Kellen Moore

Q. Having been around RB Saquon Barkley, in terms of his character, can you tell fans what kind of person you’ve encountered? (Rob Kuestner)

KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, obviously Saquon, you get to see the player on Sundays. We get to see the person every other day during the week.

He’s special. At the end of the day, he’s a special teammate, special person. The way he connects with everyone, rallies everyone together. He’s one of the best.

Q. I don’t know if you saw Head Coach Nick Sirianni comments after the game about QB Jalen Hurts when he said something about game manager, BS, he’s playing at an MVP level. How would you describe the way Jalen has been performing? (John McMullen)

KELLEN MOORE: [QB] Jalen’s [Hurts] just done an excellent job of operating at a really high level, making big-time plays when we need them.

Obviously the tendency has been to run the ball a little bit more down the stretch in some of these situations. Jalen is a part of that, as well. Him running the football, as well, just alongside [RB] Saquon [Barkley].

He’s done such an incredible job protecting the football. A huge aspect of this game. He puts us in really good situations throughout the game. A lot of stuff that not everyone sees, people take casually what he does at a really high level.

Q. RB Saquon Barkley’s 25-yard touchdown run, explain everything that had to work for that play. (Martin Frank)

KELLEN MOORE: Guys got to the line of scrimmage. [QB] Jalen [Hurts] made the communication to get to the play call. [TE] Grant [Calcaterra] first and foremost on the backside had a really challenging block. It was a six technique, the defensive end was tight, he was going to have to cut him off. He did an excellent job there.

The frontside of the block between [G/T] Mekhi [Becton] and [T] Lane [Johnson] was excellent. [T] Jordan [Mailata] was the puller. He got to the second level. The receivers running those guys off, eventually becoming blockers. We’ve talked about that in a few of these big plays, how critical these receivers are to making these home run plays. They’re running guys off. Eventually they do have to become blockers. There’s that flip and find term that we’ve mentioned, where you have to find those guys, get the blocks, and it allows Saquon to really be running on the post safety, which is a huge advantage for us.

Q. Have you found the RPO game and the play-action game to be more productive than the drop-back game in recent weeks? If so, why? (Zach Berman)

KELLEN MOORE: I think our guys have done it at a really high level. Guys are making excellent decisions. Every week presents different challenges and opportunities. Some of those plays have come up the last few weeks and we’ve done a really good job with them. Each week will take a different path. Certainly we feel comfortable with it, feel like we’re heading in the right direction.

Q. To counter what has happened early in games, have you thought about not doing scripted? (Jeff McLane)

KELLEN MOORE: We’ve navigated this in different ways. We’ll talk about it again this week to find us the best way to execute. L.A., felt like we had a good drive going. Ended up short in the red zone. This past week, one first down, got stalled out.

It’s a frustrating aspect of our thing. We’ll keep working.

Q. I understand most coach also have scripts. Is there more flexibility, perhaps, you want to build in so that it does counter what a defense may be showing you contrary to what you were thinking? (Jeff McLane)

KELLEN MOORE: It’s definitely something we’ve had a lot of discussions about. Different ways that we can attack the defense play to our strengths, focus on us, make the adjustments as the game goes that we need to make. Obviously it’s something that we’ve started slow unfortunately for too many games. Something we’ve got to do a better job of.

Q. Do you think we make too much of the slow starts, because you’re pretty good at counterpunching it seems once you figure out what the defenses are doing? (Ed Kracz)

KELLEN MOORE: Certainly feel like we build as we go. We’ve had a lot of success as the game has progressed. I think our guys do an excellent job of hanging in there.

I think the cool thing is in these first quarters, as frustrating as it can be, I think our guys handle the adversity really well. We don’t want to face that adversity every single week.

I think our guys, one big strength of our guys, has been the finish aspect of this thing. They’re doing an excellent job in the second halfs.

Q. How much has G/T Mekhi Becton improved since he moved to guard? (Reuben Frank)

KELLEN MOORE: Incredible experience to see what he’s done through this whole transition. Big-time player making big-time plays. His ability to move people at the line of scrimmage, at the second level, working with [T] Lane [Johnson] in tandem so many times. Those are special players.

Q. How important was it that G/T Mekhi Becton really embraced the move from guard to tackle? (Reuben Frank)

KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, I think obviously all the credit goes to Mekhi, his willingness to go for it. That’s kind of the beauty of offseason programs. Sometimes things like this happen. You get an opportunity. You jump in there and take advantage to it. More opportunities present their selves. He’s a great example of that.

Q. What makes G/T Tyler Steen an ideal fit for the extra blocker? (Dave Zangaro)

KELLEN MOORE: We just went down in a goofy situation cause we lost [TE] Dallas [Goedert]. We only had two other tight ends. Felt like we needed to get heavier with bigger bodies. Traditionally that would be with three tight ends and that’s how its been the last few weeks.

