Who’ll be the Eagles’ next offensive coordinator? Here are 9 candidates to watch.

The Eagles are going back to the drawing board.

One year after promoting Brian Johnson from quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator, Nick Sirianni removed the young coach as part of a major staff overhaul to begin the offseason. The offense regressed with Johnson calling plays in 2023, although it’s fair to point out the problems with the group involved more than just the first-year coordinator operating within the confines of Sirianni’s scheme.

Johnson’s replacement will go a long way toward determining how much change is reasonable to expect from the previous offensive system authored by Sirianni with the help of former offensive coordinator Shane Steichen.

Here are nine potential candidates for the job, with three categories to account for the divergent paths the offense could go with a new play-caller joining the staff. Sirianni could stick with a familiar face that offers continuity, bring in an ascending coach to infuse new ideas into the existing scheme, or turn things over to a former coordinator with experience calling plays at a high level.

Here are the names:

Bieniemy has been an offensive coordinator in the league since 2018, spending five seasons as the Kansas City Chiefs’ play-caller and one year running the Washington Commanders offense before Ron Rivera was fired earlier this month.

While Patrick Mahomes and the talented Chiefs offense get the lion’s share of the credit for Kansas City’s production, it’s still worth mentioning that the offense never ranked lower than sixth in points or yards gained during Bieniemy’s tenure as offensive coordinator.

Washington didn’t fare nearly as well with Bieniemy, 54, running things this season. The Commanders ranked 25th in scoring and 24th in yards, albeit with personnel that was often overmatched on paper.

Bieniemy, a former running back who played nine years in the NFL including one with the Eagles in 1999, spent 10 years on Andy Reid’s staff as a running backs coach and then as coordinator with play-calling duties. So he’s well-versed in the evolution of the West Coast offense Reid has implemented with the Chiefs and spent time with Reid’s fellow former Eagles coach Doug Pederson as well. He also has implemented some modern touches with pre-snap motion, bunch sets, and unbalanced formations.

If the Eagles want to make a significant change to their offensive system, someone like Bieniemy, especially with references who are close to Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, would make sense.

After spending four years as the Dallas Cowboys’ offensive coordinator, Moore spent this season with the Los Angeles Chargers.

Despite being fired by Mike McCarthy for dubious reasons, the 34-year-old is viewed as one of the top young play-callers in the NFL. Dallas ranked No. 1 in yards gained in both 2019 and 2021 under Moore, who joined the Cowboys staff as a quarterbacks coach in 2018 before quickly getting promoted to offensive coordinator.

The Chargers weren’t as productive in Moore’s first year. They ranked 18th in yards and 21st in scoring offense, although injuries factored into the struggles that led to head coach Brandon Staley getting fired midseason.

With the Chargers still going through the hiring process to find Staley’s replacement, there is some question as to whether Moore will actually become available. He’s a candidate for the team’s head-coaching job and was blocked from interviewing for the Chicago Bears’ vacant offensive coordinator position earlier this week.

If he does become available, Moore would offer his next team a modern offense that heavily features pre-snap motion and aggressive, vertical route concepts. His offenses the last two seasons have tailed off in production, which has to be taken into account, but he’d likely become one of the top coordinator candidates available if the Chargers don’t retain him.

After a spotty few years as the Atlanta Falcons’ head coach, Smith is a polarizing figure looking for his next job.

The 41-year-old was a longtime assistant with the Tennessee Titans from 2011-20, going from quality control coach to assistant tight ends coach, tight ends coach, and finally the team’s offensive coordinator for two seasons.

Smith has developed a reputation for his system centered on a persistent run game that dovetails into play-action passes and run-pass options. Over the last five seasons, Smith’s offenses have ranked in the top three in total rushing attempts three times even when the group’s yards per attempt were middle-of-the-road.

The lack of sustained success for the Falcons offense, along with his questionably limited usage of Atlanta’s young star players, led to his firing. The Falcons ranked 30th in yards since he took over in 2021 and ranked 26th in scoring offense in two of his three seasons.

The appeal for Smith would be in his track record with the Titans, though. He got the most out of Tennessee quarterback Ryan Tannehill and led an offense focused on running back Derrick Henry to two seasons in the top10 of scoring offense and defense-adjusted value over average, which measures efficiency with strength of opponent factored in. Perhaps he’s too heavily slanted toward the run game, but he could offer a new set of ideas to the Eagles’ existing scheme.

If past play-calling experience isn’t an absolute prerequisite for the job, Jerrod Johnson checks almost every other box. And the Eagles have interviewed him for their opening, ESPN reported Wednesday.

The 35-year-old former quarterback spent a short stint with the Eagles during training camp in 2011 and also crossed paths with Sirianni in Indianapolis for two years, first as a diversity fellow in 2019 and then as quality control coach the following season. He also has some exposure to Kyle Shanahan and his coaching tree, which is something the Eagles have targeted in the past.

After spending this season as the Texans’ quarterbacks coach, helping develop Houston rookie C.J. Stroud, Johnson reportedly has gotten interest from a handful of teams looking for a new offensive coordinator in the last few weeks.

Johnson played college football at Texas A&M before going undrafted in 2011 and spent the next seven years as a journeyman with spells in the Canadian Football League, Indoor Football League, and United Football League mixed in with brief stops in the NFL.

