Eagles OC Update: New Candidate Highlights More Open-Minded Approach

PHILADELPHIA - With the more high-profile candidates crossing Philadelphia off their respective lists, the Eagles’ OC search reached Day No. 9 Thursday with an interesting new name added to the potential in-pile: Chicago Bears offensive coordinator Declan Doyle.

Multiple reports indicated that Philadelphia is requesting to interview the 29-year-old whiz kid who has quickly risen the NFL ranks after sitting under the learning trees of two of the best in the business, Sean Payton and Ben Johnson.

With the search dragging on, the Eagles have opened up the candidate list after previous potential options like Mike McDaniel, Brian Daboll, and Zac Robinson either landed elsewhere or dropped out of consideration.

Doyle is interesting because of his age and inexperience. One of the knocks on deposed OC Kevin Patullo was his inexperience with play-calling. and the typical pendulum effect in NFL coaching would point to a veteran play-caller as the successor.

The Osmosis Candidate?

Jan 4, 2026; Denver, Colorado, USA; Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton in the fourth quarter against the Los Angeles Chargers at Empower Field at Mile High. Mandatory | Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images

Doyle, who started his coaching career as an offensive assistant for Payton in New Orleans from 2019-2022, followed the current Broncos coach to Denver, while snaring his first positional assignment as the tight ends coach in 2023-2024.

Doyle’s work caught the eye of Ben Johnson, who brought the young coach over to the Bears as his OC in 2025 when Chicago won the tough NFC North and gave the talented Los Angeles Rams all they could handle in the divisional round before succumbing in overtime.

Many consider Johnson to be one of the best play-designers and play-callers in the NFL, while Payton has been on that list for many years, so you can understand how intriguing Doyle might be.

It’s speculative, however, that Doyle will be a great play-caller based on his proximity to proven commodities.

By being forced to move to contingencies, the silver lining of the Eagles’ search is more of a willingness to be open-minded and consider out-of-the-box options.

The search has reached an actual fact-finding phase rather than a recruitment process of perceived top contenders McDaniel and Daboll.

Philadelphia is the only team with an existing head coach (Nick Sirianni) that is still searching for an OC after Tampa Bay reportedly hired Robinson.

The other four teams staying steady at head coach and making a move at the second level are the Detroit Lions, who went with former Arizona OC Drew Petzing, the LA Chargers (McDaniel), the Kansas City Chiefs, who brought back Eric Bieniemy from Chicago, and Washington, who elevated former NFL backup quarterback David Blough.

The competition has been tough with 10 head-coach openings in this process, meaning 10 more OC decisions.

Miami and Tennessee have hired Jeff Hafley and Robert Saleh as head coaches, respectively. Hafley hasn’t made a decision at OC yet while Saleh is planning on bringing aboard Daboll if the latter doesn’t get the big chair in Buffalo.

New Giants head coach John Harbaugh will reportedly hire Todd Monken as OC with both making the move from Baltimore, and Atlanta’s new coach, Kevin Stefanski, will be bringing along Tommy Rees from Cleveland.

To date, the Eagles have interviewed Robinson, former Giants interim head coach and OC Mike Kafka, Indianapolis OC Jim Bob Cooter, former Tampa Bay OC Josh Grizzard, Daboll, and former Chicago head coach and Kansas City OC Matt Nagy.

They also had an informal discussion with McDaniel.

Of that group, Kafka, Cooter, Grizzard and Nagy are still in play.

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