How Sean Mannion showed ability as an OC before Eagles hired him

Eagles offensive coordinator Sean Mannion was the OC at the East-West Shrine Bowl this year and showed off his ability to be an OC.

By Dave Zangaro • Published February 6, 2026

Sean Mannion was one of the final coaches added to the staff for the East-West Shrine Bowl last month.

Just a few days before the Eagles took a big swing by hiring the 33-year-old as their next offensive coordinator, Mannion held the same position for the West squad at the Shrine Bowl in North Texas.

And he didn’t disappoint.

"It’s always a tough challenge for all these coaches,” said Eric Galko, Shrine Bowl director of football operations and player personnel. "And I think he showed pretty confidently and pretty immediately that he could not only handle it, but could do an awesome job all week.”

Typically, the staffs for these college pre-draft all-star games are made up of NFL coaches from non-playoff teams. In fact, Mannion was the only coach on either side who came from a team that was in the playoffs this season. But Galko had heard so many good things about the then-Packers’ quarterbacks coach and knew that Mannion was interested, so they made it happen.

Galko worked with the league office and got Mannion down to Frisco, Texas, for the week. Mannion was named the offensive coordinator for the West team, whose head coach was Cowboys tight ends coach Lunda Wells, a 14-year NFL coaching veteran.

Mannion, meanwhile, had just finished up his second season as a coach after a nine-year NFL playing career. That relative inexperience as a coach could be viewed as a negative, but Wells didn’t think it was at Shrine Bowl.

"I think the NFL experience helps,” Wells said. "But I think what ultimately helps is he’s a good communicator. He had good command, good presence with the staff and the players. That’s just kind of in you. His command and presence, he has that. He’s pretty good with it. You wouldn’t know that he has only been coaching for two years.”

The coaching inexperience didn’t show up but what did was Mannion’s readiness for the next step in his career. Those who were around him during this year’s Shrine Bowl came away impressed by his level of organization, attention to detail, capacity to simplify and coach and ability to connect with his players, specifically the quarterbacks on his team.

It was just a week at an all-star game designed to evaluate college prospects, but Mannion shined.

"He was great,” Louisville quarterback Miller Moss said. "I think obviously the entire week is a pretty unique opportunity, but having him as a coordinator the whole week was awesome. It’s kind of a scramble to install an offense that quickly. But he did a phenomenal job, not only working with the quarterbacks but how he handled the room and how he grew over the course of the week was cool to see.

"You get a bunch of different guys from programs all over the country and the jump from Practice 1 to Practice 3 or 4 was pretty significant. And I think that was due to him and his coaching and how he brought the group together.”

Connecting with the players

At one point during the practice week, Mannion was catching passes from the West team quarterbacks and was tossing the balls back with some zip.

Impressed, the QBs looked at each other and thought: "Oh, he’s still got it.”

Mannion is just 33 years old and isn’t that far removed from his nine-year NFL career as a backup quarterback. He was a player in the league in 2023. So it probably isn’t shocking that he seems to relate to his players — quarterbacks especially — very well.

"It’s just who he is as a person,” Georgia Tech QB Haynes King said. "A lot of people are attracted to him. He’s a great coach, a players coach, he attracts a lot of people to him. I think he might have been a little biased, I don’t know, because he was a quarterback. Quarterback friendly for sure.”

The first thing Wells said about Mannion, even before touting his football intellect, was that Mannion vibed well with everybody at the Shrine Bowl. He was easy to work with. And he was also easy to play under.

Mannion’s experience as a former quarterback definitely helped.

"I think it always helps playing a position when you’re being coached by someone who’s played it and knows what it looks like,” Moss said. "He has that perspective that not many people have of going through certain things, experiencing what the pocket feels like. It’s one thing to look at it; it’s another thing to live and breathe those experiences.”

Wells said he saw all four of the West quarterbacks get comfortable with the system quickly, which means it was simplified and taught in a way that was digestible.

That started by building a connection and earning the trust of those players.

"We’ve had a lot of great coordinators come through the Shrine Bowl, whether it’s Mike Kafka or a lot of great people like that too,” Galko said. "But I think he’s been one of the most effective player communicators that I’ve seen as a coordinator at the Shrine Bowl the last five years.”

The week of prep

When Wells got the call that he would be serving as the head coach of the West team, he got to work creating a schedule for the week. He wanted to treat it as closely as he could to an NFL schedule so teams could evaluate how these prospects learn in that setting.

"I didn’t just want to drop off a playbook and say, ‘Here’s the plays,’” Wells said.

So the West squad installed their offense like an NFL team would normally do early in a season. They went methodically — yet quickly — through first down, second down, third down, red zone, 2-minute, every aspect of offensive football.

Once Wells gave Mannion the breakdown of how the install was going to work, Mannion got to work.

