New 'Iteration' Of Eagles Offense Should Look Familiar

A new iteration of the Philadelphia Eagles is on deck, and if the past is prologue, as long as Jalen Hurts is running the show, things should be fine for the reigning Super Bowl champions.

Hurts' almost annual coaching turnover traded Kellen Moore and Doug Nussmeier for Kevin Patullo and Scot Loeffler.

For most of last season, Hurts' shift to an outside voice took a toll from the Nick Sirianni/Shane Steichen/Brian Johnson foundational offense the now sixth-year pro had been running since Sirianni arrived as the head coach for the 2021 season.

Things were ugly at times in the spring and summer, which carried over to the season with eight sub-200-yard passing games, including playoff wins over Green Bay and the LA Rams, and five game under 135 yards, an unacceptable level with the talent assembled.

The Eagles felt the need to scale back the offense during a Week 5 bye to what Hurts was more comfortable with while leaning on Saquon Barkley and the offensive line.

In the end, Hurts performed at the highest level in the NFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl, fueling a recency bias-driven narrative that the smaller sample on the brighter stage outweighed the larger reality of the 31st-ranked passing game.

Hurts was the Super Bowl MVP and had since been named as one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People, while Moore and Nussmeier took their traveling act to New Orleans with promotions.

Such is the power of winning.

Rewind to last year at this time, and Hurts seemed to tip more uncertainty with Moore coming in from outside the NovaCare Complex walls with an offense the quarterback had claimed was 95% new.

This time, the comfort of Patullo, who has been the passing game coordinator since 2021, seems to have the QB1 on a more even keel.

“I can’t predict how the offense will look next year, but I do know we need to evolve … as an offense,” Hurts said. “And I think that’s a question for K.P., honestly. For me, my job is just to focus on whenever I get those opportunities, to make the most of them.

“That’s my box, the box I’m going to stay in.”

Along with Loeffler, the former head coach at Bowling Green who is now Hurts' position coach, in comes Parks Frazier to replace Patullo as the passing game coordinator.

"He’s made it very clear he’s here to enhance my game and serve, be a point of service in the room,” Hurts said of Loeffler. “He’s very knowledgeable. And I always value someone who can bring new ideas, new point of views, new perspectives to the table, because ultimately I can put it in my toolbox and lean on it when I need to."

One thing the Sirianni Eagles have proven is that the offense will be tailored around what Hurts does well, and that hasn't changed.

“You have to be able to decode, detect, and then correct and refine the things you need to refine,” Hurts said. “The more important thing is being able to detect what I can improve on and how important it is to improve in that. We can all work hard on something, but not necessarily be working hard on the right things.

“We were able to evolve and add a different dynamic, obviously, with having [Barkley] back there and what he’s able to do, and just kind of complement him in the backfield. And then [have] the ability to pass the ball and be efficient when we do that. And right now it’s just laying the foundation, trying to figure out what this iteration of the team will be.”

Patullo and Moore developed a fast friendship in the latter's one year in Philadelphia so expect this cycle to look a lot like the last one with Patullo pushing the evolution in the spring and summer before scaling back to what works best when things begin for real.

“He has a very good feel of what [the players] do and what they do well,” Sirianni said of his right-hand man moving into the larger role. “And so you always want to do what they do best. You always want to keep things in that you’ve done well and you want to continue to grow and dress up a little bit. And then also some new wrinkles that kind of mesh to that."