Sizing up the Old and New Eagles Coaching Staffs
PHILADELPHIA - Let's take a breath from the Carson Wentz watch and some David Montgomery-inspired drama to look at where the Eagles stand going into 2021 with the move from Doug Pederson to Nick Sirianni and the latter's new coaching staff:
HEAD COACH: DOUG PEDERSON vs. NICK SIRIANNI
Pederson had 13 years as an NFL player and four years as a high-school head coach at Calvary Baptist Academy in Shreveport, Louisiana before he started his professional coaching career as Andy Reid's offensive quality control coach with the Eagles in 2009.
Pederson never left Reid's staff, being promoted to quarterbacks coach in 2011 in Philadelphia before going with Reid to Kansas City as his first offensive coordinator there. When Pederson got the big chair with the Eagles in 2016, largely on Reid's recommendation, he had only been an NFL coach for seven years, although his status as a long-time backup QB meant two decades in the league overall.
Sirianni, on the other hand, had been a pro coach for 12 years when he was tabbed by Jeffrey Lurie as the team's new coach.
Sirianni has also a more varied coaching background than Pederson, starting with Kansas City under Todd Haley as a quality control coach in 2009. By 2010 he was assistant QB coach and before moving back to QC and finishing a four-year stint as the receivers coach, his college position at Mount Union, in 2012 for Romeo Crennel.
Sirianni joined the San Diego Chargers as a QC coach under Mike McCoy in 2013, shifted to coaching the QBs from 2014-15, and then moved to WRs in 2016-17 as the Chargers made the move from San Diego to Los Angeles, the last year in the move to Anthony Lynn. Frank Reich was the QB coach with the Chargers in 2013 and was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2014-15 before moving to Philadelphia as the OC under Pederson in 2016.
When Reich got the head-coaching job in Indianapolis after Super Bowl LII in 2018 he hired Sirianni as the OC.
Behind the scenes, team sources have played up Sirianni's more varied background as the reason he was given more autonomy to put together a coaching staff which is an old football way of thinking that punishes Pederson for his continual success and upward movement on a legendary coach's staff. In other words, what did you want Pederson to do? Quit to work under lesser coaches?
ADVANTAGE: Even - When you compare Sirianni, who will turn 40 in June, to Pederson in 2016 there isn't much difference but when you compare the new coach to the Super Bowl-winner that's a tougher sell.
OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR: RICH SCANGARELLO/PRESS TAYLOR vs. SHANE STEICHEN
After Pederson was forced to fire Mike Groh after the 2019 season the Eagles went with a committee approach for the OC, bringing in Rich Scangarello as a senior offensive assistant and adding passing game coordinator duties to his day-to-day work with the QBs for Press Taylor. You can even add Marty Mornhinweg as a senior offensive consultant to the mix and the too many chefs in the kitchen theory certainly applied.
Taylor, who is now in Indy as a senior offensive analyst, ran the meetings and was the closest thing to an OC the Eagles had and Pederson wanted to make that official in 2021, which is one of the reasons he was fired.
Both Scangarello and Taylor got an opportunity to call plays when Pederson was trying to jump-start the moribund offense, the former in hurry-up situations and the latter in a more encompassing fashion right before Carson Wentz was benched.
Scangarello, a Kyle Shanahan disciple, is back with Shanahan in San Francisco as the QB coach and Mornhinweg is contemplating retirement at 58 after about a quarter-century in the NFL, including a head-coaching stint with Detroit and a decade as a senior assistant, assistant head coach and OC under Reid in Philadelphia.
Steichen, 35, was the OC with the Chargers at the end of 2019 as the interim choice after Ken Whisenhunt was fired and again in 2020 when Justin Herbert burst onto the scene as a rookie. He wasn’t going to be brought back under new coach Brandon Staley leading to the reunion with Sirianni as the Eagles' OC. The two coached together with the Chargers for four seasons (2014-2017) when Steichen was in QC before being promoted to QB coach. Sirianni was the QB coach in 2014-15 and moved to WRs in 2016-17 when Steichen went to QBs.
ADVANTAGE: Steichen - The Eagles had far more experience especially with Mornhinweg to lean on but one voice is always the better way to go at OC.
DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR: JIM SCHWARTZ vs. JONATHAN GANNON
Gannon, 37, might develop into the next Mike Zimmer, someone the new Eagles DC worked under as an assistant secondary coach in Minnesota for four seasons, but comparing a guy who has been a full-time position coach for three seasons against a former head coach and a highly-regarded DC for two decades is silly.
Maybe a new voice was needed, maybe the switch to more two-high safety looks helps an undermanned secondary, and more pre-snap disguise will make the Game Pass warriors happy but there's a steep learning curve here.
ADVANTAGE: Schwartz in a blowout
SPECIAL TEAMS COORDINATOR: DAVE FIPP vs. MICHEL CLAY
The Eagles typically always had really good to great special teams units since Fipp arrived with Chip Kelly in 2013 but there were some significant struggles last season.
Interestingly, Philadelphia prevented Fipp from interviewing with Detroit at first, where he eventually got the STC job under Dan Campbell. That's an indication the Eagles were considering steering Sirianni toward Fipp before the move was made to Clay, at 29 the youngest coordinator in the NFL.
