Did The Eagles Hire A Scheme?

PHILADELPHIA — The Eagles began their offensive coordinator search like St. Louis Cardinals slugger Jordan Walker at the Home Run Derby: swinging for the fences.

The goal in Philadelphia’s effort was to land a proven play-caller after a disappointing season in which first-time coordinator Kevin Patullo absorbed most of the criticism for an underachieving offense.

According to multiple league sources, the top Eagles targets were two former head coaches with strong reputations for in-game sequencing and play-calling: Mike McDaniel and Brian Daboll.

Top Candidate?

Miami Dolphins' Mike McDaniel on Mike White, Skylar Thompson | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

McDaniel was the top candidate for many teams in a volatile OC market. In high demand, he took one of the most attractive openings, landing with the Los Angeles Chargers and gifted quarterback Justin Herbert.

Daboll, a former mentor to Nick Sirianni, could have had the Eagles’ job but essentially removed himself from consideration. His focus was on Nashville, where his friend Robert Saleh had become head coach and second-year quarterback Cam Ward offered significant upside.

Once those top candidates were off the board, the Eagles reset and hired Sean Mannion, the former Green Bay Packers quarterbacks coach, who “revealed” himself to Sirianni.

The final tally: 17 interviews and three hires. Two of the runner-ups landed other positions on Sirianni’s staff — former Tampa Bay OC Josh Grizzard as passing game coordinator and ex-Houston quarterbacks coach Jerrod Johnson as a senior offensive analyst.

The complication, now quickly normalized, is the distance between where the process started (a clear desire for experience and a proven play-calling track record) and where it ended (with the least-experienced candidate — just three years removed from his playing career and with only one year as an entry-level coach — plus another replacing legendary Packers quarterbacks coach Tom Clements).

Mannion also inherited a largely finished product in Jordan Love with the Packers and has no prior history calling plays.

None of this means Mannion shouldn’t be given a chance.

Revelations don’t always come from conventional searches, nor does an “evil genius,” as Jordan Mailata dubbed the man Eagles fans are hoping is a true wunderkind.

At this stage, however, the excitement surrounding the changes to the Eagles’ offense amounts to little more than hype for new branding.

The plan is to install a version of the Shanahan/McVay offense while blending it with what the Eagles have run over the first five years under Sirianni and quarterback Jalen Hurts.

It’s an interesting experiment, but one rooted more in scheme than personnel.

The Eagles claim they hired an exciting young coach, yet the gap between where the search began (yearning for McDaniel) and where it ended reveals too much.

Sirianni went shopping for a particular offense in a league where the cliche holds: “If you’re hiring a scheme, you’re doing it wrong.”

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