Too young? Nick Sirianni defends the age and experience of his Eagles coaching staff

Unlike previous Eagles head coaches, Nick Sirianni prioritized familiarity over experience in hiring his offensive and defensive coordinators. But he is confident they'll be successful.

Eagles coach Nick Sirianni says his new offensive coordinator, Shane Steichen, "thinks about the game the way I think about the game."Read moreRobert Gauthier / MCT

by Paul Domowitch

Published Jan. 29, 2021, 7:25 p.m. ET

First-time NFL head coaches typically like to include a healthy dose of experience to go with familiarity and youthful enthusiasm when they’re assembling their staff.

When Andy Reid was hired as the Eagles’ head coach back in 1999, he brought in grizzled 58-year-old Jim Johnson to run his defense, and 56-year-old Rod Dowhower, who previously had been in charge of two other NFL offenses, to be his offensive coordinator.

When Chip Kelly made the leap from the University of Oregon to the Eagles in 2013, he hired Pat Shurmur, who had spent the previous two years as the head coach of the Cleveland Browns, to be his offensive coordinator, and Bill Davis, who had spent the previous 20 years as an NFL assistant, including two separate tours as a defensive coordinator, to be his defensive lieutenant.

And when Doug Pederson replaced Kelly in 2016, he hired Jim Schwartz, a guy who had been an NFL head coach for five years as a defensive coordinator for nine, to run his defense, and Frank Reich to be his offensive coordinator. Reich had spent 13 years as a player in the league, five years as a position coach and the previous two years as the Chargers’ offensive coordinator.

The Eagles introduced their newest head coach Friday. Like Reid and Kelly and Pederson before him, 39-year-old Nick Sirianni is a first-time NFL head coach, having spent the last three years as the Indianapolis Colts’ offensive coordinator under Reich.

Unlike Reid, Kelly and Pederson, Sirianni appears to have prioritized familiarity over experience in assembling his first staff.

Sirianni has worked with both his 35-year-old offensive coordinator, Shane Steichen, and his 37-year-old defensive coordinator, Jonathan Gannon. Sirianni and Steichen worked together with the Chargers from 2013 through 2017. And Gannon was on Reich’s staff with Sirianni the last three years, coaching the team’s cornerbacks.

Both, like Sirianni, are young. Both also have relatively thin resumes. Gannon has been a primary position coach for just three years. Steichen, who was the Chargers’ offensive coordinator last season, was a quality control coach as recently as five years ago.

Sirianni also has hired a 33-year-old NFL newbie – Brian Johnson – to be his quarterbacks coach. Johnson did a terrific job as the offensive coordinator at the University of Florida last year. But he’s never coached in the NFL.

Sirianni did retain highly-regarded offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland, and also hired 54-year-old former Outland Trophy winner Tracy Rocker, a respected college defensive line coach, to coach the Eagles’ D-line.

Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, whose involvement in the structure and makeup of Pederson’s coaching staff, played a significant role in his departure just three years after winning a Super Bowl, clearly gave Sirianni a free hand in putting together his staff.

“He’s a teacher who wants teachers around him at all times,” Lurie said during Friday’s 53-minute video conference. “We talked about how to put together a great staff. He has a great vision for that.

“It’s a combination of those that he knows already that are wonderful teachers, and those that he was very much open to meeting and expanding his own horizons.”

In the past, Lurie has been in favor of having his first-time head coaches hire experienced coordinators. But the fact that the team is in a rare rebuilding mode might be why he’s more willing to let Sirianni hire young assistants with big upside potential.

Sirianni clearly is bullish on the abilities of both Steichen and Gannon. Steichen got a lot of praise this season for the play of the Chargers’ rookie quarterback Justin Herbert. Herbert finished 12th in passing and had a plus-21 touchdowns-to-interception differential. That said, the Chargers also finished 18th in scoring, averaging just three more points per game than the Eagles.

Sirianni said Friday that Steichen “thinks about the game the way I think about the game.”

Said Sirianni: “He’s always gotten the best out of his quarterbacks. He did a great job with Philip Rivers (when Rivers was with the Chargers and Steichen was the team’s quarterbacks coach from 2016 through 2019). And he did a great job with Justin Herbert this year.”

Sirianni said Gannon’s football IQ “is off the charts.”

“For the last three years, if I wanted to know something about a defense, he was the first one I went to,” he said. “Every single time. I’d say, ‘Tell me how they’re doing this.’

“His players play hard for him. His players love him. His energy is contagious. He’s a tireless worker who I truly believe in. He has the organizational skills to be a great defensive coordinator in the NFL.”

Sirianni said he hired Gannon and Steichen because they’re good, not because he knew them well. He made it clear that knowing them well helped him realize just how good they are.

“I’m looking for good coaches,” he said. “The net was cast. We looked at a bunch of people. And it just kept coming back to those guys as being the best candidates because of who they are as football coaches and people.”

The 33-year-old Johnson is an intriguing hire. He played quarterback at Utah, then became the quarterbacks coach there at the age of 23 and the offensive coordinator at 25. He coached Dak Prescott at Mississippi State and projected first-round pick Kyle Trask at Florida. Trask threw 43 touchdown passes in Johnson’s offense last year.

“Brian came in and interviewed with us and just did a phenomenal job,” Sirianni said. “He showed why, at a young age, he was the offensive coordinator for the Florida Gators.”

Sirianni compared Johnson to a young guy Reich hired on his Colts staff in 2018 – Tom Manning. Manning spent just one season in Indy as the team’s tight ends coach before returning to Iowa State, where he helped the Cyclones win the Big 12 title last season.

“The things that Tom brought to us [in Indy] opened up our offense a little bit more; things that we still run to this day,” the new Eagles coach said. “It really helped us to be harder to defend.

“Brian’s out of the same mold. Great person. Great fundamentally. Great scheme-wise. And then, on top of that, he just gives us the ability to take some things from the college game to make our offense just become a little more difficult to defend.”

Sirianni said retaining the 58-year-old Stoutland, who has been the Eagles’ offensive line coach since 2013, was a no-brainer.

“His tape speaks for itself,” he said. “When I first got to Indianapolis in 2018, we watched a lot of Chargers tape and we watched a lot of Eagles tape.

“You could just see his offensive line playing really well. Over and over again. You could see the fundamentals and technique that his offensive line played with. And you could see how hard they played.

“Then, to hear the way Frank talked about coach Stout was unbelievable. He loved him. It’s almost like I knew him before I even got here because I had heard so much about him from Frank.

“I’m excited that he’s a part of this staff.”