Eagles Take A Hit To Coaching Staff

Eagles assistant offensive line coach/run game specialist T.J. Paganetti is leaving to join Kellen Moore's staff in New Orleans.

Feb 13, 2025; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Saints introduce Kellen Moore as the head coach and he addresses the media at Ochsner Sports Performance Center. / Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

PHILADELPHIA - Kellen Moore has snared his first assistant off Nick Sirianni's Eagles staff and he's closing in on a second.

Nick Underhill of NewOrleansFootball.com reports that the Saints new head coach will be adding T.J. Paganetti to his inaugural staff.

Big add for Kellen Moore’s staff. The Saints are hiring TJ Paganetti from the Eagles, according to a source. Paganetti served as a run game specialist and assistant offensive line coach for Philadelphia last season.

— Nick Underhill (@nick_underhill) February 18, 2025

Paganetti, who had 10 years in Philadelphia over two different stints, spent the 2024-25 Super Bowl season as the team's assistant offensive line coach and run game specialist where he worked with the highly-regarded Jeff Stoutland in building one of the greatest running games in NFL history with Saquon Barkley rushing for more yards than any other player in NFL history, a total of 2,504 through Super Bowl LIX.

Moore, the Eagles' offensive coordinator last season, was hired by the Saints days after Philadelphia topped Kansas City, 40-22, in the bug game.

Paganatti's new job title in New Orleans has not been identified yet but is expected to involve the running game.

Paganetti first arrived in Philadelphia with Chip Kelly from Oregon in 2013 as an analyst. After the 2014 season, he returned to Oregon for two years (2015-16) as a graduate assistant/linebackers coach. He went back to the Eagles organization and pent the past eight seasons in Philadelphia with a host of roles.

In 2017-2018 Paganetti was an offensive quality control/assistant offensive line coach and was a part of Doug Pederson's Super Bowl LII staff.

From 2019-2020 he moved to assistant running backs coach and then bridged the Pederson and Nick Sirianni eras in 2021-2022 as a quality control coach. In 2023, Sirianni gave him the run game specialist title for the first time along with an assistant tight ends coach responsibility which was morphed to run game specialist/assistant offensive line coach this past season.

Paganetti was a part of all three Super Bowl Eagles coaching staffs over the past eight seasons and is a two-time Super Bowl champion.

Meanwhile, Underhill also reported that Eagles quarterbacks coach Doug Nussmeier is the favorite to be the Saints new offensive coordinator.

Multiple NFL sources have confirmed that to Philadelphia Eagles On SI as well, hardly a surprise because Nussmeier has been Moore's long-time right-hand man and the two have already been together in Dallas, with the LA Chargers and the Eagles. Nussmeier's son, Garrett Nussmeier, is also the starting quarterback at nearby LSU.

Moore has also interviewed two other Eagles assistants Jemal Singleton and Christian Parker for his OC and defensive coordinator jobs, respectively, although both are likely to land back in Philadelphia.

Sirianni spoke about Moore potentially taking assistants earlier this month.

"I don't let that happen, usually. But sometimes you can't help it," the Eagles head coach said. "Just like Frank said to me, 'This is my staff, and you can't have these guys.' It's hard to build the staff and have that continuity in there, but there's sometimes you can't. ... Every situation is a little different. But my general thought on that is, this is my and the Philadelphia Eagles' staff."

Sirianni is unable to block assistants leaving for coordinator roles. As for Paganetti, it's possible the long-time assistant was out of contract with the Eagles.

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