OC/DC

Posted: January 28th, 2024 | Author: Tommy Lawlor 

With a flick of the switch, the Eagles filled both of their open coordinator spots. Rather than ride on further into the offseason with openings, the Eagles decided to shake a leg and make their hires. Vic Fangio will run the defense and Kellen Moore will run the offense.

Good moves.

I think.

History will tell you that it is hard to judge coaching hires. Shane Steichen was unknown when the Eagles hired him. That turned out pretty well. There have been plenty of examples of coaches with good track records failing in jobs where everyone thought they would be a good fit. You never really know.

I like the Moore hire for a few reasons. Most importantly, I like the fit. Moore has experience running an offense. He’s done it enough that he knows what he’s doing, but Moore is also young enough that he’s got fresh ideas and isn’t going to be married to something he’s done for years and years. He’s worked for offensive head coaches and produced good results. Moore knows how to get the best out of good players.

The Eagles won’t be asking him to do anything new. He’s had big success in similar situations in the past.

I’ve always been impressed with Moore as a play-caller. The Dallas offense was creative and aggressive with him running the show. They were Top 6 in scoring in 3 of his 4 years. His offenses score points.

I like the fact Moore is comfortable with the run and pass. His teams have been Top 10 in passing attempts in 4 of 5 seasons. They were Top 10 in rushing attempts in two of those seasons. He’s not afraid to let his QB sling it all over the yard. He’s also comfortable with feeding the ball to Zeke 25 times. The best coaches adapt to their personnel and the situation at hand. Moore can do that.

We’ve already talked about Fangio for several days. Let’s find out what Chris Long thinks.

https://twitter.com/greenlight/status/1751320458069160147

The Fangio scheme has produced mixed results. But Fangio has had success everywhere he’s been. After Jalen Ramsey returned from injury, Miami’s defense was Top 10 in DVOA for the rest of the year.

You need the right players to make any scheme work. It also helps to have a veteran coach running the scheme. Fangio has seen it all. He’s had to come up with schematic answers for 30 years. He’s faced every king of QB and offense you can imagine. He’ll have good ideas on how to adjust when an offense is getting the best of his defense.

For now, I like both hires a lot.

*****

One of the big differences between this year and last year is experience. Nick Sirianni hired coaches who can succeed on their own. He hired coaches with strong track records.

Last year Sirianni hired two young coaches. Johnson had never been an OC in the NFL. He’d only been in the league for two years. Sean Desai had been in the NFL for a decade, but only had one season as DC.

You can’t blame Sirianni for hiring young coaches. He did that with Steichen and Gannon and it worked really well. Johnson and Desai just didn’t work out. We could discuss why for a while, but for now let’s just focus on the fact they didn’t work.

There isn’t a lot of guessing or projecting with Fangio and Moore. They both have strong track records.

*****

Desai and Johnson are getting interviews for open coordinator positions. That tells you they are well-regarded by other teams. Things just didn’t work out in Philly. That stuff happens.

Both of them seem like good guys. I’ll be pulling for them.

http://igglesblitz.com/2024/01/oc-dc/

My concern with Moore (and this may be unfair) is that he has a tendency to prefer to pass and he likes those deep shots. Neither of those worked out particularly well for this team in 2023 and I don't think is set up for success in 2024 either. We need to lean more on the run to open things up for Hurts in the pass game. We need to utilise Hurts legs again to open up both the run, pass and play action. I know Hurts is being paid a lot of money to be the franchise QB and with that should be able to stand in the pocket and deliver but guess what? That isn't what he does especially well and I don't think is the answer to fixing Hurts.