Inside The Birds: Sirianni’s Coaching Staff Taking Shape

As an overhauled coaching staff begins to take shape under new head coach Nick Sirianni, the Eagles can begin to turn their attention to offseason planning.

In the latest Inside the Birds podcast, Geoff Mosher and Adam Caplan outline what a presumably new-look Eagles offense could look like in 2021 and preview the new hires on Sirianni’s staff.

Eages coach Nick Sirianni still has some voids to fill on his coaching staff.

Offensive philosophy

Caplan: “I had heard from a pretty good coaching source that Sirianni is going to be matchup-based. Now, I have no idea who the Eagles are playing – except for the three teams in their division – but we’ll learn more about that. Do not think that [the Eagles] are gonna be married to 12 personnel, because that would not be correct, according to this coaching source.

The one thing [the Colts] did a lot of, and I didn’t know this — because you’d really have to study this stuff – they were fifth-most in 13 personnel, which is 3 tight ends. They had about nearly six snaps per game. There were four teams in the NFL that didn’t run 13 personnel last season.”
They only ran six offensive lineman two percent of the time.”

Mosher: “I think the Eagles, Adam, could trade Zach Ertz and still play a decent amount of 12 personnel, depending on the corresponding move. For example, you trade Zach Ertz, Dallas Goedert is your No. 1 tight end. Let’s say you want to play 25 percent of 12 personnel, well Richard Rodgers showed you last year he could block a little bit when he’s healthy and he can catch – I mean he was one of Carson Wentz’s only reliable receivers last year.

You’ll have the opportunity to get yourself a nice, groom able tight end in the third-fourth round and I don’t want to even count out the fact they’ve put a lot of resources over this past year in bringing in guys like Hakeem Butler and Jason Croom.”

Brian Johnson

Caplan: “When the news broke this week, I checked into his background, I wanted to get some opinions … he’s super smart. He’s 33 years old, but he’s really smart. That’s great, but can he coach hard at this level? Even if they trade Wentz and it’s Hurts or somebody else – we’ve outlined this now for three years – you gotta coach hard; you can’t be close to players, it’s not the way it works with quarterbacks. You can have a great working relationship, but you can’t be close to players at the quarterback position. If you are, sometimes you’re afraid to coach them hard, and that’s what happened here in year’s past.”

Mosher: [Johnson’s] 33, Carson Wentz is 28, so that’s pretty close there. He has no experience as we know coaching an NFL quarterback in general, and now he’s gotta coach a guy, potentially, coming off the worst year of his career, who we know can be stubborn and hardheaded. That’s a concern for me.”

Caplan: “He’s got a great resume, there’s no doubt – he’s highly qualified for this job. I didn’t even look him up as a coordinator in terms of play-calling, but his resume is so strong. I know Patullo is gonna have the passing game coordinator tag and Steichen is the OC, but he’s a college coach, so we’ll see what kind of concepts – if he can help in that area. This is a hell of a get for them, I gotta tell ya. I don’t know how they found him, I don’t know whose idea it was, whether it was Roseman the GM, or Sirianni, or anyone else on their staff.”

Mosher: “It may be a case where, and I’m sure this isn’t lost on Nick Sirianni, where Nick himself, or a guy like Steichen or even Kevin Patullo may have to be a little more active on the field, drilling, working on fundamentals. That’s obviously Brian Johnson’s job, and he’s got to do that too, but because of his youth, you may need an extra helping hand there. Because, as you have said many times, this thing is a rebuild if Carson Wentz is here. You’ve gotta rebuild him from the ground up; there’s gonna be a lot of technical instruction that has to go on. I just don’t know how receptive Carson’s will be to a 33-year-old guy who’s never coached in the NFL before.”

WR outlook

Mosher: “I reported that I knew Moorehead and Sirianni had talked and that they felt – at least from Aaron’s side – I was told he felt it was a good conversation. But, there was never any official, to my knowledge – ‘You’re the guy, it’s yours, it’s definitely gonna be you’. It felt like that was the conversation, like an interview, and we’ll see. I’m a little surprised it hasn’t been filled.”

Caplan: “I have similar information on your reporting. I’d heard the same, that it looks like it’s trending toward [Moorehead]. But I’d heard, late in the week, that he may talk to one more person. We’ll see if that happens, but I do know that [Moorehead and Sirianni] worked together in ’18. Moorehead, before he went to Vanderbilt, was a coaching intern, so they got to know each other – Nick’s first year with the Colts.
What [the receiver room] needs, as explained to me, is they need a big-time veteran alpha — kind of like a Jarvis Landry. Someone who can lead that room. It doesn’t need to be the guy who’s gonna lead them in receptions; it’s just someone who’s done it before, a veteran who’s a good influence on the younger players.”

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