Nick Sirianni is on his fifth offensive coordinator in six seasons in Philadelphia, this time hiring greenhorn Sean Mannion to lead his offense.
Mannion has had a meteoric rise. Three seasons ago, in 2023, he was a practice-squad quarterback in Minnesota, then Seattle. He spent two seasons under Matt LaFleur in Green Bay, first as an offensive assistant, and last year as quarterbacks coach. Now, he's in charge of installing and calling an entirely new offense in Philly.
Earlier this offseason, Sirianni noted that he wasn't worried one iota about Mannion's lack of experience.
"I'm not at all concerned there as far as his inexperience on that because he's worked his ass off," Sirianni said, via . "And I know that he'll work his ass off to be as ready as he possibly can that day. And he's got people there and coaches there with him, like coach (Josh) Grizzard, Parks (Frazier), myself, that have done this and have been in this situation. He's got a lot of people to help bounce ideas off of."
The Super Bowl-winning coach said that Mannion "works his butt off," making it easy to trust things will work out.
"This dude loves football and he loves to work," Sirianni said. "I mean, I've really enjoyed being around him and just his desire. Sometimes we think 'man, he's talented' about everybody, 'man, he's just got it.' But it doesn't happen without, whether it's a player, whether it's Sean, it doesn't happen without just this obsession to get better. And Sean has this obsession to get better, this obsession with his craft, which is why he's excelled in this profession. And I'm really looking forward to continuing to work with him."
The Eagles have been boom or bust at the OC spot. Shane Steichen joined Sirianni in Year 1 and left for a head coaching gig after Year 2. Since then, it's been one-and-dones at the position. Brian Johnson bombed; Kellen Moore was hired in New Orleans after a single Super Bowl campaign; and Kevin Patullo cratered last season. Now it's on Mannion to sprint in his first shot at play-calling.
Despite glowing remarks from coaches and players alike, it's impossible to know how Mannion will do until the fire is really lit. Training camp will be a testing ground not just for the players learning the new offense, but for Mannion as well, as Sirianni plans to keep the new OC on his toes.
"My job is to make sure I put him in as many scenarios as I possibly can to help him go through that," Sirianni said. "And you can change how training camp goes. I've done some different things in OTAs, as far as putting him in these scenarios of some situations that maybe I would have told Kellen about, or maybe I would have told Shane about. 'Hey, Shane, we're going to do third-and-12 from the minus-3 today. Make sure you're ready.' And sometimes you tell him, and sometimes what we've been doing is kind of a pop quiz. So he has to have a call sheet ready and go from there."
If Sirianni didn't hire Mannion, someone likely would have in this cycle or the next. The search for the next offensive mind never ends. The question is always: When the time comes, is that new play-caller ready for the spotlight?
