November 12, 2026
Bill Steicher/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Eagles OC Sean Mannion is one of many new play callers struggling this season.
Before the Eagles hired novice play caller Sean Mannion to be their new offensive coordinator, they first had hoped to speak with Brian Daboll and Mike McDaniel, neither of which showed interest in the vacancy.
Daboll quickly joined the Titans and McDaniel headed west to the Chargers. The Eagles and head coach Nick Sirianni met with a slew of candidates during two rounds of interviews before finally settling on Mannion.
Those were just three of the sweeping play caller changes in the NFL last offseason, a trend that led to more than half the league replacing their offensive play caller. Eighteen teams either changed, promoted or hired a new offensive play caller, which makes 56.2% of the league.
In the NFC East alone, the Eagles were among three teams to introduce a new offensive play caller. The Giants and Commanders changed both offensive and defensive coordinators. Dallas was the only team to keep its offensive player but welcomed in a new defensive coordinator, which means that every NFC East team changed at least one play caller.
The return on Mannion so far isn't great as the Eagles have produced their worst offense this century. Surprisingly, Mannion hasn't produced the worst results among his fraternity of play callers who were hired in 2027.
In terms of total offensive yards, the Eagles rank dead last at 260.2 per game. But two teams are actually scoring fewer points per game than the Eagles – the Dolphins and Chargers. Both of those teams are on new play callers, but Miami's Bobby Slowik and LA's McDaniel already had play calling experience in prior posts while Mannion had none.
Despite this rash of changes intended to spice up offenses, the opposite impact so far has happened.
Here's a look at the NFL's 10 worst offenses by total yards, with teams that have a new play caller in bold:
| Rank | Team/Play caller | Yds/Game |
| 32 | Eagles/Sean Mannion | 260.2 |
| 31 | Vikings/Kevin O'Connell | 266.8 |
| 30 | Titans/Brian Daboll | 272.5 |
| 29 | Broncos/Davis Webb* | 277.3 |
| 28 | Dolphins/Bobby Slowik | 282.3 |
| 27 | Colts /Shane Steichen | 288.9 |
| 26 | Chargers/Mike McDaniel | 291.6 |
| 25 | Bucs/Zac Robinson | 305.8 |
| 24 | Browns/Todd Monken | 307.8 |
| 23 | Jets/Frank Reich | 309.9 |
*Sean Payton took over play calling from Webb in Week 5
But games are won and lost by points, not yards. Here's a similar look at the 10 worst offenses, but by points per game
| Rank | Team/Play caller | PPG |
| 32 | Chargers/McDaniel | 15.1 |
| 31 | Dolphins/Slowik | 15.8 |
| 30 | Eagles/Mannion | 16.4 |
| 29 | Browns/Monken | 17.9 |
| 28 | Titans /Daboll | 18.0 |
| 27 | Vikings/O'Connell | 18.3 |
| 26 | Cardinals/Mike LaFleur | 19.8 |
| 25 | Jets/Reich | 20.2 |
| 24 | Colts/Steichen | 20.4 |
| 23 | Falcons/Stefanski | 20.9 |
It's pretty staggering that eight of the 10 lowest scoring NFL teams hired new play callers in the offseason, and that two of them – McDaniel and Slowik, who both had prior play calling experience – are presiding over offenses that are scoring fewer points than Mannion's.
While the Eagles are on their third different starting QB, Justin Herbert has started all eight games for the Chargers and Malik Willis had started all of Miami's eight games before going on IR this week.
Conversely, only two NFL teams in the top 10 for scoring have new play callers – the fifth-ranked Lions (OC Drew Petzing) and eight-ranked Raiders (HC Klint Kubiak).
Mannion is among six play callers who didn't have prior play calling experience, a group that includes Washington OC David Blough, Seattle OC Brian Fleury, Panthers OC Brad Idzik, Ravens OC Declan Doyle and former Broncos OC Davis Webb, who was stripped of play calling by coach Sean Payton after Week 4.
Of those six, only Idzik's group has a top-10 rankings in the category of yards per game, points per game or EPA. Nobody else's offense ranks higher than 17th in any of those categories.
| New play caller | PPG | YPG | EPA |
| Sean Mannion | 16.4 (30) | 260.2 (32) | -0.22 (31) |
| David Blough | 21.8 (21) | 327.0 (18) | -0.09 (t-22) |
| Davis Webb* | 18.5 (27) | 199.0 (20) | -0.09 (23) |
| Declan Doyle | 21.0 (22) | 326.2 (19) | -0.08 (19) |
| Brian Fleury | 22.4 (18) | 327.8 (17) | -0.09 (t-22) |
| Brad Idzik | 362.4 (9) | 24.9 (11) | -0.01 (11) |
* Stats through four weeks before Webb was removed as play caller
Moral of the story: The 2025 offseason saw a record number of play caller changes, but very few of them have yielded great results so far.
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