Eagles in Indy: Updates & thoughts on coaching staff, salary cap, roster building

INDIANAPOLIS — It’s combine week. Eagles officials and coaches are here for the unofficial start of the NFL offseason, and the storylines about the franchise will shift from the manufactured variety to more substantive activity — or at least the doorstep of substantive activity. Howie Roseman and Nick Sirianni will meet with reporters at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Here are some thoughts and updates about what’s happening:

1. At this time last year, the Eagles were still putting together a coaching staff. They didn’t even announce their defensive coordinator until they were at the combine, and the search for position coaches extended into March. This year is different. (No Super Bowl is the big reason for the timing, of course.) The Eagles finalized their staff last Friday.

If you missed it, here are the new coaches (other than Vic Fangio and Kellen Moore, who we’ve covered extensively in this space): 

Christian Parker, Passing Game Coordinator/Defensive Backs

Previous job: Broncos secondary coach

Clint Hurtt, Senior Defensive Assistant/Defensive Line

Previous job: Seahawks defensive coordinator

Roy Anderson, Cornerbacks

Previous job: Seahawks secondary coach

Joe Kasper, Safeties

Previous job: Dolphins safeties coach

Bobby King, Inside Linebackers

Previous job: Titans inside linebackers coach

Doug Nussmeier, Quarterbacks

Previous job: Chargers quarterbacks coach

Kyle Valero, Offensive Assistant

Previous job: Cowboys offensive assistant

The Eagles also gave new titles to T.J. Paganetti (run game specialist/assistant offensive line), Ronell Williams (assistant linebackers/defensive quality control), Tyler Scudder (defensive quality control), and Tyler Yelk (head coach quality control).

They retained 11 coaches, including most of their offensive staff. (The only changes were quarterbacks coach and assistant offensive line coach.) 

A few quick takeaways from this list:

• The NFL experience jumps out across the board. Last season, the Eagles leaned on internal promotions at quarterbacks coach and secondary coach, and they hired a college coordinator as linebackers coach. This was, in part, due to the time of the year when they made the changes. But their staff was mostly coaches who were in the highest positions in their NFL coaching careers. This group has former coordinators on both sides of the ball, plus experienced position coaches. There’s not a right way or wrong way to build a staff — somebody has to get a first opportunity to become an experienced coach — but it’s evident that Sirianni valued NFL experience when putting this group together.
• The offensive staff is mostly intact, which is a mild surprise given the way they ended this year. Moore was able to bring Nussmeier, with whom he has a long history, but it’s otherwise holdovers from Sirianni’s original staff in 2021. The Eagles are still undergoing scheme changes with Moore aboard, although the continuity supports Sirianni’s insistence that there will be a melding of previous concepts with Moore’s scheme. Also, it’s not as if the offensive staff sought a lifeboat off the ship. Interpret that for what you while, but that could indicate staff loyalty and/or confidence in the 2024 prospects. (Or perhaps there were simply few attractive or attainable options elsewhere.)
• Fangio has familiarity on his side of the ball, with a defensive line coach and secondary coach who have worked with him before. (Also, both have additional titles as senior defensive assistant and defensive pass game coordinator.) There’s a designated split between outside linebackers coach and inside linebackers coach, and there’s a cornerbacks coach and a safeties coach under the defensive backs coach. So the titles on the staff have changed, and the Eagles no longer have a designated nickel coach.

2. Eagles officials will likely leave Indianapolis with a sense of the market of their free agents and potential trade candidates. Free agency kicks off on March 11, but this is when those markets begin to set.

For the Eagles, the priority should be figuring out what’s going to happen with Haason Reddick. He’s such an important player at such an important position and the Eagles must know what direction they’ll go and how cap dollars will be allocated. The market will be affected by potential franchise tag candidates (Brian Burns, Josh Allen, Bryce Huff), so that plays into the plans of other teams.

As I’ve stated on the show, my guess is that the top edge rushers don’t hit the market and Reddick will be in demand. The question then is whether the market value is out of the Eagles’ reach, and if the trade compensation would be worth giving him up. But that should be the top priority for the Eagles because they need to know what their pass rush will look like in this defense.

3. The NFL’s salary cap is $255.4 million, with an unprecedented $30 million jump from last year. The Eagles have $27.4 million in cap space, and that will swell with releases and restructures in the coming weeks. The rise in the salary cap doesn’t necessarily change the Eagles’ plans because every team has more cap space, and contracts (especially for top players) will likely rise accordingly. But there’s one specific way this could help the Eagles: a willingness to take on more dead money. They can make cuts and trades, absorb a cap hit, and still have the flexibility to add a player or players. James Bradberry is the key player to watch. 

My guess is the Eagles will be active in free agency, especially on defense. I’d look for them to spend more than usual at safety or linebacker. This safety group is more robust. Linebacker is more of a need. The Eagles haven’t made heavy investments at either spot during the past five years, but this offseason might be the exception.

4. The athletic testing is always a highlight at the combine, and it’s appropriately a piece of the puzzle. What you hope is that it’s not over-indexed. I’ve wondered if the Eagles’ 2022 draft would have been different had there not been a combine. Jordan Davis was a standout a college player — he won the Bednarik Award, the Outland Award, and was a unanimous All-American — but it was his off-the-charts athletic testing that solidified his status as a top pick and suggested that there could be more pass-rushing upside. The Eagles look for players with unique characteristics in the first round, and Davis qualifies. Kyle Hamilton was similarly a standout at Notre Dame, but he ran a 4.59-second 40-yard dash. Without the data point of the athletic testing, would Hamilton’s film have been enough to prompt the Eagles to go off-script and draft a safety that high? He was one of the best players in the NFL last season and the Ravens aren’t complaining about his 40 time. 

It’s worth noting that the Eagles’ best draft in the past five years was 2021, when they took DeVonta Smith, Landon Dickerson, and Milton Williams. It helps to draft high in rounds, of course, but that was a year without the combine. There were Pro Days, although the lack of standardized testing made that more of a film draft. It’s something to consider when you see the times this week. (And something for me to remember, as I’m often influenced by athletic testing.)

Look for much more to come in this space during the next few days.