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The Eagles are adding Houston cornerbacks coach Jay Valai to Nick Sirianni’s coaching staff, according to a report from FOX26’s Mark Berman. It’s not perfectly clear yet what his title will be in Philadelphia.
Valai (pronounced vuh-LYE) only joined the Cougars’ coaching staff less than two weeks ago. Here’s a snapshot of his entire coaching experience:
2016-2017 — Georgia defensive quality control coach
2018 — Kansas City Chiefs assistant defensive backs coach/defensive quality control coach
2019 — Rutgers cornerbacks coach
2020 — Texas cornerbacks coach
2021 — Houston cornerbacks coach (hired less than two weeks ago)
Valai has experience playing cornerback from his four-year college career at Wisconsin. He also opened up a sports-performance center to train professional athletes before getting into coaching.
The Eagles already reportedly hired Dennard Wilson as their new defensive backs coach so perhaps Valai is joining Philly as an assistant defensive backs coach. Or maybe he’ll specifically be the cornerbacks coach in the way that Tim Hauck was the safeties coach while the Eagles employed Cory Undlin and then Marquand Manuel with the more overarching “defensive backs coach” title.
In any case, seems safe to say that Valai will be bringing some enthusiasm to Philly.