Reports: Eagles expected to hire Kellen Moore as offensive coordinator

The Eagles are expected to hire Kellen Moore as their offensive coordinator, according to several media reports.

The former Los Angeles Chargers and Dallas Cowboys coach will replace Brian Johnson, who was fired last week after just one season calling the Eagles offense.

Moore spent four seasons as the Cowboys offensive coordinator from 2019-22 and held the same job with the Chargers this season.

The 34-year-old is considered one of the top young play-callers in the NFL. Dallas ranked No. 1 in total yards 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.

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Moore has developed a reputation for running a modern offense that heavily features pre-snap motion and aggressive, vertical route concepts. Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott had a career year under Moore in 2021, finishing the year with 4,449 passing yards on a 68.8% completion rate while throwing 37 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Prescott hit his career-highs in passing attempts twice with Moore, with 596 attempts in 2019 and 2021.

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

Moore was initially blocked from interviewing for offensive coordinator openings while the Chargers conducted a head-coaching search, a position he was considered for. The Chargers hired Jim Harbaugh on Wednesday, which led to Moore becoming available.

The move comes a few days after Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said the need for “fresh ideas” contributed to the decision to fire Johnson. The offense regressed in several areas in 2023, especially during the 1-6 collapse that ended their season with an ugly 32-9 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the wild-card round of the playoffs.

Teams eventually caught up to Sirianni’s scheme with more frequent blitzes and coverages with two deep safeties, for which he and Johnson could not find consistent answers. After ranking third in total offense and scoring offense in 2022, the Eagles finished this season seventh and eighth, respectively. They also committed 18 turnovers after having just 10 the season before.

“We got a little bit stale on offense by the end of the year,” Sirianni said. “And these ideas and this new person coming in is meant to take away the staleness and add the value of what they’re adding to the offense.”

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The staff dynamics with Moore will be a departure from the way things were during Sirianni’s first three years leading the Eagles. During the team’s year-end news conference on Wednesday, Sirianni suggested the next offensive coordinator would have more authority in crafting a scheme that differed from the one they ran previously.

“We just need to bring some ideas in from the outside,” he said. “We need to bring a guy in with new ideas that’s not part of this family of coaches. I think that’s an important thing.”

Moore, the former Boise State quarterback whose NFL playing experience consisted of three games with Dallas in 2015, fits the description of what Sirianni was after in that his background differs significantly from Sirianni’s. His usage of pre-snap motion in particular contrasts from the Eagles offense under Sirianni, which ranked dead last in motion rate this season according to ESPN. By comparison, the Chargers ranked eighth in the metric under Moore.

Sirianni has downplayed the significance of motion in the past, suggesting that some offenses around the league use it without true purpose. Still, several of the league’s most productive offenses, including the Miami Dolphins, Baltimore Ravens, and San Francisco 49ers, rank near the top of the league in motion rate.

“We’re bringing in a guy to bring in new ideas, to do the things that he’s done in the past,” he said. “But it would be crazy not to add some of the things that we’ve done in the past here as well. I don’t know if it’s going to be 95% this, 95% that — we’re not there yet. 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 the quarterback in the same sense there.

“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.”