Former Eagles Coach Is One Of The Architects Of Jayden Daniels' Historic Season

PHILADELPHIA - There is one constant among all 32 NFL teams, whether good, bad, or indifferent: someone has to pay when expectations aren’t reached.

As a public-facing industry, it’s no longer the Romans sacrificing the condemned to the lions to entertain the lowest common denominator. It’s the more modern and cultured way of satiating the angered hordes on sports-talk radio so they keep forking over $50 for a pint of snow moving forward.

Brian Johnson, 37, was the highest-profile coach to pay the price in Philadelphia after a 10-1 start turned into an 11-6 collapse, including an embarrassing one-and-done playoff performance at Tampa Bay.

It was the rare instance where the well-regarded Johnson secured a couple of head-coaching interviews on his way out the door in Philadelphia. A similar situation happened this year in Houston where Bobby Slowik was getting interview requests and days later was being fired after the Texans’ season ended in Kansas City.

Johnson’s golden parachute was two hours down the I-95 corridor in the Beltway as the passing game coordinator and assistant head coach of the rebooted Washington Commanders.

The Commanders, of course, will arrive at Lincoln Financial Field Sunday to face the 16-3 Eagles for the NFC Championship.

For Johnson, a win would not represent revenge. It would offer a healthy dose of redemption for an impressive young coach who got caught up in the politics of his profession which too often conflates outside perceptions into what’s best for the inside.

Ostensibly Johnson put together the No. 8 offense in the NFL during the 2023 season as the offensive coordinator and play-caller for the Eagles, the same mark the Philadelphia offense finished this season. However, Johnson did it without Saquon Barkley and what was closer to the worst defense in the league than the No. 1 unit Vic Fangio put together this season.

“He's one of the smartest offensive minds I've been around, honestly,” Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury said this week when discussing Johnson. “The things he picks up in the past game and the run game, a lot of the red zone concepts we've hit in big moments have been things he's brought in and seen.”

Johnson’s calling card has always been QBs. He was a college star himself at Utah playing the position and had a hand in developing Dak Prescott at Mississippi State and Florida’s Kyle Trask at the college level.

Before Johnson was the OC in Philadelphia he was the quarterbacks coach in 2021-22, the one man in the organization working closest with Jalen Hurts on a daily basis when the now fifth-year quarterback bloomed from a rookie developmental prospect finishing out the decline of the Doug Pederson era into playoff signal caller in Year 1 with Johnson, then runner-up for MVP in 2022-23 and finally $50 million QB.

Now Johnson is on the ground floor of perhaps the greatest rookie quarterback season in NFL history with Washington’s Jayden Daniels helping turn four wins into 14 and counting.

One more for Daniels and he passes Ben Roethlisberger for the most wins by a rookie signal caller and becomes the first freshman in league history to start the Super Bowl.

“[Johnson's] influence, just being able to share kind of some things he used with Jalen there in Philly, some things that worked, some things he wish he would've done differently with Jayden has been huge because obviously that's instant credibility of success they had there in Philly,” said Kingsbury. “So, I can't say enough great things about him. He's been a blessing for us to have him here.”

Johnson fended off a question about his time in Philadelphia, instead playing the game that did him dirty one year ago.

“The beauty of this game is the relationships,” Johnson said. “You spend so much time with people in whatever building you’ve been in throughout the course — for me 15 years — of coaching. So whether that’s guys that I coached at Mississippi State, or guys that I coached in Philadelphia, or people that I’ve worked with, those relationships last a lifetime.”

If anything Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni seemed pained about losing Johnson and 2023 QB coach Alex Tanney with the latter landing with Sirianni’s good friend Shane Steichen in Indianapolis.

The Eagles are so good themselves that few have bothered to peel back this onion with Johnson, who was scapegoated for the lack of “creativity” in the offense.

Ironically, things have regressed further in that regard the organization is happy with new OC Kellen Moore because winning really does cure everything.

Philadelphia has four quarters to keep this all under the surface on Sunday. Daniels also has 60 minutes to shock the world and as a significant underdog in the NFC Championship Game.

Redemption is that close for Brian Johnson.

And Sirianni has already let you in on the secret as to why.

“You can see how the quarterback is playing,” Sirianni told Philadelphia Eagles On SI earlier this week. “Brian has something to do with that, that’s for sure.”

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