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The Detroit Lions and New Orleans Saints will square off in a Week 1 battle to open their 2026 seasons. The Saints hired former Lions backup quarterback Kellen Moore as head coach in 2025, and despite a rough first year, New Orleans and Moore made no changes to the coaching staff in year two. Instead, they focused on cohesion and upgrading their roster to improve the team. Lions Week 1 preview: Breaking down Saints’ offensive, defensive schemes Breaking down the offensive and defensive schemes of the New Orleans Saints, the Detroit Lions’ Week 1 opponent. Let’s take a closer look at the Saints’ coaching staff, the scheme they run, and some scouting notes from previously viewed games in 2025. Saints head coach: Kellen Moore NFL coaching seasons: Entering year two (2025-26) Offensive coordinator: Cowboys (2019-22), Chargers (2023), Eagles (2024) Influences: Scott Linehan, Mike McCarthy Coached under: Jason Garrett, Mike McCarthy, Brandon Staley, Nick Sirianni Playcaller: Yes Detroit connection: Lions backup QB (2012-14) Dan Campbell on Saints’ coaching staff: “Kellen (Moore)‘s done a good job; obviously, year two. There are still some guys that are there that I had a lot of respect for and that I think a lot of, (Offensive Line Coach) Brendan Nugent that I coached with. (Associate Head Coach/Running Backs Coach) Joel Thomas is back there. Those guys—I was with them—really good coaches.” Offensive coordinator: Doug Nussmeier NFL coaching seasons: 11 seasons Offensive coordinator seasons: Entering year two (2025-26) Previous coaching positions: QB coach: Eagles (2024), Chargers (2023), Cowboys (2020-22), Rams (2006-07); TE coach: Cowboys (2018-19) Local college coaching spots: Michigan OC/QB coach (2014, under Brady Hoke), Michigan State QB coach (2003-05 under John L. Smith) Influences: Scott Linehan, Kellen Moore, Mike McCarthy Coached under (NFL): Jason Garrett, Mike McCarthy, Brandon Staley, Nick Sirianni, Kellen Moore Coached under (College): Nick Saban, Jim McElwain, Steve Sarkisian Detroit staff connection: Scott Linehan (Senior Offensive Assistant), Josh Hill (TE coach) Offensive scheme Passing game: Shotgun Spread-oriented (roughly 75%), RPOs (Think Eagles offense) Running scheme: Outside Zone-based Staples of scheme (data from 2025): - Moore built the scheme to fit the Saints players; has shown the ability to adapt in his past stops - You can see the influences from his time with the Eagles in the current Saints scheme - From shotgun: 70% pass/30% run split (under center it’s reversed) - Pass-heavy between the 20s (roughly 60-40 split), but closer to 50-50 in the red zone - Play-action is minimal: Just 18.4% last season (31st in the NFL) - QB Tyler Shough used PA just 18.6% of the time over his nine starts - Sacks allowed as a team: 49 (2.88 per game) - Sacks allowed by Shough in nine starts: 29 (3+ sacks per game) - Pressures allowed by team: 227 (13.4 per game) - Pressures on Shough: 119 (13.22 per game) - Yards per rush in each blocking scheme: Zone (3.85+ ypc), Gap/Power (2.8 ypc) Dan Campbell on QB Tyler Shough: “There’s a level of maturity, composure that you see that looks like that’s here to stay.” Dan Campbell on Saints’ offense: “They have got some potency: (WR Chris) Olave and (RB Travis) Etienne, (TE) Juwan (Johnson), I like this O-line. I think it’s a talented offensive line.” More on Johnson (Campbell was his position coach before joining the Lions): “He’s a big skilled player, a mismatch player. The things where he stays on the move keep him vertical. He’s got range, he’s got length, he can track the ball. So, it’s comes a long way, but I think that was always the vision for him. So, I’m not surprised where he’s gone because I know when I was there young, it was like, ‘Man, this kid may be able to develop into a receiving threat as a tight end slot.’ And he’s been able to do that.” Defensive coordinator: Brandon Staley NFL coaching seasons: 10 seasons Defensive coordinator seasons: Entering year three; Rams (2020), Saints (2025-26) Previous roles: Head Coach: Chargers (2021-23); Assistant head coach/defense: 49ers (2024); LB coach: Bears (2017-18), Broncos (2019) Influences: Vic Fangio Coached under: John Fox, Matt Nagy, Vic Fangio, Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan Detroit staff connection: Bo Davis (DL coach) Dan Campbell on Staley: “Brandon (Staley) came in, brought their system in and really didn’t miss a beat. It’s a good defense, man. They play hard.” Jared Goff (who worked opposite Staley in LA) on hallmarks of his defense: “Very sound. Good communicators. Everything looks the same, but it’s different. Play hard. Yeah, they’re tough, I mean all that. They were good in LA and certainly they were good when I was with him in LA and then with the Chargers and they’re good again there.” Defensive scheme Base: 3-4 Base, gap-and-a-half front Coverage: Vic Fangio zone-match principles; loads of Cover-3 (roughly 50% of the time, most in the NFL) Staples of scheme: - 2025 was a redemption year for Staley - Learned from the mistake of leaning too much into deploying Fangio’s exact defense with the Chargers; realized he needed to be more adaptable to personnel with the Saints - Kept split zone/two-high safety looks, but shifted away from heavy-nickel - Ran 4th-ranked “Base” defense in the NFL in 2025 - Cover-3 (50%), Cover-4 (17%), Cover-6 (10%), Cover-1 Man (15%) - Blitz Rate: 16% (21st); very situational - DVOA run defense: 8th (potential hurdle: LB Demario Davis departed in free agency) - 3rd-down conversion percentage allowed: 34.3% (third best) - While the offensive personnel was upgraded this offseason, the defense filled gaps - Three second-year players are starting due to departures in free agency or injury (i.e., Bryan Breese is on IR and replaced by Vernon Broughton), though two of those players in the secondary (CB Quincy Riley and NB/S Jonas Sanker) got a lot of experience last season. - EDGE Cameron Jordan has been ruled OUT Dan Campbell on Saints’ defense: “(DE) Chase Young’s playing the best football he’s played. We’ll see if (DE Cameron) Cam (Jordan) plays. I think we all know what Cam Jordan is. I think (DE Carl) Granderson’s a really good player up front. And then those backers, (LB Kaden) Elliss and (LB Pete) Werner—and (CB Kool-Aid) McKinstry is playing pretty good in the boundary. So, look, it’s a good unit.”