Report: Eagles hire Kellen Moore as offensive coordinator
Philadelphia is going with a former Cowboy at OC.
Wake up! The Philadelphia Eagles have a new offensive coordinator.
The Birds are hiring former Los Angeles Chargers and Dallas Cowboys OC Kellen Moore to be their new play-caller. Howard Eskin was first to signal the hire before NFL insider Adam Schefter came in with further confirmation.
Moore is one of the three known candidates to have interviewed for the Eagles’ opening. The others were Jerrod Johnson and Kliff Kingsbury.
The Dallas offense significantly improved after Moore replaced Scott Linehan as the Cowboys’ play-caller. Their offense improved from 24th in DVOA in 2018 to second in 2019. The Cowboys dropped back down to 24th in 2020 but Dak Prescott’s season-ending injury obviously played a major factor in that regression. Dallas had offensive success early in the year (32.6 points per game) prior to Prescott getting hurt.
Remaining in Dallas, Moore oversaw a 2021 Cowboys offense that ranked fourth in DVOA. The Cowboys dropped to 14th in 2022, however, which prompted the organization to move on from Moore and give play-calling duties to Mike McCarthy. Firing Moore was met with skepticism but it seemed to work well. The Cowboys improved to ninth in DVOA and Dak Prescott had a career year where he was discussed in the MVP conversation.
Meanwhile, Moore landed with the Bolts as Brandon Staley’s offensive play-caller. The 2023 Chargers finished 16th in DVOA, 24th in EPA per play, and 21st in offensive points per game. Starting 13 games before getting hurt, Justin Herbert had a 93.2 passer rating … which was identical to his 2022 passer rating.
Moore was hardly the only reason the Chargers were a mess last year. Staley got fired for being awful. LA also moved on from general manager Tom Telesco.
But he wasn’t part of the solution for them and the Chargers seem content with letting Jim Harbaugh pick a new OC as opposed to trying to keep Moore.
The Eagles have had interest in Moore for some time. They seemed to be interested in him as an offensive coordinator for Doug Pederson in 2020. Then they interviewed Moore for their head coach opening in 2021 after firing Pederson. And so this seems to be more of a Jeffrey Lurie/Howie Roseman hire than a Nick Sirianni hire.
With Sirianni seemingly taking a step back from his previous role in the offense, the pressure is on Moore to right the ship for the Eagles. He’s expected to bring “fresh ideas” to the table after the offense got “a little bit stale” last season.
Considering he’s done it before, there’s reason to believe Moore can oversee high-level results. But there’s also a reason he was available to join his third team in three seasons.
The Eagles are hoping that Moore can help propel Jalen Hurts and the offense back to elite status after under-performing their talent level in 2023.
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Kellen Moore Hired By Cowboys’ NFC East Rival
Kellen Moore is coming home. But when he does so, it will be as a member of the enemy. Moore, the architect of Top 10 offenses during four years with the Dallas Cowboys, is coming back to the NFC East with the rival Philadelphia Eagles. Multiple reports late Saturday night confirm that Moore will be the Eagles’ new offensive coordinator. He will replace Brian Johnson, who was fired in the wake of Philly’s first-round playoff loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After losing in the Super Bowl last season, the Eagles started 10-1 before spectacularly collapsing down the stretch.
As a member of the Eagles, Moore will face the Cowboys twice next season. After guiding three elite Cowboys offenses (his 2020 unit was harpooned by a season-ending injury to quarterback Dak Prescott), Moore parted ways – COO Stephen Jones blamed it on “philosophical differences” – in 2023 when head coach Mike McCarthy decided to take over the offensive play-calling. He left Dallas for the Los Angeles Chargers, where their offense had a lackluster season finishing 21st in scoring and 18th in yards. Many thought Moore would be a candidate to replace the fired Brandon Staley as head coach last December, but he was given permission to interview for other jobs this week when L.A. hired former Michigan boss Jim Harbaugh. Moore’s return to Arlington next season as coach of Jalen Hurts and ex-mentor to Prescott will only add fuel to one of the NFL’s fiercest rivalries.
Moore, 35, finished in top three in Heisman Trophy as quarterback at Boise State. He threw for 435 yards for the Cowboys in a late-start season in place of injured Tony Romo in 2015 and remains the only left-handed quarterback to throw a pass in Dallas’ franchise history.