Nick Sirianni or Kellen Moore: Whose scheme will the Eagles offense reflect more of in ‘meshing’ two systems?

INDIANAPOLIS — The expiration date on Nick Sirianni’s thinking his offense was “stale” apparently arrived just a month after he made the comment.

On Tuesday, the Eagles head coach didn’t sound as prepared to move on from his scheme as he did after postmortem meetings with owner Jeffrey Lurie in January. Sirianni had yet to hire an offensive coordinator at the time, but he said then that the new guy would “be in charge of the offense.”

He gave other varying answers on the subject, and mentioned “meshing” a new system with his old one, but the overall tenor of his joint news conference with general manager Howie Roseman was of a coach humbled by his offense’s regression.

But at the NFL combine, Sirianni wasn’t as down on the scheme that just over a year ago nearly won the Eagles a Super Bowl. He appeared unwilling to completely hand over the offense to the recently hired Kellen Moore.

“It’s meshing of two systems,” Sirianni said of his and Moore’s schemes. He added: “We’re going to be doing different things, but also we’re going to be doing things that we’ve been successful at, as well.”

There’s nothing wrong with the concept of sharing ideas to formulate the best offense. Sirianni oversaw a unit that scored a franchise-record 477 points* just a year ago (*in 17 games). But he fell too in love with his system and didn’t make enough preemptive changes before last season.

» READ MORE: unCovering the Birds, Season 2, Episode 7: Nick

His focus a month ago was on the final seven games in which the Eagles lost six of seven, including an embarrassing playoff loss at the Buccaneers, but the offense didn’t look efficient from the jump.

In the season opener, the Patriots made quarterback Jalen Hurts & Co. look worse than they did in any game since mid-2021. Their output of 251 yards was their lowest amount in 33 games. There was improvement over the next eight games, but it became increasingly clear that Sirianni didn’t add enough wrinkles in the offseason.

Defensive coordinators had caught up to the Eagles’ zone-read, run-pass-run option game and the downfield passing game wasn’t sophisticated enough to offset what they lacked in the quarterback plus-one plays.

A comment Sirianni had made to The Inquirer before the season, which sounded benign at the time, foretold the Eagles’ struggles, particularly down the stretch.

“It’s not always about coming up with new plays and new wrinkles and new things like that,” Sirianni said in September. “Sometimes it’s just getting better, and a lot of times it’s just getting better at your base stuff. And how do you coach it better? And how do you do it better? And, off of that, what are some wrinkles off of that?

“Not necessarily new things. … It’s about how do we get better at what we’re already doing?”

» READ MORE: Eagles’ Nick Sirianni endorses his new-look coaching staff with coordinators Kellen Moore and Vic Fangio

There were myriad reasons — other than scheme — for the decline. Shane Steichen’s departure and Brian Johnson’s replacing him as offensive coordinator was likely going to lead to some early hiccups. But Johnson, for whatever reason, never found a consistent rhythm as play caller.

Hurts had some strong games, even while playing with a bruised knee, through the first 11 weeks. But he wasn’t as explosive on the ground from the opener on — for whatever reason — and wasn’t yet as polished as a passer to compensate when the Eagles became one-dimensional.

And defenses that could blitz did so with more frequency and success in the final two months. The Eagles’ offensive line was still among the NFL’s best, but there was slippage and Hurts didn’t handle pressure as well as he did in 2022.

But the predictability of Sirianni’s scheme was an overarching theme. The run game lacked under center and personnel diversity and the passing game too often cut the field in half based on pre-snap coverage reads.

Was that because of a lack of trust in Hurts or because of the simplicity of the scheme? Either way, it meant fewer throws over the middle for the quarterback — a 5% decrease — and the worst quarterback rating (8.3) in the NFL on 20-plus-yard throws in between the numbers.

Returning Hurts closer to his 2022 MVP-level form will be paramount this offseason. The addition of Moore and quarterbacks coach Doug Nussmeier, who followed Moore from the Cowboys to the Chargers to the Eagles, suggests that Sirianni saw Hurts as most in need of new leadership.

While new defensive coordinator Vic Fangio was allowed to essentially make over his staff, the Eagles returned most of their offensive coaches — pass game coordinator Kevin Patullo, offensive line coach/run game coordinator Jeff Stoutland, running backs coach Jemal Singleton, tight ends coach Jason Michael, and wide receivers coach Aaron Moorehead.

“Obviously, we know those are really good coaches,” Sirianni said. “I have a lot of faith in them.”

Just a month ago, Sirianni emphasized the need to find an offensive coordinator who wasn’t “a part of this family of coaches.” And he did that with the 34-year-old Moore, who had offenses that ranked in the top six for three of his four seasons as coordinator in Dallas.

But Sirianni otherwise brought back most of his lieutenants, particularly long-time aides Patullo and Michael, who help with scheme.

How will this meshing work with Moore coming from the West Coast school of offense? He runs a modified version, and with any modern scheme, has a lot of variety in motions and formations — bells and whistles that Sirianni’s system lacked.

But how much leeway will Moore be given in constructing the playbook? Will the terminology change? Will the rules for Hurts in his pre-snap calls or his progression and coverage reads be altered. And how will those changes affect the other positions and their responsibilities?

The last time the Eagles had a similar construct with a new coach hired to bring in fresh ideas there was little discernible change. Former coach Doug Pederson hired Rich Scangarello to bring some of his knowledge of the Shanahan offense to the Eagles in 2020.

» READ MORE: Sirianni’s job lies in the hands of Kellen Moore and Vic Fangio. Thoughts and prayers, Nick.

Scangarello came in only as a senior offensive assistant, while Pederson didn’t have an offensive coordinator and still called plays. But the offense remained essentially the same and the Eagles finished 4-11-1, which resulted in the firing of Pederson and almost every other coach.

Pederson wasn’t forced to hire Scangarello, but he was left searching for a quasi-coordinator after Lurie influenced his decision to fire Mike Groh. How much the owner had to do with Sirianni’s reversal after weeks of defending his offense remains unknown.

But the coach’s vernacular just a month after his tail-between-his-legs news conference suggests he isn’t throwing his baby out with the bathwater.

“He’s been highly successful, and we’ve been highly successful,” Sirianni said of Moore and his staff. “And I think that I’m really looking forward to meshing what he’s done really well together with the things that we’ve done really well.

“I think it’s going to be a really good match.”

The expiration date on his tenure could depend on it.