Add Linebacker Coach to List of Eagles Hires After Nick Rallis Departs

The Eagles lost another assistant coach Saturday night when Jonathan Gannon hired linebacker coach Nick Rallis to be his defensive coordinator.

That brings to three the number of openings on head coach Nick Sirianni’s staff – offensive and defensive coordinators and linebacker coach.

Rallis is now the youngest DC in the league at 29.

In his first season with the Eagles, Rallis worked with Alex Singleton and Eric Wilson, before the organization decided to insert T.J. Edwards into the starting lineup and the position began to ascend.

GM Howie Roseman gave Rallis linebacker Kyzir White last offseason to pair with Edwards and White flourished under Rallis. Just how well he was able to develop third-round rookie pick Nakobe Dean remains to be seen, but Dean is expected to be one of the starting linebackers in 2023.

Sirianni said last week that the team won’t be in any rush to fill the coordinator posts and the same will likely hold true with the next coach in charge of linebackers.

“We're obsessed with developing our football players, and we do many different things throughout the year to develop our players,” he said. “And I'm obsessed personally because of the stock that people have put in me of how we develop our football coaches as well.

“So constantly want, from our position coaches to our coordinators, all the way to our quality control coaches and assistant position coaches, I want them involved in everything. And I try to give them things that helped me throughout my career. That's my job as the head coach.”

Sirianni said that when he and Shane Steichen began interviewing for assistants two years ago, they went through several candidates before finding Jemal Singleton to be the running back coach.

“We interviewed about nine running back coaches, and coach Singleton was the ninth,” he said. “I was, like, this is the guy right here. There was a lot of work that went into that.”

The Eagles reportedly have interviewed or requested to interview from Arizona DC Vance Joseph and current Seahawks assistant head coach/DC Sean Desai to replace Gannon, while an in-house candidate could include DB coach Dennard Wilson.

No candidates have been reported to interview for the OC position to replace Steichen, though the favorite is in-house candidate Brian Johnson, currently the QB coach.

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglestoday.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.