Getty Eagles head coach Doug Pederson, with his top assistant Duce Staley.
The Eagles’ month-long search for a new offensive coordinator has finally reached a breaking point. The choice? No one.
Philadelphia will reportedly not name a head play-caller for the 2020 season after an exhaustive process turned up zero viable candidates. Instead, the Eagles intend to split the normal duties up between newly-promoted passing-game coordinator Press Taylor and running-game coordinator Jeff Stoutland. Taylor will add the new title to his previous one of quarterbacks coach while Stoutland will presumably keep his other role as offensive line coach.
Per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the Eagles are reportedly hiring Rich Scangarello to serve in a consultant role. The former Broncos offensive coordinator has a reputation for being a bit of a quarterback whisperer having overseen rookie Drew Lock’s development in Denver last year. Prior to that, he worked with Matt Ryan in Atlanta and Jimmy Garoppolo in San Francisco.
Scangarello’s exact role hasn’t been revealed, but the Eagles will retain running backs coach Duce Staley so there should be a ton of brainpower in the offensive meeting room. Too many cooks in the kitchen? Perhaps. Either way, it appears the team is content on going with an “offensive coordinator by committee” approach in 2020. Remember, head coach Doug Pederson has been known to call the shots and have final say on the play-calling chart.
Pederson has long been known to be aggressive and that philosophy isn’t likely to change anytime soon. It doesn’t matter who is actually calling the plays on the field.
Eagles coaching staff coming together. Former Broncos offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello and former Mississippi State pass game coordinator/quarterbacks coach Andrew Breiner are also expected to have a role, I’m told.
“You learn if you play passive, if you play conservative, if you call plays conservatively, you are going to be 8-8, 9-7 every year,” Pederson said in 2018, per The MMQB’s Peter King. “Every year. Frank (offensive coordinator Frank Reich) and I just having that collaborative spirit to talk about things and talk with our quarterbacks and just come up with ways of keeping this game fresh and fun and exciting for our players. And that’s really where it all stems from.”
Eagles Missed Out on Leading Candidates for Offensive Coordinator
There seemed to be a very select group of play-callers the Eagles were looking at to fill Mike Groh’s role as offensive coordinator. Unfortunately, they missed out on all of them.
Two leading candidates were Chiefs quarterbacks coach Mike Kafka and Ravens quarterbacks coach James Urban, two guys who had familiarity with the Eagles’ organization. Kafka was blocked from interviewing for the job by Andy Reid while Urban elected to stay put in Baltimore and never made the trip to Philadelphia.
The Eagles also saw their overtures rebuked by former Redskins offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell and USC offensive coordinator Graham Harrell. O’Connell took the same job for the Los Angeles Rams and Harrell decided to return to USC. Ultimately, neither coach wanted give up the play-calling duties and play second fiddle to Doug Pederson.
Obviously, the reason the Eagles weren’t looking for a play-calling offensive coordinator is that head coach Doug Pederson will call the plays. This was made clear to candidates who were interviewing for the OC position.
Pederson’s squad will be the only NFL team without an offensive coordinator, at least by name. It’s no secret three other head coaches call their own plays: Sean McVay in Los Angeles, Bill O’Brien in Houston and Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco. Add Pederson to that list.
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Eagles Shake Up Offensive Coaching Structure in Strange Move: Report