The Philadelphia Eagles‘ offense is going to look much different in 2024, and it’s not just because their Hall of Fame center is retiring.
After a disappointing finish last year, the Eagles made several changes to their offensive coaching staff. Gone was the inexperienced play-caller, Brian Johnson. In is former Los Angeles Chargers and Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.
The former quarterback brings a new scheme of offense that differs from the last few years for Philadelphia. How different will that scheme deviate from the past few years with head coach Nick Sirianni and his assistants? It’s time to break that question down.
Nick Sirianni on Kellen Moore’s Offensive ‘Blend’
At the Annual League Meetings last week, Philadelphia’s head coach talked about what his offense could look like after his own scheme seemingly became stale during the late stages of the 2023 NFL season.
That’s where Moore, a former quarterback and multi-year play-caller comes in.
“He (Moore) has done an unbelievable job so far of just directing the ship,” Sirianni said. “Just got a lot of respect for him.”
Moore has coached the top overall offense in two of the five years he’s been a play-caller. Of the times his offenses did not finish in the top 10, the starting quarterback for those teams (Dak Prescott in 2020 and Justin Herbert in 2023) did not play a full season.
Just because Moore has an excellent pedigree doesn’t mean Sirianni is completely doing away with his offense, though. The head coach maintained that a “collaborative” approach would be instilled with Moore being the primary play-caller overall.
“There’s a lot of concepts that are very, very similar,” Sirianni explained. “I hired Kellen to do a job, and we’ll mesh things together just like I said right from the beginning. We’ll have some good things that we’ve done here in the past. He’s going to bring some new elements to it.”
Part of Moore’s biggest task is keeping quarterback Jalen Hurts among the best at his position. After finishing second in MVP voting in 2022 and leading the Eagles to the Super Bowl, Hurts struggled at times with turnovers the following year amid a plethora of other issues plaguing the roster as a whole.
If Moore, the former Boise State star, can get Hurts back to playing like the MVP candidate he was for parts of 2023 and all of 2022, the Eagles’ late-season struggles would be a distant memory.
What Will Moore’s System Change for Eagles?
Among the major differences between what Moore does and what the Eagles have used in the past is the reliance on motion. Philadelphia has ranked near the bottom of the league the last few years due to its overabundance of skill on the outside. Just last season, the Chargers ran motion 63% of the time — fifth-most in the NFL.
The use of motion could allow star offensive players like DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown to have significant success and put into places that better utilize their skills.
Outside of motion, the biggest takeaway from Moore’s overall scheme is his ability to update his system to the roster he has. With the Chargers, the team was unable to run a lot of play-action like he did with the Cowboys, due in large part to the team’s injuries and poor offensive line play.
A play-caller who can adjust on the fly is something that former Eagles offensive coordinator Shane Steichen did very well. If Moore is even close to the play-caller he was, Philadelphia could be well on their path to further dominance in 2024.
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