The Philadelphia Eagles filled both their top coordinator positions Tuesday, promoting Brian Johnson to OC and hiring Seahawks assistant Sean Desai to head up their defense. These moves will feature some additional rearranging on staff, with some of the shuffling becoming known on Tuesday.
Alex Tanney is moving up the ladder to fill Johnson’s quarterbacks coach position. Tanney joins Davis Webb as recent Giants third-string quarterbacks to land QB coaching jobs recently. Webb is set to become the Broncos’ QBs coach.
Webb, 28, and Tanney, 35, were teammates during the 2018 offseason and have each made quick ascents to this key staff position. The Eagles hired Tanney as a quality control coach in 2021, marking the former NFL reserve’s first job since hanging up his cleats after the 2020 season. He has been promoted each offseason under Nick Sirianni, rising to assistant quarterback coach last year and now being set to play a big role in Jalen Hurts‘ development.
He will have some help on this front. In addition to Sirianni and Johnson, the Eagles are retaining Marcus Brady. Sirianni’s successor as Colts OC under Frank Reich, Brady will serve as a senior offensive assistant. The Eagles hired Brady shortly after the Colts canned him in-season. The former CFL quarterback-turned-NFL assistant is believed to have interviewed for the New York Jets and Los Angeles Rams’ OC jobs this year, but those positions respectively went to Nathaniel Hackett and Mike LaFleur.
The Eagles also looked to the college ranks before hiring Johnson and Desai. They interviewed Iowa State offensive coordinator Nate Scheelhaase recently, Zach Berman of The Athletic tweets. Scheelhaase has been on Matt Campbell‘s Iowa State staff since 2018, with the Cyclones promoting him to OC this offseason. Georgia co-defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann interviewed for the Eagles’ DC job, Chris Low of ESPN.com tweets. After losing Todd Monken back to the NFL, the Bulldogs will keep their defensive play-caller. Schumann has been with Georgia since 2016 and has been the SEC powerhouse’s co-DC for the past four seasons. Neither Scheelhaase nor Schumann has worked in the NFL previously.
The Eagles also promoted T.J. Paganetti to assistant tight ends coach from the quality control level. Paganetti, who has been with the Eagles for nine years, was a quality control assistant during each of Sirianni’s first two seasons. He was the team’s assistant running backs coach from 2019-20, however.
More must-reads: