Nick Sirianni is about to open training camp with his fourth offensive coordinator in four years, and by his own account, the Philadelphia Eagles head coach is changing how he works to make this one stick. In a feature published Monday by the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff Neiburg, drawn from an extended interview session with beat reporters last month, Sirianni laid out how he is handling the transition to Sean Mannion — a 34-year-old who was on an NFL roster as recently as 2023 and has coached for just two seasons.
The most concrete change is in how Sirianni runs practice. With experienced coordinators like Shane Steichen and Kellen Moore, he might warn them about a scenario he planned to spring on them — a third-and-12 from the 3-yard line, say. With Mannion, that situation becomes a pop quiz. “My job is to make sure that I put him in as many scenarios as I possibly can to help him go through that,” Sirianni said. He also isn’t hiding his regard for the new hire, telling reporters about the March snowstorm that canceled Mannion’s flight out of Green Bay — so Mannion drove the 900-plus miles to Philadelphia instead. “This dude loves football and he loves to work,” Sirianni said.
The film says this hire has to work. The 2025 offense regressed behind a battered line, an inconsistent Jalen Hurts and a diminished Saquon Barkley, and Kevin Patullo did not survive the season’s verdict. Sirianni’s 69.4 percent win rate since 2021 trails only Buffalo, but Mannion is the third coordinator since 2023 calling NFL plays for the first time, and the roster’s veterans have heard one voice in team meetings for five years. Sirianni’s answer to that staleness includes an unusual wrinkle: he has been prompting ChatGPT for true sports stories that fit the team’s “tough, detailed, together” motto, which is how Arizona State wrestler Anthony Robles ended up in an Eagles team meeting.
The Eagles report to the NovaCare Complex on July 28, with the first practice July 29. How quickly Mannion’s scheme installs — and how Sirianni’s scenario drills hold up — will be the story of camp.
For fantasy purposes, a new play-caller is the biggest variable on every Eagles skill player’s draft price. Hurts, Barkley and DeVonta Smith all carry scheme uncertainty until camp reveals what Mannion’s offense actually looks like, and early reports on tempo, personnel groupings and red-zone design out of the July 29 practices will move draft stock in both directions.
— Brotherly Gruff
