Their new OC comes with plenty of coaching experience.
The New Orleans Saints officially hired Doug Nussmeier as their new offensive coordinator last week. The former Philadelphia Eagles QB coach has followed Kellen Moore around for his last three stops and now ends up in New Orleans with a promotion.
Nussmeier was the obvious favorite for the job ever since speculation of Moore becoming the Saints next head coach started swirling around on social media. Now that he officially has the job, I thought we could take a look at some things to know about the Saints new OC.
Former FCS great with NFL experience
As most of you know by now, Nussmeier is a former college and NFL quarterback and even made a stop in New Orleans during his playing career.
Nussmeier played his college ball at Idaho, where he threw for more passing yards (10,824) than anyone in program history. In 1993, Nussmeier won the Walter Payton Award, which goes out to the best player at the FCS level each year. That season, Nussmeier threw for 2,960 yards and 33 touchdowns (a program record).
After a stellar college career, Nussmeier spent five seasons in the NFL. He was selected by the Saints in the fourth round of the 1994 draft and spent four seasons in New Orleans, followed by brief stops in Denver, Indianapolis and Chicago. During his five-year career, Nussmeier didn’t see the field much, totaling 46 completions for 455 yards, one touchdown and four interceptions.
After his NFL career ended in 1998, Nussmeier played a single season in the Canadian Football League in 2000. After one year in the CFL, Nussmeier began his coaching career with the BC Lions.
Kellen Moore’s best buddy
I don’t actually know if they’re best friends, but Nussmeier and Moore seem to be pretty fond of each other. As I briefly mentioned in the opener, Nussmeier has been Moore’s QB coach at each of his last three stops in Dallas, LA and Philly.
Over that time, Nussmeier has worked with a bunch of different types of quarterbacks from Dak Prescott to Justin Herbert to Jalen Hurts. He knows how to extract the best from pocket passes to mobile guys, and he knows exactly what Moore likes his quarterbacks to be able to do.
With Moore calling plays, the most important thing about the OC hiring was finding someone he trusts, and I don’t know if there’s anyone he trusts more as a coach than Nussmeier.
Has coordinator experience at the college level
Even though Moore is calling plays, Nussmeier’s experience as an offensive coordinator is really going to help out. He’s never been an NFL OC, but he’s spent plenty of time in that role at the collegiate level.
In 2008, Nussmeier was hired as Fresno State’s offensive coordinator. He led them to the No. 35 scoring offense in the country, averaging nearly 30 points per game before Washington poached him to be their next OC. There, he worked alongside Steve Sarkisian and helped lead a top 20 offense in 2011.
After a successful stint in Washington, Nussmeier was hired by Nick Saban as Alabama’s new OC. In his first year there, Nussmeier helped lead Bama to a national championship behind star QB, A.J. McCarron, who threw for the most passing yards in a single season in program history that year.
After a less successful year at Alabama, Nussmeier took the OC job at Michigan, but their head coach was fired at the end of that year and he once again relocated, this time to Florida. He would spend three seasons with the Gators before heading to the NFL ranks as the Cowboys tight end coach.
His son is really good at football
Doug’s son, Garrett, is currently the starting quarterback for LSU. After sitting behind the likes of Jayden Daniels early in his career, Nussmeier became LSU’s QB1 in 2024 and had some ups and downs, but his highs showed that he can be great.
In 2024, Nussmeier completed 64.2% of his passes for 4,052 yards, 29 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He hit a rough patch in the middle of the season, but LSU’s non-existent run game didn’t help him much. He made some NFL-caliber throws during the course of the season, and instead of entering the draft and being a mid-round pick, he decided to return to LSU for one more season with hopes of catapulting his name into top 10 discussions.
Depending on how well the Saints do next season, they could be well within striking distance of Nussmeier in next year’s draft. Could Doug’s son be the future of the franchise? Only time will tell.