Eagles moving on from Brian Johnson: 5 thoughts about Nick Sirianni, Jalen Hurts, and the offense's changes

Just like last season, the Eagles must replace both their offensive and defensive coordinators. Unlike last season, it’s the Eagles’ choice.

Nick Sirianni will reportedly move on from Brian Johnson, and he’s already started the search for Johnson’s replacement. (The news of Johnson’s exit was first reported by Jakib Media’s Derrick Gunn.)

The Eagles have not yet announced staff changes. Sirianni and Howie Roseman will meet with reporters on Wednesday.

Here are five thoughts on the change and what it means for Sirianni and the Eagles:

1. It’s indisputable that the Eagles must improve on offense, where they underperformed relative to their talent with an offensive system that requires evolution and more creativity. But there was a belief that Johnson, even as play-caller, was operating within the confines of Sirianni’s vision. 

In fact, Sirianni said as much last month.

“This offense is my offense,” he said. “So, the criticism on the offense I think unfairly goes to Brian. Brian calls the plays. Brian calls the plays. It unfairly goes to Brian. The criticism on this offense should come at me because this is my offense. I was hired to do a job here and got hired because I was successful as an offensive coordinator with our schemes and the different things that we did to coach players and help players win. …This offense has been consistently similar throughout the three years. Yes, there are different things you do based off your personnel and different things you do based off the teams that you are playing and what’s working for you, but again, it all starts there with me.”

So the pivotal question is whether there will be material change to the offense’s philosophy and scheme, or if this is simply a new coach executing the same vision from Sirianni. (One example of philosophy: The Eagles were No. 32 of 32 teams in motion rate.) We discussed potential candidates on the PHLY Eagles show on Tuesday, and make sure you check out Bo Wulf’s story breaking down the candidates.

Of course, one can counter that Shane Steichen worked within Sirianni’s vision and the offense was one of the best in the NFL. The key variable is that the NFL spent the offseason studying the Eagles after the 2022 season. Jason Kelce emphasized this during the summer. So the Eagles needed to stay a step ahead, and that clearly was not the case in 2023.

But the messaging ever since Sirianni ceded play-calling duties to Shane Steichen is that the play-caller is choosing from the menu, and Sirianni is the one overseeing the offense. Sirianni made this clear as far back as the summer of 2022 when distinguishing between play design and play-caller.

“No matter if Kevin Patullo is calling it, Shane Steichen’s calling it, Brian Johnson is calling it, Jeff Stoutland’s calling it, Jason Michael is calling it, Jonathan Gannon comes over and calls it, Howie (Roseman) calls it from up there, (Jeffrey) Lurie, (security chief) Dom (DiSandro), Julian (Lurie),” Sirianni said to laughter. “I’m very particular and I know what I believe in, in the passing and the running game and offensive football.”

So yes, the play-caller is changing. But Sirianni takes pride in his offensive philosophies, and the key question is how and what changes with Sirianni still the head coach.

2.  Even with change expected, I wasn’t sure they would move on from Johnson. An alternative would have been to keep Johnson as offensive coordinator, hire a senior offensive assistant, make other staff changes on offense, and try to re-invent the system with a collective brainpower in place. The organization had been bullish on Johnson since he arrived as quarterbacks coach in 2021, and they made a strong effort to keep him last offseason when other teams were interested in hiring him as offensive coordinator. Three teams requested head-coaching interviews for Johnson this month, which shows the way he’s viewed around the league. So I thought they would try to capitalize on a well-regarded offensive mind and find ways to adapt the offense together. That also would have allowed Jalen Hurts to have continuity with an offensive play-caller. Since Hurts arrived at Alabama in 2016, he’s had the same play-caller in back-to-back years just once in his career: 2021 to 2022, when he ascended into an MVP-caliber quarterback for the Eagles. 

Instead, the Eagles chose a clean slate on offense to incite the necessary change.

3. It’s impossible to separate Jalen Hurts from any changes at offensive coordinator, considering Hurts is the most important figure in the organization. He’s the franchise player and the centerpiece of the offense, and the $255 million investment in Hurts means it’s hard to tolerate regression like he experienced in 2023.  

The focus on any offensive changes must be maximizing Hurts, and it’s hard to think they made a move or will make a move without some type of consultation with him. The Eagles might try to distance themselves from this perception after the Carson Wentz experience, when they empowered franchise quarterback perhaps too much, but the reality is that comes with the territory of that role in the organization. The Eagles cannot reach the heights they want without Hurts’ playing among the best quarterbacks in the NFL.

4. It would be naive to think that Sirianni could have run it back with much of the same coaching staff, and a vision for changes on the staff was presumably part of the meeting with Jeffrey Lurie after the season. But Sirianni has been particularly loyal to his staff since becoming head coach, seldom making a change on his own volition. There have been coaches who have left, yet dismissals were rare. For Sirianni to fire both of his coordinators within one year is striking. And now the Eagles will be onto their third offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator in three seasons. It’s idealistic to expect long-term continuity — every NFL team will have had an offensive coordinator since the beginning of the 2022 season. The difference is this is not happening the way Sirianni planned. Sirianni wanted to develop an internal pipeline of coaches who were promoted from within. So much for that hope.

My guess is the Eagles expected another successful season and for Johnson to be a hot name as a hot-coaching candidate, allowing them to potentially promote an internal candidate such as Kevin Patullo to offensive coordinator and continue this pipeline. Nobody could have planned for the past eight weeks.

5. On that note, it’s hard to imagine Sirianni will get the chance to make another change after this season (unless the coordinator becomes a head coach, of course). So Sirianni must nail this hire. That’s why it’ll be interesting to see whether he leans toward an established play-caller/offensive coordinator or takes a chance on an up-and-coming coach as the Eagles did with Johnson. The first name to leak out is Kliff Kingsbury (according to the NFL Network), and he fits the profile of the former. The Eagles have a three-week head start on finding an offensive coordinator compared to last season, putting them in the running for almost every top candidate. Then again, there wasn’t much of a search last season; the Eagles wanted to promote Johnson. Why? Johnson was considered a hot candidate. If he didn’t call the offense in Philadelphia he would have called elsewhere. And Johnson might coach somewhere in 2024 and show why the Eagles were so keen on him before this season. 

But it won’t happen in Philadelphia, and now Sirianni’s offense and how he builds a staff will determine if there’s another change in Philadelphia next season.