The Philadelphia Eagles offensive staff positions have been filled. The staff isn’t going the traditional Head Coach-Offensive Coordinator route, but have moved to the wave that a few teams in the league have taken on in recent years. Head Coach Doug Pederson will continue to call plays but the organization has added several new voices, who bring a bevy of fresh ideas and concepts to an offense that has been slow and stagnant the last two seasons.
Rich Scangarello-Senior Offensive Assistant
Rich Scangarello spent last season as the Denver Broncos offensive coordinator and before that, was with the San Francisco 49ers as the teams Quarterbacks coach from 2017-2018. Scangarello also was an offensive assistant with the Oakland Raiders (2009) and Atlanta Falcons (2015). Scangarello’s calling card as an offensive coach is his ability to design plays and game plan, an area where the Eagles have struggled since the departure of Indianapolis Colts Head Coach, Frank Reich in the 2017 offseason. Scangarello comes from the Shanahan coaching tree, which has presented diverse and innovative running and passing concepts. Owner Jeffery Lurie was reported to want the next Offensive coordinator be a innovative thinker and present new ideas to Pederson and the offense. Scangarello’s offense in Denver featured heavy pre-snap motion, deception and play action, all things that are a staple of Kyle Shanahan’s offense in San Francisco. Scangarello will be tasked with presenting Doug Pederson with new ideas and new passing and running concepts from a different perspective. Scangarello’s zone run designs and run game coordinator, Jeff Stoutland’s blocking schemes will heavily benefit and help further the development of Miles Sanders. Scangarello’s passing concepts featured a lot of quick throws and play action. Carson Wentz excelled when the Eagles went into play action sets, completing 65 percent of passes out of play action sets. Scangarello’s work with young quarterbacks is also one of the things he’s been praised for. His work with Jimmy Garopollo, who threw for over 2200 yards and completed 65% of his passes under Scangarello, Nick Mullens, who over an 8 game stretch in 2018, played at a very high level throwing for 2277 yards while completing 64% of his passes and posting a 90.8 quarterback rating under Scangarello. His latest work came this past season in Denver with Brandon Allen and Drew Lock. Allen had never started a game before and Scangarello had him ready to play and produce in his first ever game. Allen threw for 193 yards, 2 touchdowns and he posted a 125.6 QBR. Drew Lock had to wait until the final 5 weeks of the regular season to start and he led the team to a 4-1 record and passed for over 1000 yards with 7 touchdowns and posted a 89.7 QBR. Scangarello’s work as a teacher and developer of the quarterback position has played a huge role in his reputation and furthered his prestige as an offensive mind in the NFL. With Scangarello’s design ability and the potential of adding speed on the outside at receiver, the Eagles offense will be in position to be one of the top units in the league in the 2020 season.
Jeff Stoutland-Offensive Line Coach and Run Game Coordinator
Jeff Stoutland has been with the Eagles organization since 2013 as the offensive line coach and in 2018 was given the promotion of run game coordinator. Stoutland will continue to manage blocking schemes within the run game and work closely with Duce Staley working on the running back rotation and he will also work Rich Scangarello on run concepts.
