The Big Picture: Eagles' Nick Sirianni Taking Major Gamble With Sean Mannion Hire

INDIANAPOLIS — Nick Sirianni always intended to hire someone with experience when he began his search for a new Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator last month. He never expected to end up with a 33-year-old, third-year assistant who had never called plays before. Yet after 17 interviews, everything in his research and his heart pointed him toward Sean Mannion and the surprising decision to put the broken Eagles offense in the hands of a rookie. It was a gutsy move at a critical moment in his tenure. Because if Sirianni gets this decision wrong, he might end up paying for it with his own job. The stakes really are that high for him and for the Eagles, after their disappointing Super Bowl defense last season ended with a wild-card exit in the playoffs. It wasn’t hard to find a fall guy for that, either. Offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo was running a dysfunctional offense that struggled to find an identity. And as soon as the season ended, it was clear he had to go. Patullo, of course, was a first-time playcaller, too, and it showed over and over again — which is why it was so shocking when Sirianni again chose to hire a novice in Mannion. It’s a decision, in fact, that’s almost impossible to defend, except with Sirianni’s deep conviction that despite what anyone else might think, this time he has it right. "You always want to make sure that when you’re on the verge of hiring somebody, you want to reach out to guys they’ve worked with, guys they’ve played with, guys they’ve coached, and you’re looking for common themes," Sirianni said on Tuesday at the NFL Scouting Combine. "And it was a common theme. Everyone spoke very similar about Sean. You could imagine those were glowing reviews. Everyone had great things to say about him, the person he is, the coach he is, the football mind that he is." The glowing reviews are actually not surprising at all, because as a former Rams quarterback and a former Packers assistant, Mannion is another branch of the Sean McVay/Kyle Shanahan coaching tree. He is widely considered a rising star in NFL coaching circles — a strong leader and a brilliant mind who might be a head coach someday. But that someday is still considered far away. His NFL coaching experience until now was limited to one year as a Packers offensive assistant and one year as their quarterbacks coach. No matter how glowingly his peers spoke of him, hiring him was still a very speculative play. And that’s a huge risk for the head coach of a veteran-heavy offense, filled with frustrated players still trying to figure out what went wrong last season. Quarterback Jalen Hurts could never get the passing game going. His No. 1 receiver, A.J. Brown, seemed constantly unhappy with everything. Running back Saquon Barkley ran for almost 900 fewer yards than he did the season before. And the once-proud offensive line was often a shell of itself — a problem that might not get any better now that legendary offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland decided to retire rather than take a reduced role. So Mannion gets to figure all that out while learning on the job about the intricacies of running an offense and the complex dance of calling plays during a game. And he gets to do it under the watchful eye of an offensive-minded head coach that will probably have a heavy hand this season, since he already has a pretty good idea of what he wants his offense to be. "Really, it’s always important at the end of the day that we’re able to run the football, and be able to do play-action off of that," Sirianni said. "Play physical, play with relentless effort, play with great detail, play together. Those will be all things we’re looking to do." If the Eagles are able to do that, they should be an instant Super Bowl contender again. And maybe Mannion will prove to be the right man to get all that done. Sirianni has a spotty record of choosing offensive coordinators, though. Two were so successful that they went on to be head coaches elsewhere — Shane Steichen and Kellen Moore. The other two — Brian Johnson and Kevin Patullo — were fired after one miserable year on the job. If Sirianni gets this one wrong, too, he’ll be the one on the hot seat. Three years ago, when the Eagles were trying to get to their second straight Super Bowl, Sirianni nearly lost his job after the Eagles finished the season on a 1-6 tailspin. Thanks to his Super Bowl championship in the 2024 season, he wasn’t in similarly deep trouble after the Eagles faded late in 2025 and then exited the playoffs early. But even despite his 59-26 regular-season record and two trips to the Super Bowl in the past four years, he might not get any grace from his bosses if his 2026 team underachieves, as well. That’s because his bosses — general manager Howie Roseman and owner Jeffrey Lurie — expect another championship, or at least a legitimate run at one that lasts a little longer than one lousy round. That’s part of why Sirianni went into his search looking for an experienced hand, and why it was such a shock when he hired the most inexperienced candidate on his list. Sirianni put all his faith in Mannion’s background and his perceived potential because, amid a thin résumé, he can’t bank on anything else. Now his players will have to do the same. And while it’s great that veterans such as Barkley consider the change "refreshing," as the star running back told NFL Network earlier this week, all they can really do is hope. They have to hope that Sirianni really knew what he was doing, and hope Mannion is good enough and that this somehow works out well. "There’s a lot of steps to take place before we know exactly what version of this offense it’s going to be," Sirianni said. "But Sean comes from a family of coaches and (there are) things that he’s done that we really respect, that we know is tough to defend. We know we’ve done a lot of good things here as well that’s hard to defend, so (we’ll be) able to sprinkle some of that in. "You’ve got to go through the process with your players to get to all those answers." The answers better be the right ones, though. Because as sterling as Sirianni’s résumé is, this time he really can’t afford to be wrong. In the Big Picture, we contextualize key moves and moments so you can instantly understand why they matter.