Eagles' Search Is About More Than The Next Offensive Coordinator

Talking to so many OC candidates is not just about filling a job for Philadelphia.

Jul 25, 2025; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith participates in drills at training camp at Saint Vincent College. | Barry Reeger-Imagn Images

PHILADELPHIA - Whenever the Eagles do hire their next offensive coordinator, it is a safe bet that Philadelphia will have talked to the most candidates among the teams looking for a new offensive leader.

The two latest names linked to the Eagles highlight that sentiment.

When news broke that Arthur Smith would be heading to the college ranks and Ohio State, The Athletic’s Dianna Russini reported that the Eagles talked with the now-former Pittsburgh OC.

The Philadelphia Eagles and the Tennessee Titans had been having conversations with Smith, but in the end he decides to take the job as OC at Ohio State. https://t.co/LtAPBf6NhQ

— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) January 24, 2026

Meanwhile, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported that the Eagles requested an interview with Dallas OC Klayton Adams, and the Cowboys predictably turned down the inquiry.

The Eagles requested to interview Cowboys OC Klayton Adams for their offensive coordinator job but Dallas blocked the request, per league sources.

Dallas finished second in total offense and values Adams. pic.twitter.com/hfbfYKfva3

— Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerESPN) January 25, 2026

A third domino fell when someone the Eagles did interview, former Houston OC Bobby Slowik, decided to stay in Miami as the offensive coordinator for new head coach Jeff Hafley after spending last season as a senior passing game coordinator for Mike McDaniel, who Philadelphia really did have significant interest in according to multiple NFL sources.

Parallel Goals

Aug 24, 2024; Houston, Texas, USA; Houston Texans offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik during the game against the Los Angeles Rams at NRG Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images | Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

McDaniel is still expected to take the OC job with the Los Angeles Chargers if his remaining head-coaching opportunities dry up and they've seemed to dry up.

Got all that?

Whether the Eagles talk with Smith was a formal interview or more of a discussion like what went down with McDaniel not is not known, but Philadelphia did have a significant interest in Smith when he was one of the three hot names, along with Brandon Staley and Robert Saleh, during the 2021 head-coaching hiring cycle when he got the big chair in Atlanta.

As for Adams, he’s an OC who doesn’t call plays in Dallas, but his expertise is the offensive line and running game coming off a year in which the Eagles' atypically struggled with the ground game.

What's going on is the Eagles are clearly using this OC search to find a coordinator, of course, but also pick the brains of a wide variety of candidates to not only find out what went wrong this season, but where the NFL is trending offensively as a whole. 

The idea that any interview are a clear sign of significant interest, never mind indicative of a firm offer, is specious, especially in Philadelphia, where searches often turn into parallel fact-finding missions.

In this particular OC search, other than McDaniel and Brian Daboll, you should be careful framing interviews from the Eagles, both completed and/or requested, as anything more than due diligence.

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