He started his coaching career as a diversity fellow with the San Francisco 49ers before joining the Indianapolis Colts staff and spent one season as the assistant quarterbacks coach of the Minnesota Vikings before taking his current role with the Texans.

His limited coaching tenure and lack of play-calling experience make this jump a projection, but the variety of offensive systems he has been exposed to and the development of Stroud with Johnson running the room illustrate his upside. His experience with Sirianni is also notable; Johnson mentioned him as one of his biggest influences in an interview with the Texans’ social media team last season.

Kingsbury, a former Texas Tech quarterback, has spent the last 10 seasons as a head coach, first with the Red Raiders for six years and then with the Arizona Cardinals for four. He was a senior offensive analyst at Southern Cal this season and has already interviewed for the Eagles’ offensive coordinator job via videoconference, according to an NFL Network report.

Kingsbury’s college background running an Air Raid offense learned from former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach was apparent throughout his tenure as Cardinals head coach. He ran a system with unconventional formations focused on spreading teams out, getting speed on the perimeter, and taking advantage of quarterback Kyler Murray’s running ability. Sirianni has a history of seeking college coaches on the offensive staff dating back to his time in Indianapolis, with a habit of implementing new concepts into his system.

Kingsbury went 28-37-1 with the Cardinals, although his offenses finished in the top10 in yards twice in four seasons. Kingsbury’s worst season was in 2022, when Arizona finished 22nd in total offense and 21st in scoring offense while going 4-13-1 with a carousel of quarterbacks once starter Murray got hurt midway through the year.

Speaking of Murray, the former Oklahoma quarterback’s success with Kingsbury helps explain the Eagles’ interest in the 44-year-old. Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts became a Heisman Trophy finalist as Murray’s successor running the Sooners system orchestrated by Lincoln Riley, another coach heavily influenced by Leach during his playing and coaching career who went on to hire Kingsbury at USC.

Running a “college offense” in the NFL can sometimes be seen as a negative, but Hurts had an MVP-caliber season in 2022 running a system with a foundation in some of the concepts he learned at Oklahoma, particularly with run-pass options. If the Eagles want to lean further into that bank of ideas, Kingsbury could make sense.

No list of offensive coordinator candidates can be complete without a coach close to Sean McVay.

Robinson has been part of the Los Angeles Rams staff since 2019, starting as an assistant quarterbacks coach and spending the last two seasons as the team’s pass-game coordinator/quarterbacks coach. He has become one of the top candidates available this offseason, reportedly interviewing with several teams including the Pittsburgh Steelers and Las Vegas Raiders over the last few weeks.

The former Oklahoma State quarterback spent four seasons in the NFL before getting his start in coaching with the Rams and has been a part of three top-10 offenses in terms of yards gained since then.

According to The Athletic, Robinson has called a few preseason games for the Rams, but he has limited play-calling experience otherwise working under McVay. Still, his exposure to one of the most innovative coaches in the NFL and understanding of how pre-snap motion can create advantages in the pass game make him an intriguing option.

Pitcher has spent the last three seasons as the quarterbacks coach of the Cincinnati Bengals and has interviewed with several teams for an offensive coordinator job this offseason. He could also stay with Cincinnati and replace former offensive coordinator Brian Callahan, whom the Titans hired as head coach.

Pitcher’s role in Joe Burrow’s development, as well as the Bengals’ success with backup quarterback Jake Browning, will be his main selling point. Cincinnati’s offense ranked seventh in scoring in both 2021 and 2022 before finishing 16th in 2023 without Burrow.

The 37-year-old, who played Division III football at SUNY Cortland, had a scouting background in the NFL before joining the Bengals staff in 2016 as an offensive assistant.

Although Pitcher has drawn plenty of interest and has a track record of maximizing quarterback play during his tenure with Cincinnati, his lack of play-calling experience may work against him in this situation.

Reich is both a mentor for Sirianni and someone with existing relationships within the Eagles organization.

His last two stops as a head coach leave legitimate questions about whether he’s still capable of being one of the top play-callers in the NFL, although stepping down from running a franchise to focus solely on offense could be reason enough to believe he’s still the coach who helped the Eagles win Super Bowl LII.

Reich was fired midway through his first season with the Carolina Panthers with one of the worst offenses in the NFL from a production standpoint. Still, he’s well-versed calling plays out of Sirianni’s scheme as one of the major influences on the Eagles coach, and that experience could be a selling point.

How much change would come from hiring Reich, though? The Eagles offense clearly needed to evolve by the end of this season, and it’s fair to wonder if Reich can bring that evolution.

» READ MORE: The Eagles should hire Frank Reich to save their season

Cooter is another coach with experience in the Eagles’ building and is currently the offensive coordinator for the Colts working for Steichen.

Because Steichen calls plays in Indy, the Colts wouldn’t be able to block him from leaving for the Eagles’ job. Cooter was a consultant on the Eagles’ staff in 2021 and worked with Sirianni in Kansas City in 2012. He was hired away from the Eagles before the 2022 season to join Pederson’s Jacksonville Jaguars staff as a pass-game coordinator before joining Steichen in Indianapolis.

Cooter isn’t one of the top candidates for the Eagles’ job, but his familiarity with Sirianni’s system as well as experience on different staffs have led to him getting some consideration as the Eagles begin their search.