Eagles Make Nick Sirianni's Inaugural Coaching Staff Official
PHILADELPHIA - Nick Sirianni put the finishing touches on his inaugural coaching staff with the Eagles.
It's 23 deep and the organization confirmed the group on Thursday.
The major hires - Shane Steichen as offensive coordinator, Jonathan Gannon as defensive coordinator, and Michael Clay as special teams coordinator - had been known for quite some time.
There were, however, some interesting final tweaks to the group, notably former quarterback Alex Tanney, who retired as a player from the New York Giants two days ago, coming on as an offensive quality-control coach.
Steichen arrives in Philadelphia for a reunion with Sirianni. The two were assistants together with the San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers before Sirianni left for the OC job under Frank Reich in Indianapolis.
Gannon, meanwhile, worked with Sirianni with the Colts, and Clay, at 29 the youngest coordinator in the NFL, started his coaching career under Chip Kelly in Philadelphia back in 2014.
Other Sirianni staff headliners include quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson, the former University of Florida OC and QB coach taking his first pro job after tutoring college stars like Dak Prescott at Mississippi State and Kyle Trask with the Gators last season, along with Jemal Singleton, who takes over Duce Staley's role as assistant head coach/running backs.
The other newcomers on offense are passing game coordinator Kevin Patullo and tight ends coach Jason Michael, a former OC with Tennessee. The other side features defensive line coach Tracy Rocker, a former star DT at Auburn, linebackers coach Nick Rallis, whose brother is WWE star Riddick Moss, defensive backs coach Dennard Wilson, and assistant DBs coach Jay Valai.
Also new are special teams quality control coach Tyler Brown, a native of Marlton, NJ and the son of Baltimore Ravens kicking specialist and former Marlton Mayor Randy Brown, defensive QC coach Joe Kasper, and coaches assistant Tyler Scudder.
There were six holdovers from Doug Pederson's final staff: run game coordinator/offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland, receivers coach Aaron Moorehead, director of player personnel and senior defensive assistant Jeremiah Washburn, assistant OL coach Roy Istvan, assistant STC Joe Pannunzio, and TJ Paganetti, now an offensive QC coach after spending 2020 as assistant run game coordinator/assistant running backs coach.
Interestingly T.J.'s brother, Ryan Paganetti, was not retained as the game-management coach.
Ted Rath, the team's director of sports performance in 2020, was promoted to vice president of player performance, and Fernando Noriega, who worked with Rath with the Los Angeles Rams, was named head strength and conditioning coach.
-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John every Monday and Friday on SIRIUSXM’s Tony Bruno Show with Harry Mayes, and every Tuesday and Thursday with Eytan Shander on SBNation Radio. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s EagleMaven. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.