Eagles Are Touching Every Base In Exhaustive OC Search

That’s code for Weis Jr. understanding he’s not getting the job and wanting to stay ahead of the spin.

From the Eagles’ perspective, they typically like to interview college coaches to get a beat on that level of an industry where innovation tends to trickle up.

Also withdrawing from consideration was OC Declan Doyle.

There was some momentum building around the 29-year-old Doyle, perhaps the most intriguing and out-of-the-box candidate to date.

That said, it would have been a tough sell for the Eagles to hire someone so young with no play-calling experience coming off a season in which the lack of experience sequencing plays was cited so often with the now-deposed Kevin Patullo.

However, talking with Doyle, who sits at the feet of the most creative play-caller the business, Ben Johnson, makes sense. 

The newcomers entering the mix are Houston quarterbacks coach Jerrod Johnson, who has been high on Nick Sirianni’s list for a major role in the past, and former Miami offensive coordinator Frank Smith.

Two goals are being accomplished by the Eagles through all this information gathering, with the obvious end game being the new OC. However, the more important aspect may be picking the minds of so many to both finish the autopsy of a lost 2025 season and to decipher where modern NFL offenses should be going.

New Entrants

After getting denied to speak with Dallas OC Klayton Adams, a coach whose specialty is the running game, the Eagles turned to Smith, who was on the ground floor of Mike McDaniel’s well-regarded rushing attack that obviously piqued the Eagles’ interest.

Multiple NFL sources had McDaniel, the former Dolphins head coach, at the top of the Eagles’ wish list for OC, but he decided that the Los Angeles Chargers and Justin Herbert were the better liftoff point to get back into a big chair.

Also ruled out after interviews are Bobby Slowik, the Dolphins’ senior passing game coordinator who is returning to Miami as the OC under new head coach Jeff Halfley, former Pittsburgh OC Arthur Smith, who is heading to the college ranks and Ohio State as the offensive coordinator there, and ex-Falcons OC Zac Robinson, who took the same job with Tampa Bay.

There are rumblings that Brian Daboll’s plan for the head-coaching job in Buffalo or the OC job in Tennessee is no longer concrete and that the Eagles could still be in play, a scenario that would immediately put the former New York Giants head coach in the pole position for the Eagles gig.

The other known potential candidates are former KC OC Matt Nagy, Indianapolis OC Jim Bob Cooter, former NY Giants OC and interim coach Mike Kafka, former Tampa Bay OC Josh Grizzard, along with Smith and Johnson. 

There could also be a second wave among head-coaching hopefuls if they are passed over, like Buffalo OC Joe Brady, and Los Angeles Rams passing game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase, a Sirianni favorite since now Penn State coach Matt Campbell. a good friend of the Eagles mentor, had Scheelhaase at Iowa State.

Then there is the wild card of Kliff Kingsbury, who the Eagles had significant interest in during the 2024 hiring cycle.