Why Eagles Prioritized Collaboration With Kellen Moore Hire

The Philadelphia Eagles seemed to be trending toward Kliff Kingsbury before changing course at offensive coordinator.

PHILADELPHIA - When it comes to NFL front offices, collaboration is all the rage and very few organizations seem to be searching for a definitive authoritative figure where the buck stops with no questions asked.

The assumption that consensus will always be reached is a specious one, however, meaning in any management setup, there has to be a final say. The theory is that reaching a consensus nine times out of 10 is greater than the opposite because the more capable minds you have working on decision-making, the better.

When it comes to the Philadelphia Eagles, the shift from Nick Sirianni’s offense to “our offense,” is a shining example of the collaborative mindset and the Eagles seem to be trying to thread the eye of a very small needle.

“It's our scheme,” Sirianni said at his season-ending press conference last month. “It'll be our scheme of what we're doing.”

The Eagles offense now includes Kellen Moore, the former Dallas Cowboys and Los Angeles Chargers play-caller hired to run the unit and bring in the new/fresh ideas to what Sirianni admitted became a “stale offense.”

“I don't know exactly what that will look like yet. We're bringing in a guy to bring in new ideas, to do the things that he's done in the past,” Sirianni said. “But it would be crazy not to add some of the things that we've done in the past here, as well. I don't know if it's going to be 95 percent this, 95 percent that -- we're not there yet.”

Nick Sirianni is trying to thread the needle in Philadelphia / USA Today

Interestingly, one NFL source told Geoff Mosher of the “Inside the Birds Podcast” that now-Washington OC Kliff Kingsbury was once leading the pack to become Philadelphia OC but asked for too much power.

“As we were told, Kliff Kingsbury was the leading candidate at first when they were looking for someone to replace Brian Johnson,” Mosher said on his podcast. What we were told is that they had a second conversation with Kingsbury where you talk more and discuss the framework and somewhere along the line, the Eagles liked his concepts and what he could do offensively, but there was a certain level of autonomy they were not willing to go that far.”

Armed with that information, SI.com’s Eagles Today got a similar sentiment from a team source.

“Kliff seemed to be the guy and made more sense with Jalen [Hurts],” the source said.

Something changed from there. 

Kingsbury, the former head coach in Arizona who spent the 2023 season at Southern California as a senior offensive analyst for Howie Roseman-favorite Lincoln Riley, had plenty of interest around the league. 

Eagles Interview Kliff Kingsbury; Realistic Hire or Just a ‘Sexy’ Pick?

He originally was expected to land in Las Vegas after the Eagles moved on but did a 180 when the Raiders wouldn’t go to three years on a contract and shifted to NFC East-rival Washington.

“Both are great offensive minds,” a former NFL GM told SI.com’s Eagles Today. “If you’re looking to highlight what Jalen does well right now Kingsbury makes more sense to me. If you want him to get better with some more traditional aspects of the position, Kellen can help that but you need to be a little more patient than they have been in the past.”

Good, bad, or indifferent watching Kingsbury's offense with the Commanders and Moore's impact on the Eagles' offense is going to be very interesting in 2024.