who kept climbing back up after getting knocked down.
December belonged to Shough. The run began on December 7 in Tampa, against a Buccaneers team leading the NFC South. Shough passed for only 144 yards, but he ran for 55 more and two touchdowns. New Orleans held on for a 24-20 victory that announced its rookie as a real threat.
One week later, the Saints seized a 20-17 win over Carolina, which also sat atop the division at the time. The offense then exploded. Shough threw for a career-high 308 yards in a 29-6 rout of the New York Jets. He topped that with 333 yards in a 34-26 win at Tennessee.
Those four straight wins were the club’s first since 2020, when Drew Brees was still under center. Shough finished his nine starts with a 5-4 record. His rookie season review shows 2,256 passing yards, 10 touchdowns and five interceptions in those games.
The finale carried no playoff stakes for New Orleans, yet it shaped the entire division. The Saints fell behind early after a blocked punt set up an Atlanta touchdown. Shough cut the gap with a 1-yard bootleg, but a would-be go-ahead touchdown was wiped out by an offensive pass interference penalty.
Then came the moment that sealed it. With 3:24 left, Dee Alford intercepted Shough and returned the ball 59 yards, setting up a field goal for a 19-10 lead. Shough answered with a 65-yard drive and a one-handed touchdown catch by Ronnie Bell with 1:11 remaining. Atlanta recovered the onside kick. The 19-17 loss handed Carolina the division crown through a tiebreaker.
The final box score captured the frustration. New Orleans outgained Atlanta 340 yards to 208 and still lost. A blocked punt and one costly turnover undid an otherwise solid afternoon, a fitting summary of how thin the margins had been all year.
Chris Olave delivered the finest season of his career. He caught 100 passes for 1,163 yards and nine touchdowns, leading the team in all three categories. According to the club’s season analysis, he joined Michael Thomas as the only Saints receivers with a 100-catch season. His best day came against the Jets, with 10 receptions for 148 yards and two scores.
Juwan Johnson rewarded the front office’s faith with 77 catches for 889 yards. On defense, Cameron Jordan turned back the clock with 10.5 sacks. Chase Young added 10 more, giving Staley’s unit a pass rush that could close games.
Staley’s defense held steady even as the offense sputtered. The Saints allowed 22.5 points per game, a middle-of-the-pack figure that kept a struggling team competitive in most weeks. Carl Granderson chipped in six sacks, and the unit finished with 44 as a group.
The numbers alone tell a modest story. New Orleans scored 306 points and allowed 383, figures recorded on the team’s Pro Football Reference page. The offense ranked 28th in scoring, a reminder of how much September and October cost.
What the Saints’ 2025 season truly delivered was clarity. Moore established a culture, Olave proved himself a true No. 1 receiver, and the pass rush gave the defense a backbone. Most of all, Shough turned a lost year into a foundation. The four-game December surge changed the conversation around the franchise from rebuilding to rising.
For a fan base that had watched five straight seasons end without a playoff game, that shift mattered deeply. The Saints’ 2025 season will be remembered less for its losing record than for the moment New Orleans found its next quarterback.
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