INDIANAPOLIS — If you thought Nick Sirianni was taking a complete hands-off approach to the Eagles’ offense in 2024 …
Think again.
When we last heard from the Eagles’ head coach at his year-end press conference back in Philly, he talked about hiring a new offensive coordinator who would “be in charge” of the Eagles’ offense, although Sirianni admitted he wasn’t exactly sure what it would look like. And at that time, we didn’t yet know that new offensive coordinator was going to be Kellen Moore.
But at the NFL Combine on Tuesday afternoon, Sirianni talked about a “meshing” of offensive systems to create the Eagles’ offense in 2024.
“[Moore] has been highly successful, and we’ve been highly successful,” Sirianni said. “And I think that I’m really looking forward to meshing what he’s done really well together with the things that we’ve done really well. I think it’s going to be a really good match, and Kellen’s track record speaks for itself.”
While the Eagles had an almost-complete overhaul of the coaching staff on defense to surround veteran defensive coordinator Vic Fangio with his own staff, the changes on offense were much less pronounced.
Moore, 35, was able to bring Doug Nussmeier with him from Los Angeles. Nussmeier is the Eagles’ new quarterbacks coach and has worked under Moore with the Chargers and Cowboys.
But aside from that? The Eagles kept passing game coordinator Kevin Patullo, offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland, running backs coach Jemal Singleton, tight ends coach Jason Michael and wide receivers coach Aaron Moorehead.
“Obviously, we know those are really good coaches,” Sirianni said. “I have a lot of faith in them.
“And it’s meshing of two systems, to grow in both systems so we can put the best product on the field. So, that’s why that’s kind of stayed similar is because we’re going to be doing a lot of different — we’re going to be doing different things, but also we’re going to be doing things that we’ve been successful at as well. Obviously, those guys that I just mentioned on offense have been here through the success and look forward to growing from that.”
There’s no question that the Eagles have had success on offense under Sirianni at times. They had the No. 3 overall offense in the NFL in 2022 in scoring and yards. They were an elite group.
But in 2023, the Eagles weren’t nearly as good. While their defense completely collapsed under Sean Desai and Matt Patricia, the Eagles’ offense went the wrong way too. They were still a top 10 unit but top 10 wasn’t nearly good enough and even Sirianni admitted after the season that they needed fresh ideas.
The plan is for those fresh ideas to come from Moore. But just how successful will the Eagles be in blending two offenses together? Because in January, Sirianni talked about the next OC bringing in a scheme for the Eagles to run but there’s clearly going to be a blending of offensive schemes, philosophy and perhaps even play designs.
And we won’t really know how well all of that blends together until we see it on the field.
It’s pretty hard to hear all of this talk about a new coach bringing fresh ideas to the offense without thinking back to the 2020 season when Rich Scangarello was forced upon Doug Pederson in Pederson’s final season at the helm in Philly. That year, Scangarello was hired as a senior offensive assistant and the ideas was that he’d bring some concepts from Kyle Shanahan’s offense to the Eagles.
Instead, those ideas blended like oil and water and Scangarello ended up being unable to get any of his ideas to stick. Pederson still maintained control of the offense. Heck, if you’re going to fail, you might as well fail on your own terms. Ultimately, the Eagles puttered to a 4-11-1 record and Jeff Lurie eventually cleaned house.
So that’s the fear. And it’s hard to avoid that fear creeping into your mind..
But there are also some more reasons for optimism too. One of them is that Moore isn’t just an add-on coach. He’s the Eagles’ offensive coordinator and that means real power because he’ll be calling plays too. And he’s bringing a quarterbacks coach with him. That seems to present a system of checks and balances for the offense that wasn’t around in 2020.
But ultimately, this is still Sirianni’s team. He’s still the head coach and it’ll be up to him to figure out a way to successfully blend these systems into an offense that is unique to the Eagles. That’s the goal, anyway.
“Obviously, I hired Kellen because I felt like he was the best guy for the job, and Kellen’s been successful in every place that he’s been,” Sirianni said. “I know it’s relative, really a young career, but he’s been successful as a player. He’s been successful as a coach.
“I like the way he thinks about football and the way he takes everything in and is able to make decisions off of that. So, it’s been fun getting to know him. Obviously, I’ve always had respect for him from afar, and it’s been fun getting to know him and work through these things together to build our offense for next season.”
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Daniel Miller is a sports fanatic who lives and breathes athletics. His coverage spans from major league championships to local sports events, delivering up-to-the-minute updates and in-depth analysis for sports enthusiasts.
