Hiring Sean Mannion as Eagles OC with no prior play calling experience was a dice roll by the Eagles.
The Eagles are finally filling major holes on their offensive coaching staff. On Thursday night, they ended a long, intensive search for their new offensive coordinator by hiring former Packers quarterbacks coach Sean Mannion. On Friday, they added one of their finalists for the OC position, Josh Grizzard, as pass game coordinator.
Mannion is a total coaching newcomer with no play calling experience at any level. He spent nine seasons as an NFL journeyman backup quarterback, retired in 2023 and immediately went into coaching, becoming a Packers’ offensive assistant in 2024 before being promoted to quarterbacks coach in 2025.
Mannion’s rapid rise to offensive coordinator is fairly uncommon, though not unique. Kellen Moore, the Eagles’ OC for their 2024 Super Bowl title run, had spent six seasons as an NFL backup from QB from 2012-2017, was named Cowboys QBs coach in 2018 and was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2019 and called plays. David Blough, a journeyman backup QB from 2019-2023, was hired by the Commanders as an assistant QBs coach in 2024 and this month was promoted to offensive coordinator after the team fired Kliff Kingsbury.
More NFL teams appear willing to fast-track coaches who they see as young, bright offensive minds.
The easy, and somewhat lazy, path to take here would be writing an opinion piece that says this move will backfire spectacularly or that Mannion will become the second coming of Andy Reid. The reality is there’s just not enough of a resume to write with conviction whether Mannion will blossom or bust in his new role.
Instead, here’s the most balanced, objective list of pros and cons of the Eagles’ decision to move forward with Mannion presiding over their offense:
* The offense will change. If nothing else, this will be the single biggest positive to come from hiring Mannion, whose coaching influences and tree are not the same as Nick Sirianni’s. The Eagles wouldn’t have hired a true novice like Mannion, and interviewed several other candidates from coaching trees that aren’t in Sirianni’s forest, if they didn’t believe that his vision and concepts – especially in the pass game – were markedly different, and better, for their decaying offense.
* Under center and play action will become a major factor. This is somewhat theoretical, and also an extension of “the offense will change,” but it’s more specific. The Packers run much higher rates of under center and play action than the Eagles have under Sirianni, and it stands to reason Mannion will bring concepts he learned while coaching under Matt LaFleur to the Eagles, who dabbled in these concepts last year with mixed results. This is where NFL offenses are going – more on this in future stories – and what the Eagles need to better marry their run and pass game. Pre-snap motion and getting in and out of the huddle quicker should also be key under Mannion.
* He has help. The Eagles hired Grizzard, someone who’s been an OC as recently as last year and has also been a pass-game coordinator, to be another brain for the new offense. Grizzard has coached in Miami under Mike McDaniel, a branch of the Shanahan tree, and in Tampa under Liam Coen, a branch of the McVay tree, so there’s bound to be philosophical alignment between he and Mannion, who played for McVay and has played or coached under branches of the McVay and Shanahan trees.
* His coaching influences are elite play callers. McVay, LaFleur, and other coaches he’s played for – Vikings HC Kevin O’Conell, Seahawks OC Klint Kubiak and Jags OC Grant Udinski among them – are all elite play callers. Under O’Connell and then Kubiak, Sam Darnold went from first-round bust to the Super Bowl. Udinski had head coaching interviews this month.
* He played the game’s most important position. Quarterbacks deal with more pressure than anyone else on the field, and in two-minute and four-minute drills, they often become play callers in no-huddle situations. And the fact that Mannion was a career backup could bode well, as guys like Sean Payton, Gary Kubiak, Jason Garrett, Moore, and O’Connell were all NFL backup QBs. Perhaps the backup QB is the NFL equivalent of baseball’s catcher; they make better coaches than players.
* There’s no tape on him. This could be really helpful in September as Mannion’s lack of any experience designing or calling an offense means opponents won’t know exactly what he’s planning or how his offense will look for at least the first few weeks of the season. That gives the Eagles an advantage they’ll need while they adjust to his scheme. How big of an advantage? Who knows?
* We’ll get a better idea of who Jalen Hurts is. This could also fall into the “cons” category if Hurts doesn’t adjust well. Unfortunately for Hurts, Mannion will be his seventh different play caller in his seventh season. But if Mannion’s scheme leads to more open receivers, more YAC, and more usage of Hurts’ legs and athleticism, this could help Hurts jump to another level. On the flip side, if it all fails miserably, the organization will know that Hurts’ ceiling is limited and they can make a better decision on the QB’s future after the season.
It’s a true dice roll, no matter how you view it. There are no slam dunks when it comes to hiring coaches – see: Raiders; Carroll, Pete – so there’s no way to really know if landing McDaniel or Daboll would’ve put the Eagles right back in the Super Bowl. But for an organization trying to win now, hiring Mannion surely cuts against the grain.
However, it is consistent with the overall organizational philosophy of banking on young, impressive, rising coaches, and the Eagles surely have a track record of hires who look very questionable at the time but turn out to be brilliant decisions.
“Time will tell” is an overused adage but is truly applies here. Nobody can really be sure how all of this will turn out.
