PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - EMERGENCY POD: Eagles hire Sean Mannion as offensive coordinator

Episode Date: January 29, 2026

The Eagles took a big swing with their offensive coordinator hire, bringing in Green Bay Packers quarterbacks coach Sean Mannion to replace Kevin Patullo. Bo Wulf and EJ Smith discuss the breaking news, what you need to know about the 33-year-old coach, and what it means for Nick Sirianni, Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and the rest of the team. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, everybody. And welcome to an emergency podcast live from the Xfinity Mobile Studio, presented by Bet365 and Xfinity. But Wolf, E.J. Smith, E.J., you're still in the studio. You've been sleeping there, waiting for news, and we have it. What is it? The Eagles have hired an offensive coordinator. It is Sean Mannion.

The Manion in the mirror. The Mannion they need, maybe, perhaps. Well, John Mannyin. Boys to Mannion, I think was my favorite. He is the 33-year-old. He previously was the Packers quarterback's coach. He has just one year of experience as the as a quarterback's coach. Before that, he was an offensive assistant for one season with the Green Bay Packers.

Doesn't have a ton of coaching experience, Sean Mannion, but he does have a lot of playing experience with some of the, I would say, some of the leading minds in the NFL. So he has played for really a who's who of different coaches across the NFL. But the ones I think are most pertinent. Sean McVeigh, he was a backup quarterback with the Rams. Under Sean McVeigh, he was a backup quarterback with the Minnesota Vikings under Kevin O'Connell and has spent. And again, he spent time with Matt LaFleur on the coaching staff.

So, yeah, more experience in the playing, like as a backup quarterback in the room with some of these coaches. but yeah, very new to coaching. It is no doubt a very interesting hire, given what the Eagles are, where they are roster-wise in terms of the offense, and where they are in terms of, you know, Nick Siriani in his head coaching life cycle. And so to discard Kevin Petulow

after a downseason on offense and not land the top candidates in Mike McDaniel, who I think we agree they were very interested in, Brian Dable interested into a lesser degree. Then you canvassed a league. And it's not just play callers. It is younger guys. I think given the fact that they are hiring Sean Mannion,

I'm a little bit surprised they didn't interview more guys of this ilk, if that makes sense. You know, it was basically him and Declan Doyle on the young guys who haven't called plays front. Yeah. And you know what? Gerard Johnson as well.

I've got some, I can break a little bit of news here. Sean Manion will is expected to call place for the Eagles next season. Oh, a scoop and scoop. So, yeah, I think it was fair to wonder somebody who didn't have play calling experience. If he, you know, would have ceded that responsibility to Nick Siriani. But Nick Siriani, obviously we know values being able to manage games, you know, be able to kind of handle the overall, be the CEO on the sideline necessarily. So, yeah, he will, Sean Mannion will, is expected. to be the play caller.

Wow, how about that? Please credit Eagles insider EJ Smith of all PHOI.com. That's huge. And I mean, thank God as far as Eagles fans are concerned, right? That's the reason you expect that he's that he's coming in. And so now listen, we said at the beginning of last season, Kevin Petulow's never called plays before. He probably deserves some grace in terms of, you know,

this is a thing that's going to take some time to learn. We'll see if the same is extended to or the, or the lack thereof is extended to Sean Mannion, but the Eagles, no doubt, are trying to get ahead of this. And in some way trying to solve, I think we both agreed that trying to solve for having a guy who's going to be here for a long time is a silly thing to do. I think you could see themselves talking themselves into this being part of it.

But I bet if Sean Maynian has an, if the Eagles have an awesome year this year, people are going to be interested in hiring him, right? Oh, absolutely. That is like one of my big picture takeaways with this, is that I think they're hiring Sean Mannion a year earlier than he was really going to hit the coaching cycle hard, where he was going to be one of the end vogue names. You know, Davis Webb, even, you know, Declan Doyle are examples of coaches.

