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According to Alex Marvez of FOXSports, the Eagles have hired Bill Musgrave as their new quarterbacks coach. Musgrave was most recently the offensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings from 2011 to 2013.
Musgrave, 46, brings a lot of experience to the table. He's been coaching in the NFL since 1997 (save for a brief stint at University of Virginia in 2001-2002), including a year with the Eagles in 1998 as an offensive assistant under Ray Rhodes. Musgrave effectively ended up as offensive coordinator at end of that year having replaced Dana Bible as the play caller. Musgrave briefly played in the NFL as a QB from 1991 to 1996. Funny enough, Musgrave played his college ball at Oregon. Before you accuse Kelly of Oregon bias, realize Musgrave was a Duck long before Kelly was.
Musgrave has never stayed in one place for too long, but one of his longest stays was in Atlanta from 2006-2010. Falcons QB Matt Ryan was drafted in 2008, so Musgrave had the chance to work with Ryan in his development. John Kincade of CBS Sports Radio, who knew Musgrave from his time in Atlanta, had high praise for this hire.
As far as offensive philosophy goes, Musgrave comes from a West Coast offense background. He has worked with other schemes, however. One interesting thing of note comes from this 2011 StarTribune interview with Musgrave:
The West Coast offense is known for its extensive verbiage, but Musgrave said that will not be a part of his offense.
"One thing I believe in is minimal verbiage, and we’ll make it very streamlined, we’ll make the formations easy to learn for the guys, because I believe in players playing fast," he said. "We don’t want them out there thinking what word was used for this or that. I know with the group of coaches that Les has put together we’ll put together a system that is easy for those guys to digest, and they’ll go out and cut it loose."
It's no secret that Eagles head coach Chip Kelly utilizes a high-tempo, no-huddle offense that requires streamlined communication (think: sideline signals). Musgrave's experience in this area seems like a natural fit for the Eagles. For more information on Musgrave, check out this interview he did with Daily Norseman in 2011.
Musgrave takes over for former Eagles QB coach Bill Lazor, who left to accept the Miami Dolphins offensive coordinator job last week. Musgrave will work alongside Chip Kelly and Pat Shurmur in the process of working with and developing the Eagles quarterbacks, featuring Nick Foles.
