February 13, 2023
Kate Frese/For PhillyVoice
Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon may not be staying put in Philadelphia.
The Super Bowl brain drain looks like it's on with word coming in Monday that Shane Steichen is on his way to Indianapolis and that Jonathan Gannon may not be a lock to return next season after all.
Per ESPN's Adam Schefter, Gannon's interview with the Arizona Cardinals, first reported ahead of the Super Bowl on Sunday, is still on, while Steichen is in the process of finalizing a deal to become the Colts' next head coach.
And so Eagles’ DC Jonathan Gannon will interview today for the Cardinals’ HC job while Eagles’ OC Shane Steichen is going to Indianapolis to finalize his HC deal with the Colts.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 13, 2023
Eagles are losing at least one, and maybe both coordinators. https://t.co/nY0t7PIBjs
In the case of Gannon, however, he said in the celebration following the NFC Championship that the Eagles were "keeping me."
"Good, bad, or indifferent, I'm staying here," he told FOX 29 at the time.
And when paired with the Houston Texans' hiring of DeMeco Ryans shortly after, that seemed all but certain, though the two weeks in between then and the Super Bowl may have led to a change in plans, or at the very least, more time for Gannon to weigh all his options.
As the Eagles' defensive coordinator for the past two seasons, Gannon oversaw one of the league's statistically better defenses – led by its fiercest pass rush – in 2022 on the way to the franchise's most dominant season.
He's had his list of criticisms from fans, however, mainly centered around a sometimes passive game-planning approach and a willingness to surrender a lot underneath to ensure they never surrendered any big plays.
But that's proved a problem against the NFL's elite quarterbacks and in Sunday night's 38-35 loss to Kansas City in the Super Bowl, Patrick Mahomes picked the Eagles' defense apart.
Steichen, who ran the offense for the past two years, adopting offensive playcalling along the way, also managed one of the league's top scoring units, picking up more and more buzz as a top candidate as Jalen Hurts and the Eagles continued to soar.
Now the likelihood from him is inheriting and rebuilding a Colts squad that completely bottomed out after years of quarterback instability.
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