The Eagles didn’t rush. They cast a wide net and took their time. After moving on from Kevin Patullo following a disappointing 2025 season, the Eagles launched a lengthy search for their next offensive coordinator that ultimately landed on 33-year-old Sean Mannion. “You just could tell rig ht away how sharp he was and then we get him here to the building, it was very obvious,” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said ahead of the NFL Combine. “When you do that and when you cast a wide net and you go through the process like that, it reveals itself to you of who the right one is.” The Eagles hope they nailed their pick. Because there’s no doubt that hiring a 33-year-old coordinator with two years of coaching experience is a big swing. But the Eagles seem very excited about the direction of the offense under Mannion. According to Sirianni, the Eagles interviewed 17 different candidates and Mannion was one of seven who got a second interview. The Eagles went through the full process. Sirianni admitted that when the Eagles began their search for an offensive coordinator to replace Patullo, he initially wanted someone who had experience being an OC and calling plays. And several of the candidates for this job did have that on their resumes. But once the Eagles got deeper into the search, Sirianni’s opinion on that changed. That experience became secondary. He cared more about the details and vision he was hearing from these candidates in their interviews. Sirianni really wanted to hear conviction coming from those coaches for how they planned to call plays for the first time. Mannion showed that type of conviction. “I just think that conviction is a good portion of any of any leadership,” Sirianni said. “If I’m going in there and I’m going, ‘Ahh … we can run this.’ If I’m a leader, I need to go in there and I need to be like, ‘Hey, here’s what the f— we’re doing. And here’s why we’re doing it.’ And sometimes you don’t get that level of conviction unless you’ve really prepped for it, unless you really believe in it.” The expectation is that the Eagles’ offense is going to look very different in 2026. And after a stale attack in 2025, that’s probably a good thing. Mannion has a background in the Shanahan/McVay offense that has taken over the NFL and those staples are coming with him to Philadelphia, which means an offense that will be way different than the one we saw this past season. Several of the candidates, including Mannion, had a background in that style of offense. While that wasn’t a prerequisite going in, the deeper the Eagles got into this search, it became something Sirianni really wanted. Sirianni explained that he’s specifically excited that the new run game will help handle the “junk” that opposing defenses throw at them and he also likes the way the run game marries to the play-action game. Sirianni also thinks this type of offense, even though it’s very different, will fit the skills of the talented players already on the roster. “I wouldn’t say I went in and said, ‘I have to have this system,’” Sirainni said. “But as [we] went through it, then it became obvious to me that I wanted to have this system the more I learned about it, the more I thought about it, the more I talked to different guys about it. And that’s where I kind of got to. To answer your question: It was in my forefront of my mind to say, ‘I’m interested in this.’ But I didn’t necessarily say ‘I have to have this.’ And then as the process went forward, that’s where I kind of got to with that.” Because the Eagles cast such a wide net and because several of the candidates for the job either took positions elsewhere or backed out of contention, it gave off the appearance that the OC job in Philly isn’t that desirable. During the lengthy search, that became a major talking point. Was it the pressure? Or the volatility? Or the roster? Or Jalen? Or Nick? “All that really matters is the guy that you end up picking for the job and his excitement and willingness to be there,” Sirianni said. “I think how excited Sean was to be the offense coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles because of the winning history that we’ve had, because of the players that we have, because of the GM that we have, you name it, all the different things. Jalen (Hurts), A.J. (Brow), DeVonta (Smith), Saquon (Barkley), all the guys that we have here and how excited he was for that.” In order to help maximize his potential, Mannion is bringing a couple of “his” coaches with him to Philly. The Eagles hired Ryan Mahaffey as tight ends coach/run game coordinator and Chris Kuper as offensive line coach. Both have experience with Mannion and in the style of offense the Eagles are going to run. The Eagles took a big swing by hiring Mannion so they want to make sure he has what he needs to install his offense. We won’t know about the results of the Mannion hire for some time. But for now, the Eagles are pleased with the results of the process that led them to him. “As you talk to people around the league and they described him and his future, it became somebody that we really felt like we needed to talk to,” Eagles GM Howie Roseman said. “His name just kept coming up as we were doing things and as we were talking about the way that we were kind of moving from an offensive perspective.” ...read more read less