Obviously, Davis Webb, even more so as an example of a coach that is in, you know, very much in demand because of, you know, being a couple of years into their coaching experience, you know, Sean, Sean Mannion has one fewer year of coaching experience in Davis Webb. But again, if you think about his playing experience, kind of balances out. But my overarching takeaway here is that if Sean Mannion does a great job calling place for the Eagles offense, he still will be viewed as a potential head coaching candidate. His age isn't going to be, you know,

something that scares people away. You know what I mean? It's like if he is who the Eagles, the hope he is, he will be a head coach. And I would guess the Eagles would be okay with that. I think that's real. I mean, certainly if he's a head coach,

they'll be happy because it means they will have had success. I'm trying to think of this. here and the plan with hiring Sean Mania because we talked about, you know, he didn't, he's only been a coach for two years. So he doesn't sound like he has a bunch of friends who are coaches necessarily. So I would imagine guessing this is probably good news for some of the holdovers on the offensive staff that they, that they may be staying. It's also, he's never, he's never installed an offense. He's never put together his own offense. I, I almost feel like the hope from the Eagles perspective is less about the offense that Sean Mannion is bringing and more thinking

this is a guy who we think can read a game really well and call plays really well in games. That's pure speculation. Yeah, you know, it's something we talked about a lot on the show in the last few days is that there are going to be a lot of questions about Sean Mannion. You know, we do not have a full evaluation of him in the role he is going to take on. And neither do the Eagles. let's be clear, they will have been on a fact-finding mission in the interview process to find out what his feel for games is like.

And I'm sure that that's also something asking around the league about him that you could try to find out. And again, like him on the whiteboard, him talking through his vision for the offense. These are all really important elements of this job, being able to navigate, you know, Nick Siriani and Jalen Hertz, being able to command a room with those two figures in the room. They'll have a better idea than we do about that. I think if you trust the Eagles evaluation of coaches in these types of scenarios in these types of settings, then I do think that, you know, they've kind of earned the benefit of the

doubt in that regard. But again, these are unknowns. You know, it is a big projection of a hire. No doubt. And reportedly they had Gerard Johnson in for a second interview as well today, right? So that would mean Gerard Johnson, Jim Bob Cooter, Josh Grizzard, and Sean Mannion were the finalists, as it were. And of those four?

sight unseen. Is this the one that you would have wanted? It's an interesting question. I mean, I, I would have probably prioritized play calling experience. This is such a mystery box. We like, you know, we have no idea. Did he know what, even evaluate what kind of job he did this year? Yeah, exactly. No, I mean, I was, I was going through some of the, the, the stats for the Packers offense, but it really is hard to attribute that to the first year quarterbacks coach. You know, obviously, um, um, you know, when you think of the, the coaches that he played for, and I will answer your question, I promise, but, you know, when you think of the coaches that he played for and the coaches that he's worked underneath, I think it's fair to expect a play action heavy offense, an offense that, you know, is aggressive in terms of like neutral passing situations.

Some of the McVe-Shannah tree, you'll see a lot of under center, a lot of, you know, heavy personnel usage to try and open up the middle of the field. I'm not sure that that is like a constant enough to know. for certain that that's something that Sean Manion will bring. I think the things you can feel good about in terms of what Sean Manion's philosophies are based off of who he's worked for is that this is going to be a play action focused offense, you know, an offense that is focused on marrying the run in the past game together

and making that a really large component of the offense. Now, again, going back to what I would have, you know, if you would ask me, like, who among those finalists would you prioritize? I probably would have went with somebody with play calling experience. it probably would have been Josh Grizzard. But again, the Eagles will have more information on what Sean Mannion is going to be like as a play caller and as the leading voice in the offensive meeting room than I do. I think of those four candidates, I'm okay with Mannion. And it's the reason that we, it's probably the one I would have picked, just Mr.

