The Kevin Patullo era is thankfully over. After another incompetent neophyte play caller, the Eagles can’t afford to hire another offensive coordinator with no offensive coordinator experience. That doesn’t mean they won’t. And after another failed hand-picked Nick Sirianni choice, they can’t let Sirianni make the final decision.
Brian Daboll may be the leader in the clubhouse. As a head coach, his childish temper tantrums and general assholery to his assistants made him a clown. As an offensive coordinator with built in restraints, he can be an asset.
Daboll and Sirianni were assistants on the Chiefs together in 2012 and formed a friendship. That relationship could be a boon or a drag. On the one hand, in the Nick Sirianni era the offense has been at its worst when Sirianni has a higher level of input, and hiring his buddy could open the door to further meddling. But on the other hand, Daboll should come with a level of trust that Sirianni hasn’t had since Shane Steichen.
Daboll’s history with Jalen Hurts may be tricky on the surface. Daboll was his offensive coordinator at Alabama and benched him for Tua Tagovailoa in the college football title game after being shut out in the first half. But that was nearly a decade ago, and he was right–Tagovailoa led the Crimson Tide to a win. The two appear to have moved on and patched it up, and in any case Daboll only benched him for one half, it was the next year under Mike Locksley that Hurts lost his starting job for good.
Relationships aside, Daboll is about as good of a fit as is out there to maximize the skillset of Hurts. He’s coached three mobile QBs in Josh Allen, Daniel Jones, and Jaxson Dart, and had relative success with each them, helping turn Allen from a ball of clay into a top tier QB, getting a good season out of Daniel Jones, and in his short time with him made Jaxson Dart look like a legit QB when Dart wasn’t running around with a death wish and Daboll wasn’t throwing him back out into traffic.
Daboll’s three straight losing seasons and the swift ending to his time in New York should see him remain sidelined for a head coaching job in 2027 unless the offense he oversees goes nuclear. In which case, that’s a good problem to have again.
If he doesn’t follow John Harbaugh to his next job, Todd Monken should interest the Eagles, and not just because he was at Georgia in 2021 and 2022. Who wouldn’t want this?
“The media acts like that’s something like ‘Oooooh, the players are frustrated with the play calling.’ Well, no sh*t, my wife is. I don’t even understand it,” Monken said. “Like they act like it’s something, or this skill player wants the ball more. Well, no sh*t. ‘They want to run the ball more.’ Well, no sh*t. OK, you’re running the ball, now ‘You’re too conservative.’ It’s play-to-play, drive to drive.”
Last year Monken got the best season of Lamar Jackson’s career and a nearly 2,000 yard season out of Derrick Henry. The two are not unrelated. In his three seasons in Baltimore the Ravens have finished 4th, 3rd, and 11th in scoring; and 6th, 1st, and 13th in yards. He shares Nick Sirianni’s hatred of turnovers, which come to think of it may be an issue. Monken also fits the Eagles blueprint of ball control offense, the Ravens were 16th, 16th, and 28th in plays ran, and 28th, 31st, 32nd in pass attempts
Though Monken, who turns 60 next month, has an interview request from the Browns this week, he is unlikely to leave in a year for a head coach job if things go well.
In a slightly sickos move, the freshly fired Kliff Kingsbury would make some sense. The Eagles reportedly are interested.
The reasons for the Commanders firing Kingsbury should both interest and concern the Eagles. Kingsbury was fired in large part because GM Adam Peters was upset that he wouldn’t utilize the players Peters acquired, such as Deebo Samuel having his fewest touches per game since his rookie season, and Ben Sinnott being TE3. That may concern the Eagles, who have seen minimal production from supporting players such as Jahan Dotson, Tank Bigsby, and Will Shipley; and when those players did show signs of life they were quickly placed back into storage. Kingsbury also got some heat for using Jayden Daniels too often as a runner. In his defense the Commanders lacked a clear cut starting RB to take that burden off of Daniels. Using Jalen Hurts’ legs more is sorely needed, and clear RB1 should keep Kingsbury from overusing that.
With a near record nine head coach openings, Kevin Stefanski will probably get a head coaching job. But if he doesn’t, the Eagles are also reportedly interested. Stefanski never had a stable QB situation, in part because of a falling out with Baker Mayfield. He also has had a top 10 scoring offense just once in his six seasons in Cleveland, in 2023, which was only the second winning season of his career. In terms of style he makes some sense, the Browns finished 4th, 9th, 5th, 4th in rushing attempts until bottoming out to 28th and 26th the past two seasons. It feels unlikely he will be the next Eagles OC, and if they have any success he’ll be gone in a flash for a head coaching job.
In 2023 the Eagles interviewed then Iowa State OC and current Rams pass game coordinator Nathan Scheelhaase. Scheelhaase will probably get an OC job this year. Grabbing a branch off the Sean McVay or Kyle Shanahan coaching tree will always appeal to teams, but it’s no sure thing. His predecessor in that role was Zach Robinson, who spent two years as Falcons OC with seemingly no plan B after running the same half dozen plays out of the pistol formation with two different QBs.
From the college ranks, Ole Miss/LSU/Ole Miss offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, Jr. is a name to keep an eye on. Trinidad Chambliss, who started the season as a backup, seamlessly went from DII to exploding in the playoffs under his watch, and with Jaxson Dart last year had the 3rd highest scoring offense in college. At just 32 if he works out he’s likely not getting a head coaching job immediately. But as a 32 year old with no NFL experience, this would be a huge gamble.
You can probably cross Mike McDaniel off your list, and not just because he might get a head coaching job. McDaniel hired Vic Fangio in 2023, got disappointing results and then saw Fangio basically ghost him to take the Eagles job and win a Super Bowl. While the two would spend little time in the same room together if they were on the Eagles, it is hard to see either side overly interested in this reunion.
This would be extremely stupid but the Eagles do extremely stupid things sometimes. Former Eagles OC and Nick Sirianni mentor Frank Reich is available after his season as Stanford’s interim head coach for Stanford GM Andrew Luck. The cronyism is too much sometimes. The upside to Reich is that if the Eagles have a good season he’s not getting another head coaching job. The downside is that the team is totally out of ideas if this is the hire, or even if they interview him.
Various available playcallers who should not interest the Eagles
Arthur Smith has somewhat rehabbed his career in Pittsburgh but the Steelers offense under him the past two years has been about as painful to watch as the Eagles offense this year.
Matt Nagy is a free agent. Good luck with that Matt.
Mike Kafka, enjoy going back to KC to replace Matt Nagy.
Brian Callahan, Joe Burrow merchant.
