Inside The Birds: ‘You’re Gonna See More Blitzes’

On Sunday, the Eagles officially announced Nick Sirianni as their new head coach.

Here’s what the conversation sounded like when Sirianni got the call:

Listen in on the moment that Nick Sirianni joined our franchise.#FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/0dl654vW8T

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) January 24, 2021

New Eagles DC Jonathan Gannon brings some Cover 2 background and likes to blitz.As expected, the former Colts offensive coordinator has tapped into his past connections to start hiring his new staff with the Eagles, including defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon (pictured below).

And while some Eagles coaches are on the way out – such as Duce Staley – some are staying and others are still waiting to hear about their fates.

In the latest Inside The Birds, Adam Caplan and Geoff Mosher share what they’ve heard about some newcomers to the staff and what they’re expecting for others.

Here’s a snapshot of what they said:

Duce Staley

Geoff Mosher: “It’s pretty clear after you’ve promoted him to as high as assistant head coach, but then passed on him twice as head coach, it’s pretty clear that he’s reached his ceilng here. Not his ceiling [overall], but his ceiling here. I know Duce wants to be a head coach. People tell me all the time they believe he will be a good head coach. So, his options now … are pretty limited. I know there’s some talk about Chicago. I know he has a relationship with Matt Nagy, but you can’t look at the Chicago situation as being good. I think his best bet may be trying to be a college head coach.”

Adam Caplan: “I put myself in his shoes. Look, first time you get passed up and you say, ‘OK, I get it, I’ll learn from this.” But the second time? And just the way it went down you weren’t totally satisfied with Josh McDaniels, so you brought Sirianni in and then you Sirianni. One could read into it: how serous of a candidate was [Staley]?”

Shane Steichen

Adam Caplan: “I know Curtis Modkins interviewed [for offensive coordinator]. Steichen did a good job under very difficult circumstances. He got promoted to permanent offensive coordinator last year, did a great job in terms of offensive structure to help out Justin Herbert. I would say if you really study the Chargers’ offense it started to struggle a little bit. The way it was explained to me was it started to get stale, it wasn’t that good. I know Keenan Allen got hurt late in the season. They had some offensive line issues. Anthony Lynn is a very conservative coach, by nature. That may have had something to do with it. Overall, [Steichen] did a solid job under very difficult circumstances.”

Jonathan Gannon

Caplan: “Here’s the deal. A very good coaching source said to me Jonathan Gannon is the defensive coordinator candidate like Brandon Staley was for head coach. He was the hottest young candidate to be defensive coordinator. If he does a good job here he’s going to be a head coach somewhere in the three years. In fact, two years. I got it from one guy who said to me, ‘I’m telling ya, this guy is special. Philly is gonna love him.’ He’s going to run a 43 front. He’s got some Mike Zimmer stuff in him, some [Matt] Eberflus. We’re gonna see some Cover 2. Obviously, double-A Gap blitzes. He’s got a lot of influences here. You’re gonna see more blitzes, I promise.”

Mosher: “A person me that he’s aware that Jeffrey Luie knew about who Gannon was and wanted Gannon here. So I’ll just start connecting dots. If that was a guy Sirianni talked about in the interview as someone he wanted to bring in as defensive coordinator, that prob helped his cause.”

Other coaches

Caplan: “Looks like [Jeff Stoutland] is coming back. A couple of coaching sources told me this is happening. This is a heck of a get for [Sirianni].”

Mosher: “Guys need to know what their futures are going to be. There are some coaches who, as of Sunday night, had not yet talked to [Sirianni] who are on the staff. They want to know. He’s got to kind of speed this process up a little bit.”

Caplan: “[Kevin Patullo] worked with quarterbacks before with the Jets. He was actually receivers coach before [in Indianapolis] before Mike Groh got there. I’m told the title is not settled but it doesn’t matter because it’s the same thing: he’s the passing game coordinator or passing game specialist. He’s an RPO guy, that’s really important here. A Colts source told me he’s going to be Sirianni’s right-hand man.”

Carson Wentz

Caplan: “As we first reported a couple weeks ago, a lot of the head-coaching candidates were asked about Wentz and what their plan would be, but I would tell you a couple of sources told me they were never told that he was definitely going to be the quarterback.”

– Geoff Mosher (@geoffmoshernfl) is co-host of the “Inside the Birds” podcast and staff writer for InsideTheBirds.com.

Listen to the latest “Inside The Birds” podcast from Geoff Mosher and Adam Caplan here: