JACKSON: Kellen Moore emphasizes diverse run game

By Ross Jackson

Throughout the offseason, whether during Super Bowl week or his introductory press conference, New Orleans Saints head coach Kellen Moore has been clear about his understanding of the vitality of a run game for his offense. Whether discussing the importance of the trenches or flat-out discussing his desires for his next offense, the rushing attack has been a big focus.

When his offenses from previous stops as an offensive coordinator are put under the microscope, Moore finds himself firmly in the “be about it” rather than the “talk about it” column.

During his introductory press conference, he did mention the importance of a diverse run game. 

“I think as we’ve gone through this journey in the NFL,” Moore said. “You’ve got to have a diverse run game. You’ve got to be able to do a lot of different things. You’ve got to be able to challenge the defense with multiple looks.”

Upon further examination of his previous stops, the numbers back up the claims.

During his Super Bowl run with the Philadelphia Eagles, the team had more zone runs than gap runs per Pro Football Focus (PFF), however the difference between the two was minimal.

With a powerful downhill rusher in running back Saquon Barkley, the Eagles ran zone concepts 56.7% of the time while rushing in gap/man concepts 43.3%. While the Eagles focused heavily on the zone run, it doesn’t necessarily mean they were an outside run team. The two are not always mutually inclusive.

In fact, the Philadelphia offense ran between the tackles slightly more than to the outside. Per Next Gen Stats, inside runs won out by the slim margin of 48.5% to 47%. Some rushes do not register as either, such as the “Tush Push” or quarterback scrambles, for instance.

The inside zone run clearly played a large role in Philadelphia along with a healthy mix of the man/gap schemes. Moore alluded to such when discussing his time with the Dallas Cowboys juxtaposed to his season with the Eagles.

“Certainly in Dallas,” Moore said. “There was a lot more of an outside zone emphasis there. But obviously flexibility, I think, is really important…We’ve been more of a downhill gap run team in Philadelphia. There’s tremendous advantages to that, and I think we’ll have an opportunity to blend those two worlds together.”

Unsurprisingly, his description of his days in Dallas as more of an outside zone emphasis is spot on. In 2022 when running back Tony Pollard was the team’s leading rusher with 1,007 rushing yards PFF had Dallas charted with a 53.5% zone split. But they ran outside of the tackles 54.4% of the time.

In 2019, when Ezekiel Elliott exploded for 1,357 rushing yards, the disparity was far greater. The zone percentage was up to 63.7%. The Cowboys also ran outside of the tackles 55.5% of the time that season, which was Moore’s first as an offensive coordinator.

What’s impressive there is that Moore found success in each of those seasons. The Eagles finished 2024 as the league’s No. 2 rushing team. In 2022, Moore’s Cowboys were the No. 9 club in rushing yards and in 2019, the team finished No. 5.

Not only did he adjust to his new teams, he also adjusted to a variety of personnel over his years of play calling. While he maintained the strength of each club skewed either inside or out, he also kept things from being one-dimensional. An Inside/out split that maintains a balance between the 50s and 40s, in terms of percentage, is still a very diverse attack. Compare that to last year’s Saints offense, which was overwhelmingly singular in its attack.

In 2024, the Saints rushing attack went outside of the tackles on a league-leader 69.7%, while rushing inside just 27.9% of the time, per Next Gen Stats. Meanwhile, PFF has New Orleans rushing out of zone concepts on a whopping 72.7% of their rushing attempts.

New Orlenas was simply too one-dimensional in its approach. Adding a greater focus on the outside zone run was a wise schematic advantage to pursue, but not as the offense’s lone rushing identity. It’s one of the reasons defenses were able to adjust so quickly, former offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak’s offense simply lacked diversity in the run game.

Moore, on the other hand, is promising the exact opposite. And even going back to his Los Angeles Chargers season in 2023 (58.1% zone and 49.9% inside the tackles), he proved that his desires for a diverse rushing attack are more than simple coachspeak. It’s clearly a part of his DNA as a playcaller.