Posted February 1st, 2026 | 3 Comments »The offseason is a time of change. Most of those are expected, like the Eagles hiring a new offensive coordinator. There are also some surprises, like the news that Vic Fangio seriously considered retiring.
Scare is the perfect word.
Apparently Fangio told the team he was going to retire. Someone then talked him out of it. For now. Nothing is officially official yet. Fangio, age 67, has had a long, distinguished career. Pro football has a long, grinding season. It isn’t hard to believe Fangio would feel burned out at the end. This also isn’t the first time he’s considered retirement.
I’m guessing Fangio will stick around this season. That’s the good news. The bad news is that this very well could be his final season. The Eagles will have to start thinking about the future right away. They can pursue someone next offseason. They will have some in-house candidates to consider. They also could hire someone now to spend the year learning from Fangio and getting ready for the future. We’ll see if anything happens.
The Eagles reaching out to Jonathan Gannon and Jim Schwartz about this season is interesting. Gannon has a history here and runs a similar system to Fangio. As frustrating as it would be to have Gannon back, there is some logic. Schwartz helped the Eagles win SB LII and has done a great job with the Browns since leaving Philly. His scheme is different, but he’s a proven coach who knows how to make things work. With Fangio probably staying, Gannon and Schwartz will likely be elsewhere.
Fangio has had a great career. He deserves to retire to a life of watching the Phillies and making meatballs. I just hope he puts that off for a year or two.
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DL coach Clint Hurtt interviewed with the Dolphins about their open DC role. Luckily that has been filled by someone else (Sean Duggan).
Hurtt could be an internal candidate for the Eagles next season. He’s done an excellent job with the DL and has experience as a DC.
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More changes to the offensive staff sounds like a good thing. As dysfunctional as the offense was this year, I wouldn’t want anyone feeling too safe. The lack of player development in some areas is an issue. It also doesn’t feel like the positional coaches are all getting the most out of their guys. It just might be time for a change for some of them.
It also makes sense to give Sean Mannion a chance to hire some coaches that he’s familiar with and who can help implement his system. Speaking of Mannion, here is Shawn Syed breaking down some practice tape to help give you a feel for what his offense could look like in its most basic form.
That’s hardly anything definitive, but is a good primer on some of what to expect. Worth your five minutes.
Besides, what else are you going to watch? Pro Bowl coverage?
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Posted February 1st, 2026 | 4 Comments »The Eagles long and winding search for a new offensive coordinator finally came to an end. They hired Sean Mannion from Green Bay to come in and run the offense. This is a really interesting move for a variety of reasons.
Mannion is 33 years old and has two years of coaching experience. That isn’t the description that most expected in the new hire. The two names that were mentioned originally were Mike McDaniel and Brian Daboll. Both guys are former head coaches as well as veteran offensive coordinators. The thinking was that the Eagles wanted an experienced coordinator to run the offense and help the team compete for a Super Bowl in 2026. Instead the team went for Mannion, who has never called plays and has a limited coaching background. Put simply, they focused on the man more than the resume.
It would have been great if there was an ideal candidate for the Eagles to pursue. Think back a couple of years ago when Vic Fangio was on the market. That was a no-brainer. You go get that guy. There were good arguments for McDaniel and Daboll, but also some questions. We don’t know if the Eagles offered either of them the job. Both went elsewhere. The Eagles then went and talked to a lot of different candidates. They left no stone unturned.
There is wisdom in this approach. There was no need to rush and go hire Matt Nagy, Mike Kafka, Bobby Slowik, Greg Roman or whatever established veteran you want to mention. Why not look around and see if you could find someone with less of a resume, but who impressed you? The Eagles took a chance on the young, unproven Jon Gruden in 1995 and he proved to be a great hire. They hired Andy Reid to be head coach without him ever having been an offensive coordinator. I seem to recall that going well for them.
There are no guarantees Mannion will work out to that level, or anything close. But I do like taking a chance on him. Jimmy Bama and I have talked for years about how the NFL is a league of parity. Smart teams will try to find ways to create advantages. The Eagles did this under Chip Kelly with the Sports Science stuff. They did it under Doug Pederson with analytics and going for it on fourth downs. One advantage you can come up with is finding a coach before he hits it big. Jim Johnson wasn’t a coaching star when Reid hired him in 1999. He became one pretty quickly.