Total mystery box. And it's the reason that we, it's the thing we talked about with the professor last week, that this team is no longer necessarily in a spot. we're on offense, you know, competency is going to do it, and the talent is going to override everything else. I think you need to invite some variance. You want to swing for upside. And without ever having talked to him before in my life, I believe that his track record gives you the most upside, like, you know, the theory of it, at least. So yeah, no, I mean, there is interesting. There's no way that they went into this process expecting to land here. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I think that it's been.

very reminiscent of the Nick Siriani coaching search where the first wave of candidates went elsewhere and they cast a wide net. They, you know, pick the brains of a lot of, again, coaches that maybe were a year or two away from really being top emerging candidates. And they, you know, they clearly were impressed with what they saw from Sean Minnan. I have a quote from Nick Siriani on the, uh, from, you know, the Eagles website here. He said it was quickly apparent in meeting with Sean that he is a bright young coach with a tremendous future. ahead of him in this league. I was impressed by his systematic views on offensive football and his strategic approach. Sean's 11 years in the NFL have provided him a great opportunity to learn from

and grow alongside some of the best coaches in the game. Some of those coaches we mentioned, Sean McVeigh, Matt LaFloor, Zach Taylor, Gary Kuback, Gary Kubiak, Kevin Stefanski, Clint Kubiak, your boy, KK, Dave Canales and Grant Udinski are also coaches that he has played under in his career. Interesting. Yeah. A Mannion, a Planyan, a Canyon now. The Manion with the Planyan? Would that have been your thumbnail text?

How about Flugs Manion? There's behind the curtain here. Would you have made it the Manion with the Planyan? No. I think on this one, you got to grab SEO. This is great news. You got to just get Sean Manion Eagles offensive coordinator in there. Yeah.

Who do you think? I'm going to put you on the spot. Who do you think is? the biggest winner from the Sean Manion hire. I've got someone in mind. That's a good question. I could go one or two ways, but I've got someone I'm going to pick here. Excellent podcasting.

Is it going to be J.J. Brown, Devante Smith, Jalen Hertz, one of the offensive linemen, Sequin Barkley. Are you going to go Nick Siriani? It's not Tanner McKee. I think it's, I don't know. I don't know that there is a winner from this other than Sean Mayne because think about, well, I'm, you know. I want to say

Howie Roseman, but, you know, because he has continued to consolidate power. But, you know, I think they were probably,

uh, underwhelmed by the, the way that they seem to be viewed around the league through this process. I think it was a net negative result for them. I think the same thing is probably true for Nick. And, you know, if you believe that Nick is on a,

is on a one year prove it kind of situation, bringing in an unproven guy, I don't know that that's a win for him. I don't know that Sean Mannion has the graphadoss to come in and be like, oh, AJ Brown is going to want to stay now because Sean Manning is here. I don't know. It's impossible to say what this means for Jalen Hertz. Yes.

Jalen is the top one here. I feel like Devante is like the winner of any kind of offensive trade just because he's the guy who has the most untapped upside probably. Devante is the first one to come to mind for me. But I think the other one that comes to mind is if A.J. Brown stays, I think he is a big winner in the, at least the idea that we are the very, you know, basic fundamental ideas that we have of what Sean Mannion is going to want, how he's going to want to operate on offense. I think if you put AJ Brown in a play action heavy system that tries to leverage the middle

of the field in the way that we've seen Sean McVeigh and Kyle Shanahan and Matt LaFleur offenses operate, I do think AJ Brown could be a big winner from this. Now, that's not to say he's going to be because we don't know if he's going to be here next season but at least like the profile of player that a j brown is i do think that he would be a big winner with this higher if it is an offense that we expected to look like uh under shod manian i'm trying to think of the other quarterbacks the other the other coaches jalen hurts has worked with who have played quarterback in the league so it's brian johnson uh did brian johnson ever play in the league he just played at florida right yeah okay yeah no he didn't play any yeah

Doug Nussmeier's son played it. I know, Doug Nussmeier. Yeah. Yeah, okay. Doug Nussmeier's son is going to play in the league, presumably. That's what I was going to say. But yeah, Doug Nussmeier. Okay, so I don't know.

I don't know if that's a thing. I mean, Doug Peterson. Doug Peterson, true. Yeah. I mean, in theory. It's very interesting. The biggest question to me in terms of the unanswered nature of this whole thing. Call and Moore also, obviously.

Okay, so there have been a lot. Yeah, go on. sorry. The biggest question to me in terms of the unanswered, like, what's this going to look like is how much grace is Nick Siriani going to give Sean Mannion to make this thing his own before he wants to be involved more? That's the thing that that's the thing that's all about. Yeah, especially there's going to be urgency next season.

And when you hire an unknown and offensive coordinator, there's going to be, you know, some volatility, and it might take him time. You know, it really is like when Shane Steichen took over play calling a few years ago, I've said this before, like it is what stood out to me was him, like the passion that he had for play calling, the art of it. And, you know, maybe we have conversations with Sean Mannion and it's obviously he's got that same approach. But I do think that there is a learning curve to sequencing plays.

You know, the first 15, I'm sure that Sean Mannion's been in a lot of meeting rooms where they've gone over the first 15 and he probably feels really good about it. that but that's not really what the eagle struggled with this year they struggled with like the in-game adjustments the feel for the game and that is going to be a big unknown so no there's going to be urgency next year um so i know i do think that is a big question my biggest question before you know when we when we started the show is who's going to call plays uh because you know i did think that there was a window there for nick seriani to step in and obviously again we expect sean manion to be the play caller he is expected to call plays in the next season yeah per

I mean, fine, okay. I appreciate it. But there is going to be that window that opens, that could open eventually for Nick Siriani to become more involved. I think if you're bringing in Sean Mannion, you're bringing him in from a coaching tree that is so distinctly different than what we've seen the Eagles offense run in the past.

I think they have to resist that urge, though. You know, I think they will really need to let him install the offense that he has envisioned because he's not well-versed in like an Indianapolis Colts, Philip Rivers inspired offense. He is coming from a tree. He goes, obviously been very interested in.

But yeah, it's a very different one than the one we're used to see. This is all, everything about this is, is conjecture. Well, not everything. You have good reporting here.

But I'm, I'm squinting at this and thinking, this is the kind of hire you make if you do expect there to be significant turnover on offense. Yeah. Yeah. And I think we are expecting that. You know, Howie Roseman sort of foreshadowed an offseason of transition for the Eagles offense.

And I think it's going to be built in the image, similar to the way that the Eagles defense pivoted under Vic Fangio, you know, really prioritize the secondary and added Quineon Mitchell and Cooper to Jean. You could see something similar on the offensive side, you know, personnel that fit a play action heavy. I mean, based off of McVeigh and Shanahan, you'd expect a lot of outside zone. That's really not something we've seen the Eagles major in, necessarily. It's been a part of their plan in the run game. But no, I do think there's a chance that you see, you know, personnel that fit that vision that Sean Mannion's going to have here. All right.

Very exciting. Very interesting stuff. Sean Mannion. Do you have any final thoughts that you want to get on your chest? We're going to get to work after this, maybe hopefully get some guests on tomorrow show at 2 o'clock. We can give us some more information on Sean Mannion. We'll get to work on that. But before that, E.J., any final thoughts before we go?

Yeah, I think just it is going to be, there's a lot of projection with the hire. It's going to be really interesting to see exactly what Sean Mannion's offensive vision is. We have a lot of unknowns, but I do think that, you know, the Eagles have earned the benefit of the doubt to a certain degree to hire someone that they feel like was a year away from being one of the top candidates on the market. So I think that even though the search was prolonged and it's clear that they missed out on some of their top. candidates, I do think that, you know, Sean Mannion still is an interesting name to bring into this. And I think that there's a real chance. And I think that I guess like the biggest takeaway I have is that this Eagles offense is going to look significantly different next year. And they're entrusting Sean Mannion to do that. Yeah, I'm trying to think the Eagles track record of hiring a,

you know, an outside offensive coordinator. It's, it's, I mean, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, quarterbacks before, but I can't, I can't think of a miss there in, in recent memory. So they deserve, they deserve a little bit of the benefit of the doubt, no doubt. Some superchats, Pat Fenas, give me, give me a manion after midnight. Won't somebody help me chase the hitches away? That's really good. Shout out to Pat Fenas. It's better than what we came up with.

