PHILADELPHIA — Eagles senior offensive assistant Rich Scangarello and senior offensive consultant Marty Mornhinweg are on expiring contracts and will not return to Philadelphia, sources told ESPN’s Chris Mortensen.
These departures follow the news that defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz will not return in 2021 and are part of a larger coaching staff shake-up that is expected to end with a new offensive coordinator.
Coach Doug Pederson reversed course and parted with offensive coordinator Mike Groh and wide receivers coach Carson Walch at the urging of management in January 2020, a day after Pederson said publicly that they would return. Owner Jeffrey Lurie and general manager Howie Roseman were active in the ensuing search for a new offensive coordinator. Lurie wanted USC‘s Graham Harrell, according to a source, but the Eagles were unable to land him.
Instead, they went without an offensive coordinator in 2020, promoted Press Taylor to passing game coordinator and added an assortment of assistants in Lurie’s quest to import some fresh ideas into a sagging offense. The end result was too many voices, as the combination of Taylor, Scangarello, Mornhinweg and passing game analyst Andrew Breiner created a cacophony in the ears of Pederson and quarterback Carson Wentz, sources said.
Pederson appeared to hint toward this dynamic earlier this month.
“There’s a lot of positive that comes out of those communications and those talks, those ideas. Really everybody has great ideas. That’s part of putting plans together,” Pederson said. “But at the end of the day, I want to make sure there’s one voice, and that’s my voice, that’s heard offensively and nobody else’s.”
The expectation is that the Eagles will fill the offensive coordinator post this time around. Pederson has been reluctant to give up playcalling duties in the past, but he did that situationally this season and said in December that temporarily giving up playcalling was “on the table.” How open he is to handing off those duties full time will affect the offensive coordinator candidate pool.
The change to the offensive staff follows a 4-11-1 season in which the Eagles finished 26th in scoring (20.9 PPG) and 28th in passing (207.9 YPG).
Wentz regressed dramatically in his fifth year, finishing tied for first in interceptions (15) and tops in sacks (50) despite playing just 12 games. Jalen Hurts replaced him as the starter in Week 14.