Doug Nussmeier - Offensive Coordinator, saints Event: Press Conference | Date: 2026-09-17 | Full transcript (primary source).
Doug Nussmeier, Offensive Coordinator for the Saints, addressed the media during a press conference on September 17, 2026. The discussion focused on recent player performances and insights into the team's offensive strategies as they prepare for the upcoming games.
Transcript
Nussmeier: Tremendous human being. Really, really good player obviously to see him have the kind of performance he had the other night. That was awesome.
Nussmeier: That's a big fast man that can run. Now I remember going to Ulee High School, I believe it is, where Derrick came from when we were recruiting him in Alabama. Once again, very special player, his size. I remember the comparison for me when he was coming out of high school was Steven Jackson that had played for us at the St. Louis Rams. And I looked it up and Coach Sabre and I were having a discussion about Derrick and I said, Coach, look at the two measurements. I think Derrick was like a half inch taller and Steven was like two pounds heavier. This is a high school kid now we're talking about. And once again, not only a great player, but a great person.
Nussmeier: I thought he was pretty special. It really became apparent. He first got to Alabama, obviously it takes a little bit of time to learn and curve steep. But then we started putting the pads on and we started handing the ball and the guys in the back end didn't show up quite as fast as they do with some smaller backs. He's a special player.
Nussmeier: He's a quiet guy. He goes about his business, but when you're around him in our environment, he's got a lot of personality. The same thing kind of goes for Bryce Lance, a pretty quiet guy.
Nussmeier: Bryce has exceeded all our expectations at this point. I think he's only going to continue to get better. He'll get stronger and he'll become even a better blocker than he already is. But he's willing.
Nussmeier: Well, like you say, it makes you multiple. When you have the ability to be under center as well as be in the shotgun, it forces people to defend different backfield sets. And defenses do different things, whether you're under center or whether you're in the gun. They play you differently. So for us, it's an element of our offense, looking at some of the things in the off-season that we felt we could grow. And obviously that's to fit your personnel.
Nussmeier: Well, you know, you don't play complete games in this league. You don't win. And obviously that's our goal is to win every week. So we know we need to start faster. We've worked on it. Coach Moore has done a great job throughout camp in different settings throughout OTAs to set up an environment where we practice starting fast. And so we're going to continue to work on it until we get it right.
Nussmeier: You know, it's interesting you asked that question because I was thinking, I thought, you know, when you talk about young quarterbacks and lessons they can learn from watching others, I really thought this last weekend, two really great examples. If anybody watched the Texas game on Saturday night and you watched the flow of that game early and you watched Arch and how he had to handle a lot of adverse things happening to him and them not having success in offense, you go to a locker room and you're down and at one point in time and the third quarter feels like you're out, baby. And they come back and win the game and you watch our game, you know, and obviously things weren't going the way we wanted to and you watch both those quarterbacks and, you know, as we're talking about Tyler, his ability to stay in the moment, his ability not to get too low, just stayed neutral.
Nussmeier: We talked about the things that were happening, why they were happening and we just had to get it corrected and give him credit, he played through it. You know, obviously, as we know in this business, things aren't going well. The quarterback and the head coach, you know, they take the blame and usually there's a lot going around them that could help them and then when they're having a lot of success, it's usually because other people are doing their job very, very well. So there was a lot of other things that were happening, but we all need to play better and we all need to coach. We had to coach better.
Nussmeier: It depends if you believe in bulletin board material or not. I don't, you know, to me any time you're compared to somebody like Josh Allen, you're a dang good player. So, you know, I think a lot of people take that as a compliment, but, you know, Tyler's special in his own ways and obviously on our spec for Coach Weaver and what he does and what he's done throughout his career.
Nussmeier: Well, you know, one thing he showed up on tape in camp. He did a great job in protection. He's big. He's physical. He's smart. And so when you put that together, it makes it difficult, you know, and it allows you to even those match ups because obviously, you know, people are trying to get match ups on your running backs and those type of things in protection. I thought he did a really nice job.
Nussmeier: The biggest thing for him is understanding the communication and all the different calls that we're making and making sure that he's ID's extremely smart guy, like I said, but for any young player, it just takes reps.