There’s a couple offensive linemen that we have that always know there’s a potential that if we needed them, they can pop in there. [T] Fred [Johnson] has done it as well earlier in the year.

Tyler did an excellent job. To be honest, other than walking through maybe a couple of those plays, he’s never ran any of those at full speed. For him to hop out there, handle that, create the movement. His first one was an excellent combination block with [T] Lane [Johnson]. It was big-time to see.

Q. If TE Dallas Goedert ends up missing some time, what are of thoughts on the rest of the tight ends options? (Tim McManus)

KELLEN MOORE: We’ll see how this week progresses. It’s December football; a lot of guys are banged up. That’s how these weeks now naturally progress.

We feel fortunate that we have a number of guys with [TE] Grant [Calcaterra] obviously playing an excellent role when he hopped up when Dallas was down earlier. [TE] E.J. [Jenkins] and [TE] C.J. [Uzomah], have both played a few games this year. They’re ready to go. We feel fortunate to have the depth that we have. We’ll see how it progresses.

Q. The lack of having TE Dallas Goedert and the two receivers together, hasn’t happened very much, has played a role in not being maybe as dynamic in the passing game as you guys would like? (Bob Brookover)

KELLEN MOORE: That’s a good question.

I think certainly we feel like we’ve been really efficient in the passing game. I think we’ve protected the football, we’ve been explosive, we’ve created those plays. Obviously the attempts are down. Naturally yards are down because of that.

I think associated predominantly with the run game, the success we’ve had there. I think our guys have done an excellent job when guys need to hop up and play different roles because, like you said, a number of these guys have been in and out throughout the season. Guys have played a lot of different spots. Within the game we’ve had to make those adjustments. The guys do a great job handling all that.

Q. Having interviewed with Carolina, is that an organization you’ve kept an eye on? What did you gain from that interview? (Zach Berman)

KELLEN MOORE: Anytime you get an interview with an ownership and an organization, you get to grow a lot as a experience, you get to grow your experience around the NFL.

Awesome experiences each and every time you get to do those. You get to connect with great people, people you continue to have relationships with in some capacity. It will be fun to see some of those.

Q. With TE Grant Calcaterra filling in that fullback slot, what did you make of him in that position? Can he fill in for LB Ben VanSumeren? (Brooks Kubena)

KELLEN MOORE: Really big credit to him just because Ben unfortunately was a late concern as the week progressed. So for Grant to be able to hop in there again with very limited to almost no reps as far as full-speed reps out there, his ability to go in there and handle those situations. We have a number of guys that can play those different roles. That’s the fun part of this week. We’re going to let this thing progress with a few different options, see how it progresses.

Q. The Panthers are a team that’s playing better as of late, what are some concerns you might have about their defense on that side of the ball? (Ed Kracz)

KELLEN MOORE: I think they’re playing really good ball the last four weeks. The numbers all show it. They’re playing really good. I think having the edge rushers back, secondary, really good corners, they’re really physical, aggressive guys.

I think you can tell they’re playing well connected naturally because they’re getting guys that are playing together now for a number of weeks together, which contributes to guys being on the same page, communicating, playing at a high level. They’ve played really well.

Q. How much does the athleticism of the offensive line expand your playbook? (Jeff McLane)

KELLEN MOORE: Certainly we feel like our ability to pull these guys in a number of different ways is a huge advantage. All five guys can pull, play in space. When you have those opportunities, you’re certainly not limited.

Q. Around the league there was a scary moment with Jacksonville Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence. Slid the way it was taught, but took a devastating shot. Do you have to rethink or reteach in any way the sliding that QB Jalen Hurts does or any quarterbacks? (Rob Kuestner)

KELLEN MOORE: That’s a great question. I haven’t watched it thoroughly to give a great answer on how the outcome of that one particularly went.

[QB] Jalen [Hurts], fortunately for us he’s done an excellent job. He’s always done a great job. He gets the yards he needs, slides down, puts himself in a protective situation. Done a really good job.

Like every week in the NFL, there’s always lessons to be learned. Something probably as the week progresses as we watch around the league, study those things for the whole team, we’ll look at.

Q. The first touchdown drive, you took advantage of the short field. You also used some tempo. What goes into saying this is the point where we’re going to go to tempo? (John McMullen)

KELLEN MOORE: Tempo is only something that we’ve utilized a lot this year. Guys I think are comfortable in it. You play fast, just play decisive. Obviously you got to find your rhythm to create tempo. Once you earn first downs, those different situations.

I thought our guys did an excellent job. We got an earned first down on a run on third and four. After that we went three plays on the ball in a row. Our guys did a really good job there.