The Philadelphia Eagles recently hired Sean Mannion as their new offensive coordinator, and the reaction has been quite polarizing. After a season in which the offense struggled to put up points, Philly is now going an unconventional route by hiring a young, unproven offensive mind. Despite this, former Eagle Jason Kelce loves the move, and he has a clear reason why.
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Mannion isn’t exactly a household name in the NFL. He was a third-round pick out of Oregon State in 2015 and spent nine years as a journeyman QB. During his career, he spent time with the LA Rams, Minnesota Vikings, and Seattle Seahawks. After retiring, he transitioned directly into becoming an offensive assistant and then the QB coach for the Green Bay Packers.
After just two years in Green Bay’s system, Mannion has now landed a job as an offensive coordinator. It speaks to how bright a mind many around the game believe he is, and it’s exactly why Jason loves the hire so much.
“This is a clear sign that it is going to be drastically different next year. I’m excited to see what this looks like,” Jason said on his podcast with brother Travis, New Heights. “I also like that he’s a fast riser, right? Two years, and all of a sudden, he’s an offensive coordinator. That tells me a lot of other coaches are speaking very highly of this guy.”
The former Eagles center went on to talk about how Mannion should help develop players within the run game in Philly. He also mentioned that Jalen Hurts might need to change his style of play a bit next year. After all, the offensive style Mannion has learned in Green Bay revolves around many plays under center. Hurts has always been more of a shotgun QB.
“It’ll be interesting to see how much this offense for the Eagles next year does look like a lot of these other McVay, Shanahan-tree coaches, and what he did in Green Bay with LaFleur, versus what the Eagles have had success with with Jalen Hurts and the skill set that he has,” Jason added.
Despite his concerns about Hurts, Jason isn’t worried about Mannion being able to get the most out of the QB. He referenced Jordan Love’s improvement over the past few seasons and attributed it to the coach. He also noted that when Malik Willis had to step in at times for Green Bay, he was still a competent player.
Later on, Jason’s brother Travis chimed in with his thoughts about the hire.
“I’m interested to see how they’re going to be using these big offensive linemen in the outside zone and all the different variations of it. It’s going to be fun to see how it all kind of unfolds,” Travis said. “People in Philadelphia are getting what they asked for. They’re going to get a completely different version of this highly skilled and highly powerful offense.”
It’s exactly what the fans of the Eagles were asking for this offseason. After Kevin Patullo was let go, the message around the team was that they needed a more modern offense with pre-snap motions and play-action plays. That is the exact style of offense that Mannion has been learning under Matt LaFleur these past two seasons.
Still, Mannion wasn’t the name that the fanbase was imagining the team to hire. They were thinking of bigger, more established coordinators who would bring in some excitement. But with Mannion, there are a lot of things we still don’t know about him. This has brought some worry to the fans.
At the end of the day, though, it could end up being a stellar hire. The Eagles at least went out and did something that the fans pleaded for them to do. All season, they cried out about the lack of offensive creativity. But now that they’re getting creative to try to solve the problem, some are already becoming skeptical. Sometimes, it feels like you just can’t win with this fanbase.
