Mahaffey’s Law

PHILADELPHIA — Nearly a decade before breaking into the NFL coaching ranks as an offensive quality control coach in Green Bay, Ryan Mahaffey was ensconced in a training camp battle with fellow fullbacks Jorvorskie Lane and Jerome Messam as a member of the Miami Dolphins, back in the summer of 2012.

Mahaffey was coming off a rookie campaign in which he appeared in five games for the Indianapolis Colts, presumably giving him an advantage in his roster push, but it was Lane – a “Hard Knocks” standout that summer – who ultimately prevailed.

With his playing career seemingly at a crossroads, Mahaffey considered law school. He took the LSAT, preparing to embark on entirely new terrain that would have rendered football as merely an afterthought.

But before fully taking the plunge into his new endeavor, a stroke of good fortune necessitated an audible. The seminal moment occurred when Mark Farley, Mahaffey’s head coach at Northern Iowa, reached out to gauge Mahaffey’s interest in assisting his alma mater that following spring.

Mahaffey, who required little convincing, pounced on the opportunity.

“I was like, ‘Oh, for a little bit,'” Mahaffey recently recalled when speaking to a group of local beat reporters. “I got done in the spring, and [Farley] offered me a full-time job, and I thought to myself, ‘Well, my LSAT is good for five years.’ If I wanted to go back, I could go back.

“But after I started doing it, I realized pretty quickly that this is ultimately what I love to do, and I’ve just been very blessed in my career where I’ve had people kind of guide me or pointed me in the right direction. I’ve been lucky to have the support.”

New Eagles TEs coach Ryan Mahaffey, also the run game designer, staved off law school to get into coaching.

Mahaffey looks back on it as part of a trend of being surrounded by “the right people” who’ve steered him down the right paths.

“So, I’m very thankful for that. But it was just fortuitous timing,” he said. “I was actually walking across the track. (Farley) hollered at me from across the way. You never forget your coach’s voice. So, I heard him, and I walked over there, and he told me, ‘Yeah, I think you should try this out.’ And he was right.”

As for the five-year shelf-life of his LSAT scores, it never again crossed his mind.

That initial introduction to coaching proved essential for Mahaffey, who believed he had found his calling, a vocation that underscores the importance of relationships and connections that are unique to the game of football.

Mahaffey labored for eight seasons coaching at the collegiate level, including three separate stints at Northern Iowa – encompassing a two-year run as offensive coordinator – before ultimately making the leap to the professional ranks with the Packers.

The Des Moines, Iowa, native sports a diverse resume, having worked with tight ends, wide receivers and offensive linemen, distinctively positioning him for his latest undertaking with the Eagles.

In Philadelphia, Mahaffey will serve as the team’s run game coordinator and tight ends coach under first-year coordinator Sean Mannion, with whom he reunites after overlapping for two seasons in Green Bay.

The coordinating of the run game, a role previously held for 13 seasons by renowned offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland, will be a collaborative effort involving multiple fingerprints. Easing the transition, though, is that Mahaffey is versed in the foundational elements that align with Mannion’s vision, which should conceptually streamline fundamentals and teaching points.

And Mahaffey’s exposure to various position groups affords him a big-picture perspective of how all the components assemble.

“I think just generally speaking, the more exposure you have, the different ways of doing things, I think that can help you,” he said. “You never know exactly how things are going to manifest themselves during the season. 
You’re stepping into different position groups with different personalities. And I think anytime you have time on task and you’ve been presented with different challenges, it kind of just gives you a context of what you’re stepping into and kind of gives you an opportunity to see things from a different light.

“And right now, just my focus has been on just being the best coach I could possibly be to help our staff, help our players.
And it’s been a lot of fun getting a chance to work with the other guys that we have on staff. There are a lot of great personalities here, guys with very diverse backgrounds. So, it’s been fun to be able to learn from them.”

While drastic changes in run game schematics are imminent, as the Eagles pivot from a previous foundation of inside zone to a hearty dose of wide zone concepts designed to stretch defenses horizontally, this spring has been largely devoted to the installation process.

To expand, Mahaffey mentioned the primary focus at this time is ensuring the complexion of the offense is structurally sound while trying to establish inventive ways to put players in positions to succeed.

Typically a hallmark in former iterations of the offense, the running game faltered last season. Offensive inefficiencies frequently placed the unit behind the sticks and welcomed predictability, while the league’s best offensive line – a season removed from a historic performance – was hampered by injuries all season long.

For the offense to operate at peak levels, a resurgence in the ground game is paramount.

But how will Mahaffey approach convincing a unit so accustomed to playing a certain style to embrace the newness?

“I think it’s early right now,” he said. “There are a lot of talented coaches in that room. It’s been fun just to be able to have football conversations. I think right now, it’s an ever-changing, ever-growing set of circumstances. So, I think our emphasis has been to have something in place where we can put our guys in positions to go out there and have success.

“And really, for Coach [Nick] Sirianni, the point of OTAs has been to be able to come together as a team a little bit more, and just kind of work on our skill acquisition, working on our fundamentals and those kinds of things. So, it’s early on. I think some of that is kind of happening organically as we’re moving along.

“But our attention has kind of been: How do we get our guys to be the best they can right now? And then some of that will naturally take care of itself as we move through training camp and into the season.”

The other piece of Mahaffey’s job description entails presiding over a reconstructed tight end room. The Eagles this offseason made a concerted effort to bring balance to the room, incorporating a wide-ranging array of skill sets and departing from the receiving-centric DNA of last season.

Nine-year veteran Dallas Goedert returns following a career season and headlines the group, while second-round rookie Eli Stowers offers an uber-athletic skill set and alignment versatility. His development under Mahaffey will be worth monitoring in the coming months.

Free-agent addition Johnny Mundt fulfills the blocking quota, furnishing the room with a tenacious inline presence. Holdovers Grant Calcaterra, Cameron Latu and E.J. Jenkins check off boxes, depending on purpose, while undrafted rookie Dae’Quan Wright stands to be a dark horse player to watch in training camp.

“They’re a lot of fun to work with, first and foremost,” he said. “They’re a joy to be around. 
They come in every single day. They care about each other. They work hard.

“Obviously, Coach Sirianni’s set a great stage, and the organization, in terms of the culture here, you see that they love football. They want to go out there. They want to work at it and be better each and every single day. 
And then just the football conversations that you have in there.

“I think there are guys with high intellect who have played a lot of football, who ask meaningful questions. It’s fun just getting to be around them. 
They want to know the ‘why’ behind why we’re doing things. And I think anytime you’re able to do that, and you get a little bit deeper level of understanding of what you’re trying to get accomplished on the play, just allows them to go out there and take some of their natural talent and apply it to the given scheme.”

— Andrew DiCecco (@AndrewDiCecco) is a Staff Reporter/Content Producer for InsideTheBirds.com