Shane Steichen helped dial up Jalen Hurts and the Eagles’ stunning offensive performance against the Vikings

If the Eagles continue to perform at their current rate, they’re going to lose one of their coordinators next offseason, and not the one who interviewed for three head coaching vacancies last January.

On a Monday night in which Jalen Hurts delivered a nationally televised breakout performance, the man calling the plays to the quarterback emerged as an assistant who should be on NFL owners’ early lists of potential head coach candidates.

Shane Steichen was one step ahead of opposing defensive coordinator Ed Donatell all evening as the Eagles coasted to a 24-7 dismantling of the Vikings at Lincoln Financial Field. The first half was a near-perfect 30 minutes of play calling and execution as the offense gained 347 yards and scored all the Eagles’ points.

Hurts was scintillating in easily the best half of his young NFL career. He completed 17 of 20 passes for 251 yards and a touchdown and rushed seven times for 50 yards and two more scores before the break. All told, he completed 83% of his passes for 333 yards.

The third-year quarterback has been saying since the end of last season that he just wanted a second season in the same offense, with the same coaches for the first time since high school. And while Steichen wasn’t his play caller through the first half of last season, it’s clear that having a full offseason with the offensive coordinator on the mic has benefited the entire unit.

“It’s the first time it’s ever been this way since high school, and in high school I saw the benefits of it,” Hurts said. “So, I guess you can say that you see the benefits of it now. Not just for me but as a group. Everything in this game that we do, if you want to have success you have to, No. 1, be on the same page.”

The 31 points the Eagles offense scored against the Lions last week was only the opening salvo. Hurts was a two-way nightmare for Detroit. While there was some outside nitpicking about the quarterback’s 17 rushes, it was clear that coach Nick Sirianni, Steichen, and Co. had fine-tuned a scheme that accentuated his duality.

The Lions had some success blitzing Hurts. But the Vikings believed in the strength of their front four and often dropped seven into Cover 2 and 4 shells. However, the Eagles masterfully countered and attacked Minnesota in between the numbers with zone beaters and two-man route concepts that opened the middle.

The opening drive was an up-tempo master class. And to no great surprise, Sirianni and Steichen scripted the first pass to wide receiver DeVonta Smith after he went catchless in the opener.

“You always script out your openers, so we all knew what the play was,” said Smith, who finished with seven catches for 80 yards.

But not every scripted play went according to plan. A penalty negated a third-down conversion and the Eagles faced a third-and-13. But Hurts dropped, stood in the pocket tall, and fired a 19-yard strike to receiver A.J. Brown ahead of the outstretched hand of linebacker Eric Kendricks.

It may have been the best “NFL” pass he’s ever thrown — at least for a quarter. It was also the type of deep vertical pass play that Sirianni and Steichen had often seen former Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers complete and that they knew they would always want to be a part of their offenses.

But Hurts wasn’t there a year ago. He’s getting there now. He completed one downfield throw after the other in the first half. He didn’t really have to do much when safety Camryn Bynum bit on a Dallas Goedert underneath route and Quez Watkins was wide-open for a 53-yard touchdown pass.

That was another Sirianni-Steichen special. But Hurts also had to throw into some tight zone windows late in the second quarter.

He opened the Eagles’ third touchdown-scoring possession with 19- and 16-yard tosses to Smith. And in their two-minute drive before the half, he uncorked three straight completions — the most impressive a 24-yarder to the in-breaking Goedert with pressure in his face that set up a field goal.

“That’s a huge play,” Sirianni said. “Read the coverage perfectly. We ran that play earlier in the drive. … It was slightly different, but the ball went to DeVonta; then you get a different coverage, and it goes to Dallas. That’s just being in complete control and taking what the defense gives you.”

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Each pass play seemingly gave Hurts options, and when his first or second reads weren’t there, he went to his safety valve, and sometimes picked up bonus yards because the Vikings safeties were so deep and the linebackers so concerned about Hurts’ legs.

“The plan was to try to account obviously for Jalen in the run game,” Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell said, “and they put a lot of pressure on you with those [run-pass options] and different variations.”

The Eagles were actually their most inefficient on RPOs. They drew three penalties for illegal man downfield when their offensive lineman got upfield too early before Hurts threw. In all, the offense committed seven of the team’s eight penalties. The second-half offense also wasn’t as productive.

“I’ll tell you what left me most unpleased,” Hurts said when asked what pleased him most about the Eagles’ performance, “and that was how we finished the game on offense. We have to keep our foot on the gas.”

If there was a call that Steichen might have wanted back, it would have probably been the screen he dialed up midway through the fourth quarter with the game seemingly over. Hurts’ lob bounced off running back Kenneth Gainwell’s hands to Vikings linebacker Jordan Hicks.

The Eagles defense, though, held when Darius Slay recorded his second pick of Kirk Cousins. The Vikings quarterback made some head-scratching throws, but Jonathan Gannon’s unit also bounced back after a hapless outing in Detroit.

Gannon may not have lost his place on the Philly hot seat. Eagles fans seemed to uniformly want him to get a head coach gig last offseason. Steichen wasn’t on anyone’s radar, although the momentum should build if the Eagles offense really starts to hit all cylinders.

It’s early and the Eagles have better defenses ahead on the slate. But Steichen has shown a knack for anticipating coverages in his calls.

He is, ultimately, the mouthpiece for Sirianni. It’s the head coach’s offense, his game plan, and he’s still plenty involved with the play calling. Sirianni deserves a ton of credit for handing over duties at midseason a year ago when he realized that more of his attention was needed in areas outside of the offense.

And with Steichen as his lieutenant, one he had worked alongside for four years with the Chargers, he felt he could delegate play calling responsibilities. It helped that the 37-year-old former UNLV quarterback had one year of experience in the role.

The transition was a relatively seamless one, and the Eagles found their formula and balanced their offense to accentuate Hurts’ mobility. But they knew they needed to become more efficient through the air, and Sirianni and Steichen have slowly opened the playbook for the 24-year-old quarterback.

“I’ve seen the growth,” Sirianni said. “We talk about this so much with Jalen. Why is he going to continue to reach his ceiling? Because he’s tough, he has high football character, and he loves football.

“He’s going to reach his ceiling. It’s fun watching him grow.”

And the same could be said of Steichen.