Report: Eagles add “passing game coordinator” to Press Taylor’s current title

The Philadelphia Eagles are adding “passing game coordinator” to the title of quarterbacks coach Press Taylor, according to a report from NFL insider Tom Pelissero.

This outcome was floated by ESPN’s Tim McManus last week when he reported the Eagles interviewed Taylor for their vacant offensive coordinator position.

Speaking of that OC opening, it looks like the Eagles might not hire one at all. The team has yet to officially confirm as much but they now have a passing game coordinator in Taylor and a running game coordinator in Jeff Stoutland. Are they really going to add an OC on top of that?

We’ll see. (UPDATE: The Eagles are hiring at least two external offensive assistants.)

There are things to like about Taylor, who’s regarded as a bright, young mind. But this promotion comes with a number of concerns, as previously discussed:

1) It would be a clear sign the Eagles struck out on more preferable OC options and had to revert to their fallback plan. Sure, sometimes teams not getting their first choice works out. Just look at the Eagles ending up with Doug Pederson instead of Ben McAdoo. But sometimes a last resort is a last resort for a reason.Advertisement

2) It would be a pretty big slap in the face to assistant head coach/running backs coach Duce Staley for him to get internally leapfrogged by Taylor, who was merely an offensive quality control coach a few years ago. I haven’t even been in favor of promoting Staley to OC but a Taylor promotion seems like an especially tough sell. I suppose the Eagles could look to work around this issue by promoting Taylor to passing game coordinator and not using the OC title, as McManus suggested.

3) Another internal promotion? Really? This organization has been way too reliant on familiarity in recent years. Elevating Groh and Carson Walch clearly didn’t work out. Bringing Jordan Matthews and Jay Ajayi back last season was a waste of time. It’s been apparent that fresh perspective is needed and promoting Taylor doesn’t accomplish that. Unless we’re to believe Taylor previously had a bunch of good ideas that were ignored?

4) The OC hire should ideally help to maximize Carson Wentz. Has Taylor really done that as the Eagles’ quarterbacks coach over the past two years? I’d say no. At least one NFL executive believes that Taylor has been going too easy on Wentz. That sentiment lines up with things that I’ve heard about the Taylor-Wentz relationship being much more buddy-buddy than the typical coach and player dynamic. (And it’s not hard to believe given Taylor is only five years older than Wentz.) Perhaps getting Taylor out of the quarterbacks coach role would be good, then, but would the new hire really bring the tough love that John DeFilippo once gave to Wentz? McManus curiously mentioned Clemson quarterbacks coach Brandon Streeter as a possible replacement if Taylor gets promoted. Trevor Lawrence has obviously thrived under his coaching but does Streeter have the proper cachet when it comes to coaching up Wentz? We already know Taylor doesn’t.

The Eagles are expected to officially finalize their 2020 coaching staff by the end of this week.