Philadelphia Eagles head coach Doug Pederson made an interesting decision not to hire an offensive coordinator this offseason, not replacing the fired Mike Groh. The Eagles did make a series of promotions and new hires without giving any coach the official designation of "offensive coordinator."
Pederson is the coach who calls the plays, and the Super Bowl-winning head coach gave a detailed explanation for why he has decided to coach 2020 without an offensive coordinator for the first time in his career.
"It's a question I have really pondered about for quite some time, really for many years," Pederson said on the Eagles Insider Podcast from the team website. "You look around the league and there are teams who don't have coordinators. There are teams that have coordinators. I've had a coordinator by title. I look at the structure of what we're doing offensively and how collaborative we put our game plans together. It's like players; it's not about one guy. Same way on the coaching staff. It's not about one coach who has to do everything. It's a collaborative effort.
"Bottom line, I'm the one calling plays on game day. So in some facets, you could consider me the offensive coordinator as well."
The Eagles decided to adhere to a different structure on the offensive coaching staff. Pederson is the play caller on the offense while Press Taylor was promoted to passing game coordinator (Taylor will remain the quarterbacks coach). Offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland will remain the run game coordinator while the Eagles hired former Denver Broncos offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello as a senior offensive assistant.
The Eagles decided to adopt the model of the San Francisco 49ers in not having an official offensive coordinator. San Francisco has Mike LaFleur as the passing game coordinator and Mike McDaniel as the run game coordinator, a system that led to the 49ers having the No. 2 offense in points scored and No. 4 offense in total yards last season.
Scangarello actually comes from the 49ers coaching tree, serving as the quarterbacks coach under Kyle Shanahan in 2017 and 2018. He was credited with the development of Jimmy Garoppolo when the quarterback was traded to San Francisco in 2017, as the 49ers went 5-0 in Garoppolo's five starts.
Of course, the 49ers use a zone-blocking scheme and actually work with moving the quarterback outside the pocket, a massive strength of Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz, which the Eagles didn't capitalize on last year. This is where the Eagles can use Scangarello's knowledge as the "outside voice" the franchise sought this offseason when they decided to move on from Groh.
"I feel like this is the best structure for us, for me as the play caller," Pederson said. "Because there's times when I get pulled in a lot of different directions and I gotta lean on Press. And I'm going to have to lean on Rich and Jeff Stoutland and the guys to really pull the game plans together and really give me the information that I need as we prepare for games."
Assistant head coach Duce Staley did not receive a promotion in all the offensive coaching staff changes. Pederson called Staley his "right-hand guy" and that he is "happy to be here."
"A lot of our success last year with some of the young players that played, the practice squad players that came up, is a direct result of what Duce Staley does (with) the developmental program, and that's a lot on his plate throughout the course of the year," Pederson said. "Duce is a valuable part to our offense and a valuable part to me and what he does for me and just at the time just decided to keep him in that role."
