While Mickey Loomis didn’t come out and say it himself, rumors sputtered after the Super Bowl that the Saints preferred Washington Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, per Grant Paulsen on X.
“From the Super Bowl week notebook: I was told by a rival team official the Saints job was Kliff Kingsbury’s if he wanted it,” Paulsen wrote. “Was made clear to him that was the case. He preferred calling plays in DC and staying with Daniels over taking the gig.”
While some people might aspire to be a head coach in the future, Kingsbury’s been down that road already. Unfortunately for him, Kingbury’s first attempt at being a head coach at the NFL level didn’t end so well.
After spending six seasons as the head coach for Texas Tech — three of which were with quarterback Patrick Mahomes — Kingsbury was hired by the Arizona Cardinals in 2019 to put them back on track.
With the No. 1 pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, Kingsbury and the Cardinals selected quarterback Kyler Murray, hoping to bring Arizona fruitful years of successful football. That isn’t how his tenure would go in Arizona, as Kingsbury got fired after a 4-13 record in the 2022 season.
So given the success he’s seeing with Jayden Daniels and the Commanders, it would have to be a near-perfect situation for Kingsbury to dust off the ol’ head-coach headset.
Like Ben Johnson in his second-to-last season with the Detroit Lions before becoming the Chicago Bears head coach, Kingsbury might want to run it back in DC after getting so close to winning a Super Bowl in his first season with the team.
However, with Kingsbury out, the Saints expect Moore to become their next head coach after showing promise as an offensive coordinator with the Dallas Cowboys, Los Angeles Chargers, and most recently, the Eagles.
And although Nick Sirianni publicly pleaded for Moore to “run this s**t back” in Philly, it appears the 35-year-old has made up his mind.
