Eagles Name Coordinators

Posted: February 28th, 2023 | Author: Tommy Lawlor 

Good moves.

Let’s start with Brian Johnson since we haven’t talked a lot about him. Nick Sirianni hired him as QBs coach two years ago, despite not knowing Johnson. Sirianni saw a guy who had been an OC at Utah, Mississippi State, Houston and Florida. Johnson had also coached QBs at those stops. He knew X’s and O’s and how to coach the QB position. Coming from college meant he was exposed to cutting edge ideas.

It didn’t hurt that Johnson was a lifelong friend of Jalen Hurts. They’re both from the Houston area and Johnson knew Hurts from when Jalen was a little kid. That relationship has helped Hurts blossom as an NFL QB. Johnson has done a terrific job of developing Hurts from a talented player into a good QB. History is full of players who could not make that leap.

Making Johnson the OC is a no-brainer. The Eagles keep a good coach and keep the star QB happy. Losing Shane Steichen is tough, but the offense will be in good shape. Jeff Stoutland is still the running game guru. Kevin Patullo does good work with the passing game. Sirianni and Johnson played a key role in putting together gameplans and making gameday decisions. Steichen was the play-caller, but the overall process was highly collaborative.

Now Johnson becomes the man calling the plays. He’s got plenty of experience doing that in college so I think the transition to doing it in the NFL will be smooth. He’s been part of a dynamic offense for the past two years and still has good people around him. Johnson isn’t here to fix the offense. He just needs to keep a good thing going.

As for Desai, that’s another move I like. He and Jonathan Gannon do similar things so the players won’t be learning a completely new system. They can build off what they did the past two years. The challenge for Desai is to be more creative and aggressive, especially against good offenses. Gannon’s defense could look great at times, but struggled against good QBs.

Desai has a reputation as a good teacher. That will be critical with the possibility of a youth movement on defense. There are going to be several new faces, possibly even rookies on the field. They will need a good teacher to help them get ready to play.

I think Desai is a good fit in terms of culture and intangibles. He’s a grinder. He went from being a high school coach to a grad assistant at Temple. He then climbed the ladder in college and made his way to the NFL as a quality control coach. High school/grad assistant/QC coach? That’s Sirianni’s fantasy hire.

By hiring Desai, Sirianni passed over incumbent DB coach Dennard Wilson. We don’t know if Wilson will be back. Sirianni said the Eagles would be lucky to have him return as the DBs coach. He also mentioned Desai might have coaches he wants to bring in. One rumor out there today…

Pettine was an OLBs coach for the Ravens for four years. The Eagles LB coach would focus more on ILBs. Or Pettine could come aboard as a senior assistant to help out Desai.

Chris Shula interviewed for the DC spot. He’s still on the market and has experience as a LB coach. He also worked with Sirianni previously so Shula could be of interest. We’ll have to wait and see how they fill out the staff. For now, the Eagles staff will focus on their time at the Combine. They’ve got a lot of interviews to do with players.

The Eagles did announce changes to the offensive staff.

QB Coach – Alex Tanney

Senior Offensive Asst – Marcus Brady

Run Game Specialist/Assistant Tight Ends Coach – TJ Paganetti

These all look like solid moves to me. Tanney was a QB in the NFL for nine years. He didn’t play much, but hung around a long time. Think of him as the poor man’s Doug Pederson. If he can coach like Pederson, the Eagles will be very happy. Sirianni had good things to say about Tanney.

"When we interviewed Alex for the quality control spot, he did everything he could to be ready for that job. He took a computer class to teach himself how to draw on Vizio, which we draw our pictures on. He made sure he could do the part of the job that he was going to do. I really admired that and he worked really hard at that. That’s a thankless job. A lot of us have had that job and it’s thankless, but he excelled at that job.

"And then we moved him into assistant quarterbacks, and he did some other things this year and he crushed that role too. I know in his mind he wants to eventually call plays and be a head football coach, but I know what he’s going to do this year — exactly what he did the last two years, and he’s going to kill his role and do everything he can do to help Jalen play better, to help us put together a plan, and work his butt off to do that. He’s super smart, he connects with the players, and he’s really worked to get everything he has, and I really admire that and I know he’s going to be a great quarterback coach.”

That’s not just someone getting a promotion because he’s next in line. Sirianni has been around Tanney as a player and coach. He sees a guy with a bright future. If you know football and have a strong work ethic, you’ve got a chance to succeed in coaching. It sounds like Tanney is on that path.

Brady replaced Sirianni as the OC in Indy under Frank Reich. The Eagles probably fear losing Brian Johnson in the next year or two as a head coach. If that happens, Brady could take over as OC.

Paganetti came to the Eagles under Chip Kelly and has had a variety of roles. He is working his way up the ladder and could develop into a RB or TE coach in the future.

One complaint could be that the Eagles are being too insular by promoting from within. I don’t see that as being an issue. The Eagles staff came from a variety of backgrounds. They’ve had success with different QBs and offenses. Sirianni loves to talk to outside coaches and trade ideas. He talked about how he and his buddy the high school coach love to discuss football. I don’t see the Eagles as being too close-minded. They have one of the most creative offenses in the league. I fully expect that to continue.

*****

Sirianni and Howie Roseman spoke to the media on Tuesday. I’ll have some thoughts on what they had to say in another post. There wasn’t anything too crazy, but there were a couple of interesting nuggets.

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