Less Has Become 'Moore' For Eagles' Offense

Kellen Moore arrived with plenty of ideas and has scaled them back to take advantage of the Eagles' talent.

Eagles OC Kellen Moore speaks to reporters at the NovaCare Complex on Dec. 3, 2024 / John McMullen/Eagles On SI

PHILADELPHIA - Kellen Moore was supposed to wow you with motion and formational tricks to scheme the Eagles’ RPO-based “predictable” offense into a modern aesthetic juggernaut.

Instead, the Philadelphia offense has retreated further into an old-school mindset where Baltimore linebacker Roquan Smith was often calling out the plays that the Eagles were about to be running.

And no one cares.

The Eagles are keeping it simple stupid and no one has been able to do anything about it during what has turned into an eight-game winning streak after Sunday’s 24-19 win over the talented Ravens.

Moore arrived in Philadelphia with the idea of expanding that mindset on offense with everything that was advertised. Instead, the veteran OC scaled it back to take advantage of that same RPO game that the fan base grew tired of.

Why?

Because that’s what the Eagles do well. Even better this season, something tied to Miles Sanders/D’Andre Swift – good backs – being replaced by a great back in Saquon Barkley.

Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley. / Robert Deutsch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Not that it’s any great revelation but the average fan doesn’t remotely care about style when the substance of winning continues unabated.

That’s why an uglier offense than the 2023 version that got Brian Johnson run out of town is maybe not the toast of the same city but certainly not disdained either.

To Moore’s credit, he arrived with grandiose ideas, evaluated the talent he had, and tailored his preferred system to the players on hand.

“I would say that's what good coaches do. They work to the talents of their players,” head coach Nick Sirianni told Philadelphia Eagles on SI Monday when asked about Moore. “I was always taught players, formation, plays. So you're always thinking about that. You're always thinking about your players”

Sirianni’s mentor – long-time Mount Union coach Larry Kehres – once scolded the Eagles coach after asking what offense the now fifth-winningest coach by percentage in NFL history wanted to run.

When Sirianni took the bait, Kehres immediately stopped his prodigy and said ‘You don’t even know who your players are.’

When it comes to hiring coaches in the NFL the cliche is “if you’re hiring a scheme you’re doing it wrong.”

Sirianni hired a coordinator who is adhering to “players [first], [then] formation and finally plays [or scheme].’

“That's where Kellen done a great job. He's done what we need to do to win football games,” Sirianni said. “But that doesn't mean that when we need to throw it 50 times, we won’t do that. I know Kellen will adjust to how the game is going.”

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