Report: Eagles interested in Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll

Some have joked that it might be easier to report on who the Philadelphia Eagles AREN’T interested in hiring to replace Doug Pederson at this point. Of course, the team might be leaking a bunch of candidates in an attempt to make it seem like their head coaching job is more desirable than it might really be.

Regardless, the latest name to come up in the rumor mill is Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll. The Eagles are interested in him, according to NBC Sports Philadelphia’s John Clark.

It’s important to note that the Eagles aren’t allowed to interview Daboll until Buffalo’s season is done. The Bills are currently 2.5-point home favorites against the Baltimore Ravens in this week’s divisional round playoff matchup.

It was only a matter of time until the Eagles were linked to Daboll. In addition to being an intriguing candidate, he shares an agent (Bob LaMonte) with Howie Roseman.

The 45-year-old Daboll has been coaching in the NFL for over 20 years now. He got his start as a defensive assistant on Bill Belichick’s original staff with the New England Patriots in 2000. From there, Daboll rose up the ranks to become an offensive coordinator with three different teams. Their ranks by DVOA:

2009 Cleveland Browns — 24th
2010 Cleveland Browns — 21st
2011 Miami Dolphins — 20th
2012 Kansas City Chiefs — 31st

After failing to succeed as an OC, Daboll ended up back with New England as the Patriots’ tight end coach for four years before then taking a job as Nick Saban’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in Alabama. Coming off a national championship win in 2017, the Bills hired Daboll as their offensive coordinator. A look at Buffalo’s ranks by DVOA:

2018 Buffalo Bills — 31st
2019 Buffalo Bills — 21st
2020 Buffalo Bills — 5th

As you can see, Daboll didn’t get off to a fast start but the Bills’ patience has been rewarded. He’s overseeing an offense that has the Bills considered to be a legitimate threat to upset the Kansas City Chiefs and potentially win the Super Bowl for the first team in franchise history. Daboll has received credit for Josh Allen’s development and the Eagles might have hope that he can “fix” Carson Wentz.

Daboll also has experience working with Jalen Hurts from their time together at Alabama. Then again, Daboll reportedly made a push to replace him with Tua Tagovailoa, which ultimately happened.

The feeling here is that Daboll is one of the most likely candidates to be the Eagles’ next head coach due to the combination of his profile and the LaMonte connection. But the Los Angeles Chargers might be where he ends up instead since their general manager (Tom Telesco) is also a LaMonte guy. Not to mention that Daboll and Telesco have some level of familiarity by going to the same high school. Oh, and that the Chargers have one of the most promising young quarterbacks in the NFL in Justin Herbert.

Eagles coaching search recap so far:

REQUESTED INTERVIEWS

49ers DC Robert Saleh
Titans OC Arthur Smith
Buccaneers DC Todd Bowles
Patriots ILB coach Jerod Mayo
Eagles assistant head coach/RB coach Duce Staley
Panthers OC Joe Brady

RUMORED INTEREST

Oklahoma HC Lincoln Riley
Chiefs QB coach/passing game coordinator Mike Kafka
Ohio State HC Ryan Day
Bills OC Brian Daboll