The move obviously involves risk. Mannion could prove to be in over his head. The Eagles might have hired him before he’s ready. He’ll have more pressure on him than he’s had in his career, as a player or coach. Some people thrive under pressure. Others struggle. We’ll have to wait and see how Mannion does.
So let’s talk about Mannion and what the Eagles did like. He was a backup QB from 2015-2023. That is a great way to prepare for a coaching career. Backups have to know the playbook without being given a ton of practice reps. That means they have to focus on mental preparation. Backups help with gameplanning and work with the starters to get them ready. A lot of backup QBs know their future is in coaching, not becoming a starter. At a certain point, they develop a player-coach mentality. That was certainly Mannion’s approach.
“For me, as a player, I always knew that this would be the next step, so I really attacked my playing career with this kind of in the back of my mind, soaking up as much knowledge as I could to weaponize it for this new role I’m in here now,” Sean said last week when he spoke with reporters for the first time since his promotion this offseason. “Really starting with that, and all those coaches in L.A. that I got to work with. Between playing experience and all the things I was able to learn from the coaches I worked with throughout my playing career, I think that’s kind of my biggest asset in terms of bringing that to the QB room.”
Mannion had good people to learn from.
Those are some of the top offensive minds in the NFL. Mannion was exposed to successful offenses and different ways to do things. He was part of McVay’s 2018 team that had a workhorse runner (Todd Gurley) and workhorse receivers (Robert Woods, Brandin Cooks, Cooper Kupp). That team made it to the Super Bowl. Mannion worked in Green Bay the last couple of years in an offense that spread the ball around. Mannion saw Jared Goff, Kirk Cousins and Jordan Love all have success in different ways. It is critical for coaches to understand that there are multiple ways to flourish.
While Mannion doesn’t have a ton of experience, he does have a strong reputation.
One of the big selling points for me is the job Mannion did with Malik Willis. In his first two seasons with the Titans, Willis didn’t play much. He threw a total of 66 passes (no TDs). He looked raw. Willis came to Green Bay in 2024. He started a couple of games (after the Eagles knocked Jordan Love out in the opener). Willis played well. Mannion took over as the QB coach this past season. Willis was called on in key games at the end of the season and played his best football. Love also had his best season in 2025.
Mannion’s background and accomplishments got him on the Eagles radar. That got his foot in the door. He must have had a terrific interview, providing answers that Howie Roseman, Jeffrey Lurie and Nick Sirianni wanted to hear. The Eagles have veteran talent on offense. They need someone who can get the most out of that talent. They also need someone who can be creative and come up with answers when problems arise. Clearly that wasn’t happening last year.
Mannion will run the offense and call plays. We don’t fully know how everything will work. The Eagles already made one additional change.
We don’t know if there will be more changes. Mannion may want a different QB coach than Scott Loeffler. There could be a new run game coordinator. The offense had a lot of issues last year, including who was doing what.
As Kelce points out in that clip, the offense has been disjointed. Rather than having several different people doing their part, there could be a need for one voice to be in charge and control the overall attack. The run game, the pass game and the play-action game must all work together.
I think bringing in Grizzard to help with the passing game is smart. He’s been an OC and a PGC so he understands both roles, and at the NFL level. He spent two seasons coaching under Mike McDaniel, so he’s familiar with the Shanahan system. Grizzard and Mannion have some things in common. This is important because the Eagles need a unified offensive staff, with everyone singing from the same hymnal, so to speak.
The Eagles have added a pair of bright, young offensive minds to the coaching staff. If Mannion and Grizzard prove to be good hires, the offense will be worlds better in 2026. There is still is a lot to sort out. Will there be more coaching changes? Will AJ Brown be dealt? What other personnel changes could take place? This could be an interesting offseason for Jalen Hurts and the rest of the offense.
Having a new playbook and play-caller won’t solve all the problems. The Eagles need to get healthy up front and they need to figure out who really wants to be in Philly. All the changes in the world don’t mean a thing if you don’t have buy-in from the players and everyone doing their part to make things work.
Nick Sirianni needs his team to be tough, detailed and together. That wasn’t the case in 2025.
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