Interestingly Clay is another Kelly guy, a former Oregon linebacker who Chip started in coaching as a QC coach with the Eagles in 2014. By the next season, Clay was assistant ST coach to Fipp and went with Kelly to San Francisco as the assistant ST coach there, a job he continued to hold after Kelly was one and done with the 49ers.
ADVANTAGE: Fipp in another rout.
PASSING GAME COORDINATOR: PRESS TAYLOR vs. KEVIN PATULLO
For years, the Eagles talked about Taylor's ceiling as an offensive coach and how bright and innovative he was. Then when Pederson took him on as a protege things seemed to sour.
Patullo's first pro job was as a QC control coach in Kansas City back in 2007. He was out of football in 2009 and 2013 so that could be viewed as a bit of a red flag. His big break came in 2015 as the New York Jets' QBs coach. From there it was one year as a senior offensive analyst with Texas A&M before arriving in Indy with Reich and Sirianni, first as the WRs coach and then a pass-game specialist.
ADVANTAGE: Even
QUARTERBACKS COACH: PRESS TAYLOR vs. BRIAN JOHNSON
We've told you enough about Taylor.
Johnson, 33, is an up-and-comer who people thought was going to be a head coach at the college level. This is his first pro job and is coming off a highly-successful stint as the OC and QB coach at the University of Florida. He's worked with dual-threats like Dak Prescott at Mississippi State and pocket-style passes like Kyle Trask with the Gators and has a history with Jalen Hurts as well.
This to me is the Eagles' most intriguing hire with a big upside.
ADVANTAGE: Johnson
RUNNING BACKS/ASSISTANT HEAD COACH: DUCE STALEY vs. JEMAL SINGLETON
So many of the Eagles players lobbied for Staley to get the head-coaching job and he was passed over again, in many ways falling into the same Pederson trap in that Staley had no experience outside of Philadelphia as a coach.
He will now be getting that in Detroit under Dan Campbell and the Eagles brought in Jemal Singleton, 45, who had just taken a job as the RBs coach and special teams coordinator at the University of Kentucky.
The Eagles got him by adding the assistant head-coaching title as well and we will see how that shakes out as far as actual responsibilities. Singleton had bounced around for the past five years with three jobs as a RBs coach, in Indy, Oakland, and Cincinnati.
ADVANTAGE: Staley
TIGHT ENDS COACH: JUSTIN PEELLE vs. JASON MICHAEL
Peelle did a wonderful job with Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert over the years and maybe that was personnel driven.
Michael, 42, is a former college QB and has an impressive history as a former OC in Tennessee in 2014-15 and also as a QB coach with the Jets, 49ers, and Titans. That’s coupled with tight end work with the Jets, Titans, and Cardinals before he joined the Colts where he got to know Sirianni. Michael might be the most well-rounded offensive coach Sirianni hired.
ADVANTAGE: Michael
DEFENSIVE LINE COACH: MATT BURKE vs. TRACY ROCKER
A former DC in Miami and Jim Schwartz's right-hand man, Pederson reportedly wanted to promote Burke before being fired.
Rocker is a former star DT at Auburn, who has spent most of his coaching career at the college level but got to know Gannon when both were with the Titans.
Honestly, Burke's expertise is with the LBs and defensive scheming as a whole so while he's clearly the more well-rounded coach, Rocker, 54, maybe the better choice for the day-to-day work with the defensive linemen.
ADVANTAGE: Rocker
LINEBACKERS COACH: KEN FLAJOLE vs. NICK RALLIS
Rallis' brother, WWE superstar Riddick Moss, might clothesline me for this but there is just no way you can compare these two at this stage.
Flajole, 66, was coaching in his sixth decade last season and has seen and done it all, topping out as a DC with the St. Louis Rams. He was also a defensive chief in college at Montana, UTEP, Richmond, Hawaii, and Nevada.
Rallis, 27, is the youngest position coach in the NFL and the same age as his best LB, Alex Singleton.
ADVANTAGE: Flajole
DEFENSIVE BACKS COACH: MARQUAND MANUEL vs. DENNARD WILSON
The Eagles essentially traded with the Jets with Manuel heading up the Jersey Turnpike and Wilson, 38, heading down it.
Both teams obviously made head-coaching changes and Manuel, a former DC in Atlanta, was allowed to move on while Wilson, who has a history with Rodney McLeod and was also the defensive passing game coordinator with the Jets, will have a nice sounding board knowing his boss, Gannon, is also a secondary guy.
ADVANTAGE: Even
Two major coaches are holdovers in offensive line coach/running game coordinator Jeff Stoutland and WR coach Aaron Moorehead.
“Youth is wasted on the young.”
That's a quote often credited to George Bernard Shaw but is actually much older than that and it speaks to the idea that those who lack experience don't know what they don't know.
To be blunt, this new group of coaches for the Eagles is lacking experience in many places and the plan seems to be to let the staff grow together in what owner Jeffrey Lurie believes is a transition period.
Expect growing pains and significant ones at times but the Eagles like the upside of this new staff.
-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John every Monday and Friday on SIRIUSXM’s Tony Bruno Show with Harry Mayes, and every Tuesday and Thursday with Eytan Shander on SBNation Radio. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com's EagleMaven. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