Press Taylor-Quarterbacks Coach and Passing Game Coordinator
Press Taylor has been on the Eagles staff since 2013. He’s kept his place on the staff through numerous firings and a regime change. Taylor is regarded as one of the young rising offensive minds across the league. Taylor has been in the QB room since Carson Wentz was drafted, their relationship is well documented and Wentz’s play has been consistent and Taylor has had a hand in Wentz’s play. Taylor is credited with finding the “Philly Special” trick play that helped the franchise capture its first Superbowl in 2017. As passing game coordinator, Taylor will be tasked with attacking the weakness of opposing teams passing defenses. He will work to game-plan the best passing attack each week by taking advantage of opposing secondaries weaknesses. Taylor’s understanding of Doug Pederson’s offense also will play a big factor in his ability to succeed as the as the passing game coordinator. Also Taylor’s knowledge of Chip Kelly’s spread offense (from his time as offensive quality control coach) will make him applicable to provide new ideas and wrinkles within the passing offense. Taylor’s ability as QB coach cannot go understated either. While Nick Foles first took over for Wentz in 2017 when John Defilippo was the QB coach, Taylor was the assistant QB coach. The work the QB room did to acclimate Foles into the starting offense is well documented and Taylor was a part of that. Foles again had to take over in 2018, late in the year and he stepped in and performed well, leading the team to the playoffs and a playoff win. While it had been done the previous season, the action of a backup QB coming in and engineering an offense is still a difficult task and Taylor along with Doug Pederson spearheaded that. The thing that kept coming up as I did research into Taylor was his ability as a teacher and the fundamental drills he incorporated into his coaching. Taylor will provide familiarity and deep knowledge and understanding of what the Eagles want to do on offense.
Andrew Breiner-Passing Game Analyst
Perhaps the most unknown of the new hires is 35-year old Andrew Breiner. Breiner has never coached at the NFL level and most of his work has come under current University of Oregon offensive coordinator, Joe Moorehead. Breiner worked with Moorehead at Fordham University and Mississippi State. Breiner actually succeeded Moorehead as head coach of Fordham in 2014 after Moorehead became head coach at Mississippi State. Breiner then left Fordham and went to Mississippi State to work under Moorehead again. Fordham’s offense under Breiner was record breaking in the FCS. The offense ranked 4th in passing and 5th in scoring. Breiner is pretty much Joe Moorehead’s protege. Moorhead’s offenses have been among the top offenses in college football, whether it was Mississippi State or as offensive coordinator at Penn State, Moorehead’s spread offense has been explosive. With the Eagles, Breiner’s role is pass game analyst, what this means is Breiner will most likely be tasked with implementing and communicating new passing concepts and ideas from the college level to the passing game. His knowledge and awareness of college level passing concepts will be a huge addition to the offensive makeup of this team.
Aaron Moorehead -Wide Receivers Coach
For the 5th straight year, the Philadelphia Eagles will have a new lead voice in the wide receiver room. Aaron Moorehead is now the voice in that room. Moorehead played five years in the NFL and won a Superbowl with the Indianapolis Colts. Moorehead has coached at the college level since 2009, beginning his career as a graduate assistant with the University of New Mexico. He has coached wide receivers at Virginia Tech (2013-2014), Texas A&M (2015-2017), and most recently Vanderbilt (2018-2019). Wide Receivers Moorehead have worked with include Arizona Cardinals 2018 second round pick Christian Kirk who said, on Moorehead, “He’s never going to take anything less than maximum effort”, he’s also coached NFL wide receivers Josh Reynolds and Damion Ratley. As I did research into Moorehead the one thing that kept coming up was his ability to teach and develop the position. This was probably one of the reasons Moorehead was brought in to lead the wide receiver room. Another thing he provides is relatability because he has competed in the NFL and while he wasn’t a premier talent, he’s done it before and won a Superbowl. Moorehead has a presence about him that commands respect and effort from his room. With the Eagles potentially adding a wide receiver in the upcoming draft with a high pick and the struggles of last year’s second round pick, JJ Arcega-Whiteside, these two things will be very significant to determining the production and play of the wide receiver unit in this upcoming season.
What this all means
With all the new additions and role shifting within the staff, one thing is clear: This offense sits on the shoulders of head coach Doug Pederson. Everything done has been done to help him and improve the structure of the offense. Owner Jeffery Lurie was reported to want new ideas and concepts presented to Pederson and the additions to the staff do just that. Overall, the onus is on general manager, Howie Roseman to put the right pieces on the roster and its up to Pederson to put those pieces in the right position and to listen to his coaches and be the overseer of sorts in dealing with the many voices on the offensive staff. In all, time will tell how all the voices will mesh and what they will produce and present from an x’s and o’s standpoint.
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