This Time It Doesn't Feel Like Change For The Eagles At OC

Eagles Super Bowl MVP quarterback Jalen Hurts wasn’t comfortable entering training camp last year. Ultimately, that didn’t matter, a sentiment validated by the king-sized championship rings Hurts and his teammates received days before the 2025 version of camp kicked off at the NovaCare Complex. 

However, during the 2024 mandatory minicamp, Hurts, a very intentional person, let slip that the Eagles’ offense under then-coordinator Kellen Moore, who came in from outside the organization, was “probably 95% new.”

In reality, “the Eagles’ offense,” as it's called inside the NovaCare Complex, ended up looking familiar to past incarnations when head coach Nick Sirianni, Shane Steichen, and Brian Johnson were running things, because the goal is always to build around the strengths of the players you have.

What was new under Moore was the terminology, along with some of the goals for evolution and the expansion of what’s been done well, which can take some time to get used to.  

Now Moore is the head coach in New Orleans, and Kevin Patullo, Sirianni’s long-time right-hand man, has been elevated to offensive coordinator/play-caller.

Patullo bridges the Sirianni/Steichen/Johnson eras with Moore’s one-year stint as both passing game coordinator and associate head coach. He became very close with Moore when the two were together and was already a significant part of game planning and building the menu of plays Moore would pick from on game days.

“It’s not much different. It feels the same,” Patullo said of his new role. “...  There's a little more just talking to everybody, but overall, it's about the same.”

The terminology part is interesting because there was the initial discomfort from Hurts, and some would argue a scale back post-bye week with the Eagles leaning far more on the offensive line and superstar running back Saquon Barkley.

Patullo has the option to return to the pre-2024 lexicon or build off last season.

“I think we've tried to streamline as much as we can to keep it consistent for the guys,” Patullo told Eagles On SI. “But at the end of every year, and I think we talked about this in the spring, is when you look at it as a whole and you can take steps out of it and see the big picture.”

What it’s really about is the new players for Patullo and making it as easy on them as possible.

“You can basically say, 'Okay, if we put this over there and this over there,' it's a little cleaner for guys that are now coming into a new system because the guys that have been here know the history of it,” said Patullo. “But if you're a new player, [RB] AJ Dillon and some of these other guys, it's a little bit different. They don't have the history of the offense. 

“So, when you can put things and move them into other buckets, it's easier to learn and then it kind of allows you to expand on it, too.”

As for Hurts, Patullo sees a player who has already gotten over the hump with the terminology, and the game continues to slow down for the talented QB1.

“I think [Jalen's] comfort levels increased so much,” said Patullo. “...  I think he sees the game really well now to where when he comes off the field, even in between series and in practice, he's able to see it and say like, 'Hey, it was this, this, and this,' and so it's really improved. 

“It's good.”