Super chat from LB. Do you think Jalen? EJ was in the room during any of the interviews. It's an interesting question. I do not know the answer. So this is going to be a guess. I know that Josh Allen was obviously like a big part of the Bill's head coaching search. And we heard from Jalen at the end of the season.

And he said his line would be open and that he, you know, would welcome influence in this decision. I would guess that if he was in the meeting rooms, we probably would have heard it. So my guess is he wasn't. But I'm sure that Jalen's desires and input were probably taken into account to some degree. Maybe not weighted much more highly than other prominent figures in the locker room or obviously even across the organization. But I'm sure that Jalen, what he wanted for the offense was taken into account. What's your biggest takeaway, Bo? My biggest takeaway is that this reflects them having gone through the process in earnest without a non-mic Daniel landing.

spot in mind. I think we'll see how it works out. I believe that this was the result of good process after they missed out on their top choices. Yeah, I agree how it happens. Yeah. No, and I think like the thing I'll be thinking about on my drive home is what you mentioned earlier, which is that this is going to be a major transition for the Eagles offense. You know, this is a coaching change. And then again, there will be personnel changes. I mean, they have to overhaul on offense. I think that this is probably the first step toward it, but not the last, you know, and free agency and the draft,

I think we'll see moves that coincide with this. My other big takeaway is I believe Shoney Manion looks like, shout out to my former English teacher in high school, a young Ted Heintz. So shout out to Mr. Heintz. Oh, like he looks like your English teacher. He looks like somebody in the chat says he looks like Jesse Pinkman. Now you don't know who that is because you didn't watch Breaking Bad.

I think I know that it is. He doesn't look like him. Aaron Paul? I think he kind of does. I could see it. Super chat from CDP. Will Jalen buy into Mannion? I mean, it is the million dollar question.

It's the million dollar super chat question. And again, the Eagles will have a better idea of that than we will. My guess is that that was front of mind for them, just like it was for us. You know, making sure that they hired somebody who had command over the room and that they felt like could work with Jalen in a productive fact. What do you think this means for Cameron Latu? You know, I don't think that the, I don't think that the Packers were a big 22 personnel team. They were not.

So I'm not feeling great about it for Cam Latu. You know, to me, it probably, I mean, he's a quarterback's coach. He's a former quarterback. He's going to want to spread them out, 11 personnel. I don't know. I don't think it's, I don't think it's great news for my boy Cam Latu. All right. Well, that will do it for this.

emergency podcast presented by Xfinity. Thank you very much, everybody for joining us. Remember, we are live tomorrow, 2 o'clock. We will have much more to discuss on the Sean Mannion front, have more information and hopefully talk to some people. Thanks, everybody for watching. Thanks, E.J., for breaking the news. What did you make of the Eagles breaking the news

and not giving it to a reporter? I mean, it was definitely surprising. It's like, you know, to pull the listeners behind the curtain, I was across the street getting something to eat with a few of our colleagues. And I was halfway through a chicken cheese stick when they hired an offensive coordinator. And I was like, I guess I'll just leave this here. Oh, no. I was like, I don't want to bring it back here.

It's going to be cold by the time we finish working. But no, then it's always, it's kind of like as a reporter, it's almost a relief when the team announces it when you see it from somewhere else. Because then you don't have to rush to confirm it. So, you know, I was at least a little bit. bit pleasantly surprised, but yeah, no, it was definitely surprising that they, that they, they just got ahead of it. You know what that means? That means they're mad. It means they're mad at the, the tenor of the national reporting of people saying that this eagle's job wasn't,

wasn't desirable. And so their way of getting back at the, at big national was to scoop them themselves. We're not doing you any favors if you're not going to do us any. It's not a terrible read of the situation. That's all I'd say. Interesting stuff. All right. Sean Mannion, looking forward to getting to know him. Yeah,

looking forward to talking about this tomorrow at 2 o'clock too. Yeah, let's do it. So join us then, please. Let us know what you think in the comments of the Sean Mannion hire. And that's all we got. For E.J.

And Ethan and Bree for setting it up. I'm Bo. We'll talk to you tomorrow at 2 o'clock. And as always, we love you.