Eagles Officially Announce New Head Coach, Begin Building Rest Of Staff

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By Paul Bowman, Sports Talk Philly Editor

Sunday has been an eventful day for the Eagles, even if they are not playing in the playoffs.

After days of negotiations, the Eagles have officially agreed to a deal with Nick Sirianni and announced the move.

Official: Nick Sirianni has been named head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles.#FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/zMV95oIXFV

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) January 24, 2021

The move also opened the flood gates for information about what would happen to his assistant coaches.

The MMQB’s Albert Breer (and others) reports that the Eagles will retain offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland under Sirianni.

One more on Philly: New Eagles coach Nick Sirriani is retaining OL coach Jeff Stoutland, per sources. That’s a big one for the new HC.

Stoutland’s been excellent, and had options.

— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) January 24, 2021

This was a key question which sholf never really have been in doubt.

Stoutland has regularly had the offensive line of the Eagles among the tops in the league and, even with four of his starters missing significant time in 2020, he managed to keep the unit around middle of the pack.

His resume of development is huge. Having been with the team since 2013, he joined the team after a major injury struck Jason Kelce in 2012, before the team drafted Lane Johnson and signed Brandon Brooks and has seen the recent development of late picks and UDFAs in Seumalo, Big V, Mailata, Driscoll, Herbig and even guys with very little time with the team like Brett Toth.

He reportedly had other offers, but the Eagles need to keep him around for as long as they possibly can.

On the defensive side of the ball, it did not take long. After rumors yesterday, the hiring of Colts defensive backs coach Jonathan Gannon as defensive coordinator appears to have been confirmed.

The #Eagles have agreed to terms with #Colts DBs coach Jonathan Gannon to be their new defensive coordinator, per me and @TomPelissero. A coveted candidate lands in Philly for Nick Sirianni.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 24, 2021

Gannon is perhaps one of the more suprising hires as he was considered a top, if not the top, candidate for vacant coordinator positions and reportedly had other offers for coordinator positions.

Surely his familiarity played a role in his decision to join the Eagles, but Gannon is a strong developer of defensive backs and the Eagles have a strong defensive line with plenty of young defensive backs and linebackers in the room.

Gannon is expected to continue to run a 4-3 scheme, so that will keep the Eagles line in tact.

He also prefers long corners and two-high safety looks, so someone like Avonte Maddox may find themselves flipped back to safety or traded.

Recently, Gannon had used a secondary consisting of Xavier Rhodes, who in 2019 appeared to be the worst corner in the league, on a cheap deal along with Rock Ya-Sin, Malik Hooker, Julian Blackmon, Khari Willis and Kenny Moore II. Outside of Rhodes, none of the starters have played more then four years in the league – they have all been developed.

That secondary had 13 INTs and four forced fumbles in 2020.

If Gannon can do the same in Philly around McLeod and Slay, the Eagles do have Maddox, Wallace, Epps, Seymour and James among other young DBs like Hill and Houston as players he can look to develop.

The bad news that came out on Sunday were reports that Duce Staley has requested out after being passed over for the head coaching job.

Longtime #Eagles assistant Duce Staley has asked to be released from his contract, as @JClarkNBCS reported. He has a few teams interested in him. Staley will speak to owner Jeffrey Lurie soon and the sides will go from there.

— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) January 24, 2021

Not totally unexpected, he is not out of town yet as he will first have to meet with Eagles owner Jeffery Lurie.

Duce has been with the team for three previous head coaches and has been the running backs coach the whole time. The argument for him is that he is clearly a leader of men. The argument against him is that people have complained about the running back rotation (something he controls) for years and he has received interviews from no other teams. His reported interest is coming from the Lions and the Bears and the Bears are looking at him as a running backs coach – nothing more than a lateral move.

Fans will have to stay tuned to see how this one works out, but it would be a shock if Lurie changed Duce’s mind as well as if Sirianni didn’t want him on the staff.

Kevin Patullo, former Colts Receivers coach who was elevated to passing game specialist after the team signed Mike Groh, is headed to Philly to be the team’s new offensive pass game coordinator, per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.

The #Eagles also agreed to terms with #Colts assistant Kevin Patullo as their offensive pass game coordinator, per source. Nick Sirianni bringing along some familiar faces to Philly.

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 24, 2021

This makes the third coach being pulled out from under Frank Reich by Philadelphia.

In his lone season as a passing game specialist, the Colts ranked 11th in the league in passing yards.