Nick Sirianni's Plans to Remain a CEO Coach, Let New OC Call Plays

PHILADELPHIA - The Eagles have yet to officially decide on who their new offensive coordinator will be but head coach Nick Sirianni confirmed that the replacement for Shane Steichen will be the play-caller in 2023.

Steichen, the new head coach in Indianapolis, took over the play-calling duties midway through the 2021 season, a move that coincided with the Eagles taking off and developing into a Super Bowl team this past season.

The Eagles finished 22-7 with Steichen as the play-caller after losing Super Bowl LVII to Kansas City on Sunday.

In 2022, with Steichen showing his feel for the job, Philadelphia finished with the No. 3 offense in the NFL, a 16-4 record, and averaged 35 points per game in the postseason.

Sirianni knew losing Steichen was a possibility and previously noted that he could consider taking back the play-calling duties if he wasn't as comfortable with the succession plan at OC.

With quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson the heavy favorite to be elevated to replace Steichen, Sirianni decided to take any discussion off the table early in the process.

The 180 has to do with Sirianni developing his own feel for the game as a CEO coach where he can manage his entire team without getting bogged down by heavy lifting of the play calls on game day.

“(Being a CEO coach) does help me manage the game better in my opinion,” Sirianni said Thursday. “It helps me interact with the players more on the sideline. And it helps me be able to discuss something with somebody upstairs to get on the defensive headset when the offense is up or vice versa. Yes, that will be my intent, to let the next offensive coordinator call the game.”

Johnson has extensive experience with play-calling at the college level, starting in 2012-13 as the OC at his alma mater of Utah in 2012 and 2013. From there he called plays as the OC at Houston in 2017 and helped call plays with then-Florida coach Dan Mullen in 2020.

Johnson is also very close with Eagles' star quarterback Jalen Hurts, first playing QB for Hurts' father in high school and then recruiting the younger Hurts on two occasions when Johnson was at Mississippi State and Florida.

"Brian stepped right in here and had a great relationship with our quarterback dating back to when our quarterback was, however old he was, two years old," said Sirianni. "So the relationship means a lot. And the trust was automatically there. Sometimes you have to develop the trust, but that was there."

The trust is also there with Sirianni and Johnson after two years together.

Sirianni wouldn't be committing to handing off play-calling without knowing who was grabbing the baton.

"For me, what works is this, and I'll continue doing it that way," he said. "That's the plan."

-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Football 24/7 and a daily contributor to ESPN South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen