PHILADELPHIA — Last weekend was a busy one for the Philadelphia Eagles, who made the hiring of new defensive coordinator Vic Fangio official with an announcement Saturday afternoon and reportedly tapped Kellen Moore to be their new offensive coordinator late Saturday night.
Moore, a former backup quarterback, ran the Dallas Cowboys' offense for four years, leading them to top-six finishes in the NFL three times. His one-year tenure at the some position with the Los Angeles Chargers this season was not as successful, but was mitigated by a season-ending injury to staring QB Justin Herbert in mid-December.
The 35-year-old Moore is still considered to be one of the league's top offensive minds and is expected to be a head-coaching candidate someday. He'll be tasked with reviving an Eagles offense that head coach Nick Sirianni admitted was "stale" in a press conference last week.
Fangio, 65, is a veteran coach who spent the 2022 season as a consultant with the Eagles during their run to the NFC Championship and their loss to Kansas City in the Super Bowl. Philly's defensive coordinator at the time, Jonathan Gannon, was a Fangio disciple.
"Vic's reputation obviously speaks for itself," Sirianni said. "He's a brilliant defensive mind who has coached at a very high level in this league for many years. In my time spent with Vic, I've seen firsthand what makes him such a great coach – tremendous knowledge of the game, passion, and work ethic. I'm excited for our coaches and players to be able to learn from him and see it for themselves."
The Eagles reportedly had Fangio lined up to replace Gannon if another team came along to poach him, but Fangio had already taken the defensive coordinator job in Miami by the time the news broke that Gannon had been in talks to take the head coaching job with the Arizona Cardinals.
With Fangio gone, the Eagles turned to another of his former assistants, Sean Desai, to run the defense this past season. Desai's one-year tenure was not as successful as Gannon's; Philly's defense regressed on several fronts, and after consecutive blowout losses to the San Francisco 4934s and Dallas Cowboys in December, Sirianni took away his defensive play calling duties and appointed former Patriots assistant and Lions head coach Matt Patricia to call the defensive plays -- with disastrous results.
This season in Miami, Fangio had the Dolphins ranked 10th in the league in yards allowed and 22nd in points allowed, but he should probably be graded on a curve given the season-ending injuries to several starters.
Fangio has spent 19 years as a defensive coordinator in the NFL, plus three below average seasons as a head coach with the Denver Broncos (2019-2021).
Eagles fans frustrated with Gannon's hesitancy to blitz might not love the Fangio style of defense, which is known to be light on blitzing and predicated on stopping explosive plays. Such a defense depends on generating a pass rush along the defensive line and living with shorter passes underneath.
The Fangio-style defense had its struggles last season. In addition to Desai's failure in Philly, Gannon's Cardinals ranked 32nd in the league overall and Brandon Staley's Chargers struggled as well, leading to the belief in some circles that the NFL's offensive coaches have cracked Fangio's code.
But the Eagles' logic in hiring Fangio based on his 19-year track record as a coordinator is at least defensible.
In Moore, the Eagles are getting an experienced play-caller who will be tasked with bringing "new ideas" to the table in Philly, as Sirianni called for in his press conference last week.
“We're bringing in a guy to bring in new ideas, to do the things that he's done in the past,” Sirianni said in his press conference. “It'd be crazy not to add some of the things that we've done in the past here, as well. …
“We're working on getting the best guy in here for the job and a guy who has a vision, a guy who's going to call the plays, a guy who's going to be able to coach a quarterback. … So it's just about getting the right guy and then we'll decide where that goes. But I'm hiring him to do a job and to be in charge of the offense.”
With Moore running the offense in Dallas, the Cowboys were ranked 6th, 17th, 1st and 4th in total offense. He left for San Diego prior to last season, after head coach Mike McCarthy decided to assume play-calling duties.
The Cowboys averaged 27.7 points per game during Moore's four-year tenure, which is the 2nd-most in the NFL behind the Chiefs’ 28.8 points per game over the same span.