"He knows ball,” Wells said. "He’s been around football for a long time. Played the quarterback position. So his knowledge base was phenomenal from that aspect. He did a nice job teaching, breaking everything down. Simplifying it for the guys. We had a lot of guys coming in and out. 

"He did a nice job simplifying it so we could at least play effectively and play aggressive offensively. You’re getting a good guy, a guy that knows how to connect, you’re getting a guy that’s detailed and organized and knows ball. And ultimately, you’re getting a guy that understands that position.”

It’s not easy to be an offensive coordinator at an all-star game. Mannion had to work with coaches from a bunch of diverse systems and install an offense to dozens of NFL hopefuls who have been exposed to a bunch of different things at the college level. And he had four very distinct quarterbacks under his guidance too.

Mannion had just a few days to come up with a plan before beginning to install the offense to the West squad in a way that was digestible. And then when the week of practice began, Mannion was very hands-on, especially with the QBs.

"I think his ability to create an offense, adapt an offense and install it in four days, five days, with coaches and then with players for three days, I think it was really impressive,” Galko said. "I know it was really impressive. For someone who hasn’t been a coordinator at that level, again his head coach let him be the coordinator and let him install the offense, to do that in a couple days, shows that give him an offseason, he can do that at the NFL level too. 

"I can’t say enough of how blown away I was by how organized he was. Good coaching is not always the plays you draw up or the motivation you share. Especially as coordinator, it’s about being organized and thoughtful. It blew me away with how organized and thoughtful he was with how he wanted to install things and how he wanted to coach these players.”

Calling the game

When Moss found out he was going to play the second quarter of the East-West Shrine Bowl on Jan. 27 at the Star in Frisco, Texas, he had one thought: I hope I get a 2-minute drill.

And he did.

Late in the first half, the West got the ball with just 18 seconds left and moved 17 yards on 4 plays to set up a 57-yard field goal. Mannion guided him through it perfectly.

"The last call of the half was awesome because I felt like he gave me an answer vs. one-high, two-high,” Moss said. "And I think that’s just an example of how Sean’s going to dial it up in the future. That was really fun. Talking through the situations. ‘Hey, we have a timeout. You can use the middle of the field here. It doesn’t have to be out of bounds, incomplete.’ I think it was fun to exercise the things we talked about in the meeting room and get to have it in a real situation.”

The West squad ended up winning 21-17 with the Eagles’ soon-to-be offensive coordinator calling the plays from the sideline as the West team cycled through four quarterbacks and 36 total offensive players.

A big part of Mannion’s job in Philadelphia will be calling the plays, sequencing them throughout a game. Even though all-star games are unique, there were some good signs about Mannion’s ability in that respect.

"I’ll say this,” Well said. "When you talk about sequencing, he didn’t overcook it, meaning trying to call every play that he had on his call sheet. We ran power maybe three or four times. Some of the best football is when you find something that you do well and just do it again. 

"In terms of sequencing, him getting into the game and seeing what we was running well, he stuck with that. As you very well know, you guys’ last run, that’s what Kellen (Moore) did. Kellen would turn around and hand the ball off to 26 (Saquon Barkley) and ride him until the wheels fall off. That’s what I would say in terms of sequencing.”

And thanks to the flow of the game, the West team was faced with some real-life situations too. In addition to that 2-minute drill at the end, they also had a 4-minute situation to close out the game with a long, game-winning touchdown drive. The West got the ball back with 8:16 left in the fourth quarter, down 17-15, and went on a 14-play, 70-yard touchdown drive, scoring the game-winner with just 11 seconds remaining.

Wells said that Mannion handled both of those situations perfectly. The head coach went over those situations with Mannion during the week so Mannion knew they were going to be aggressive and then he called the plays with that in mind.

Aside from all the situational work, another thing stood out to King about his offensive coordinator from their time together. It was a testament to just how detailed Mannion was all week.

"He also went over if stuff was to go bad too,” the draft hopeful quarterback said. "Let’s say the headset didn’t work or it cut out. ‘Hey, what are we going to do? What’s the plan?’ He kind of went over that with each and every quarterback as well. I don’t know how everything goes, but I thought that was pretty cool as well because stuff like that happens.”

And Mannion wanted his players to have a plan. As he prepared for his own coaching future, installed a game plan, coordinated a week of practice and prepared to call plays, Mannion was still worried about every minute detail.

Like what you’re hearing? That’s the guy the Eagles just hired as their offensive coordinator.

https://www.nbcsportsphiladelphia.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/sean-mannion-offensive-coordinator-east-west-shrine-bowl-eagles-oc/711773/

I think given my expectations for next year are relatively "low” compared to the one we’ve just had I’m excited to see what Mannion can do. He clearly is a bright young coach who may have a bright future and that’s exciting. Hopefully he can get this offense going and hopefully Jalen is able to run a Mannion offense.