Ryan Mahaffey Hire Affects Two Veteran Eagles Coaches

PHILADELPHIA - On the day after Jeff Stoutland announced he would not be returning for a 14th season in Philadelphia, the Eagles hired Ryan Mahaffey as their new run game coordinator and tight ends coach, a league source confirmed to Eagles On SI.

Mahaffey, 38, worked with new Eagles offensive coordinator Sean Mannion with the Green Bay Packers over the past two season when Mahaffey handles the wide receivers and Mannion tutored the quarterbacks for Matt LaFleur.

Although there were some conflicting reports, the Packers did not fire Mahaffey, according to a source in Green Bay, and could have blocked the coach from going to Philadelphia for what’s considered a lateral move in the NFL.

Mannion wanted Mahaffey on his offensive staff, and the Packers allowed the Northern Iowa product to leave in order to further his coaching career.

Mahaffey’s presence not only affected Stoutland, 64, who pulled the trigger on his exit after considering the shifting sands set for the offense, but also veteran tight ends coach Jason Michael.

Two For One

Eagles TE coach Jason Michael | John McMullen/Eagles On SI

Michael has been with the organization since Nick Sirianni arrived in 2021 and has a very close relationship with veteran tight end Dallas Goedert, who is set to be an unrestricted free agent in March.

There could be even further turnover in the TE room because backup TEs Grant Calcaterra and Kylen Granson are also set to be free agents when the new league year starts on March 11.

Currently, Philadelphia has only two TEs who are signed to futures deals: E.J. Jenkins and Jaheim Bell.

Stoutland was originally hired by Chip Kelly in 2013 and bridged to the Doug Pederson era and the first five seasons of Sirianni.

Things started to change last season for Stoutland after the run game struggled, and Sirianni and then-offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo decided to make some shifts in the running game without much discussion with Stoutland and his thoughts on the matter.

Technically Stoutland remained the run game coordinator throughout all of last season but felt that was in name only, according to a team source.

Once the title was set to be officially removed, things changed, and Stoutland decided to move on from the team, although there were other sticking points as well, including a proposed scheme change with Mannion running the offensive show.

Mahaffey, a former NFL fullback and tight end, has an eclectic coaching background that includes work with tight ends, the offensive line and receivers.

He got his NFL coaching start with the Packers in 2021 as an offensive quality control coach before being assistant offensive line coach (2022-23), and then wide receivers coach in 2024 and 2023.

Mahaffey coached tight ends at the college level, first at Northern Iowa, his alma mater, in 2013 and then at Western Kentucky in 2017-18.

This is the first time in Mahaffey’s coaching career that he has held the title of run game coordinator. He did run the offense as a whole in Northern Iowa from 2019-2020 after previously working as the co-OC and receivers coach in 2016.

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