More Staff Updates

Posted: January 29th, 2024 | Author: Tommy Lawlor

We know Vic Fangio will run the defense, Kellen Moore will run the offense and Michael Clay will run the special teams. After that, things are less certain.

Jeff Stoutland will coach the OL and Kevin Patullo will be part of the offensive staff.

We found out a couple of moves on the defensive side today.

Hurtt was the DC for Seattle the past two years. Their defense had issues so it isn’t surprising to see him step back to a DL role. He was Seattle’s DL coach from 2017-2021. Before that he was the OLB coach in Chicago in 2015 and 2016, working under DC Vic Fangio. Hurtt was a college coach for a decade before coming to the NFL.

Scott coached DBs for Seattle the past two years. He was with the Vikings in 2021. From 2018-2020 he was the DB coach for Alabama.

Let’s talk about what the Eagles get with these hires. Hurtt knows the Fangio scheme. He can coach his D-linemen on how to succeed with the specific requirements that Fangio has. Remember that DL are supposed to cover 1.5 gaps, which is highly unusual. Hurtt should be able to teach that well.

Scott never worked for Fangio, but he did an excellent job with young DBs in Seattle. Riq Woolen and Devon Witherspoon both excelled under him. Scott’s time at Alabama is almost as good as working in the NFL. Nick Saban is arguably the best DB coach of all time. Working under him is a great opportunity to learn how to coach DBs and team some challenging techniques.

The Eagles are building a staff that fits well together. Fangio has a very specific scheme. Hurtt can help teach that scheme. Scott has the experience and knowledge to work well in that scheme.

The defense was a mess in 2023. The scheme was fine, but they didn’t have the right guys to teach it and keep all 11 players on the same page. We saw breakdowns week after week. There was poor communication. There was confusion.

It seems like Nick Sirianni understood that hiring young coaches and hoping they would mesh wasn’t a good strategy. He hired a veteran DC and is now bringing in veteran coaches. They should help bring out the best in the players the Eagles have. And there will be some personnel upgrades as well.

It feels like the Eagles have a stronger sense of direction this offseason. Last year was crazy. The offseason didn’t start until mid-February and a lot of good coaches were already gone. Sirianni tried to go with young teachers since he had luck with that on the original staff. It didn’t work.

Sirianni has learned from his mistakes and is getting proven coaches and guys who know each other schematically and personally. Build a smart staff that gets along well and you’re more likely to have success.

We’ll hear more staff news in the coming week. It will be interesting to see how many new faces there are. Sirianni has talked about how hard it is to fire guys, but he’s ultra-competitive and will do anything to win.

http://igglesblitz.com/2024/01/more-staff-updates/

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It seems like Nick Sirianni understood that hiring young coaches and hoping they would mesh wasn’t a good strategy. He hired a veteran DC and is now bringing in veteran coaches. They should help bring out the best in the players the Eagles have.

I absolutely hate those hires when they were made ... knowing BJ had zero experience running an offense made so sense for a team coming off a SB appearance.  I could see a "young up-and-coming coach being thrown into that role on a team that was building from the ground up but for a team with a window as wide open as it could possibly get it was just dumb to promote him to such a prominent role and pretty much expect him to learn on the job ... it led to a wasted year.  What made it all the more frustrating is having seen the exact same thing play out just a couple years earlier when Doug promoted Groh to OC ... same result.  

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Sirianni has learned from his mistakes and is getting proven coaches and guys who know each other schematically and personally. Build a smart staff that gets along well and you’re more likely to have success.

Spot on!  Better to have learned that lesson a year late than not learn it at all.