The Philadelphia Eagles' 2025 season has been in the rear view mirror for a couple of weeks now, so let's take some questions for a mailbag post, shall we? This will be Part I of a two-part mailbag, and will focus on the coaches and the coaching search, which if I'm being honest I find tedious and boring. 🤷‍♂️

Part II will be more about Eagles players.

Question from @jesuszoidberg (via Bluesky): Is previous play calling experience a deal breaker in your eyes?

The Eagles have interviewed a bunch of guys with play-calling experience, and at least one (Declan Doyle) with none. I certainly believe that previous play-calling experience is a plus. When the Eagles interviewed Kellen Moore, for example, he had previous play calling experience, but he also had a pretty good track record of success during his time in Dallas. And then obviously as we saw this past season, Kevin Patullo did not have previous play-calling experience, and that didn't work out.

But it shouldn't be viewed as a deal-breaker, in my opinion, just because one recent offensive coordinator had play-calling experience and did a good job, and the other didn't and did a bad job.

If someone like Doyle seems to have a good plan for how to turn the offense around, with creative and original ideas, then I'd be more inclined to hand the keys to the offense to him instead of some boring retread with an average track record who has no new ideas.

Question from @Jack_Despeaux: The Eagles' offense suffered this year with a bad OC. If they trade A.J. Brown and don’t get an ideal OC (as they haven’t so far), there’d have to be more strain on the offense, even if they get a decent rookie / free agent WR. Would the current OC hunt not going well impact an AJB trade?

I think that's overthinking it a bit. If A.J. Brown doesn't want to be in Philly, he will not be a fit, and the team will not go into another season with an unhappy-yet-influential player. They have shown that they will trade players who do not want to be here, like Carson Wentz, Haason Reddick, and Bryce Huff. If Brown has made up his mind that he wants out, then they'll trade him.

Question from @Bula412: How hot is Nick Sirianni's seat?

I'd say it's warm. Jeff McLane of the Inquirer reported that Sirianni was nearly fired following the 2023 season (which we all kind of already knew), but also that he was nearly fired during the bye week of the 2024 season. So, Jeffrey Lurie isn't exactly fully bought in on Sirianni.

I think there's a strong argument to be made that Sirianni helped waste a season in which the defense was outstanding, and if that happens again Lurie might feel that Sirianni helped waste a chance for the Eagles to be an NFL dynasty.

Question from @CoachDaveHuf: Does Dennard Wilson return as DB coach?

Oh, there's a name I had forgotten. I thought Wilson did a good job for the Eagles, and he did a reasonable enough job with a Titans defense that had major roster holes. But, he left the Eagles following the 2022 job to actually take a lesser job with the Ravens, possibly because he had been passed over for the Eagles' open defensive coordinator job. I think that relationship might be tarnished.

Wilson would have done a better job in 2023 than Sean Desai and Matt Patricia.

Question from @Gritizenship: Is it legal to speak with HC candidates prior to firing your HC? Let's just say Lurie reaches out to Tomlin to feel interest. If it's there, Sirianni gets fired, and Tomlin gets hired, is that against any rules other than maybe being a mean thing to do?

Obviously there are tampering rules that apply to coaches under contract whose teams are still alive in the playoffs (see: the Cardinals' tampering of Jonathan Gannon in 2022), but I'd heard that the Eagles were talking to potential offensive coordinator replacements before their season was even over.

Question for @cranej (via Bluesky): Should Jeff Stoutland be receiving more heat for the poor OL performance and lack of running success? Or is it one bad year? Could a new OC shaking the run game room up be a good thing?

The Eagles had one of the best rushing attacks in NFL history in 2024. They were also a very good rushing offense in 2017, when they won their first Super Bowl, despite not employing a true RB1. The Eagles' offensive line has been the arguably the No. 1 reason for their sustained success over the last decade. A lot of that has had to do with Stoutland's ability to develop players, and get them to work cohesively as a unit.

In 2025, Lane Johnson missed eight games. Landon Dickerson had all kinds of injuries he was dealing with and looked nothing like the player he has been. Cam Jurgens also had a bad season after having back surgery during the offseason. And then also, while I thought Tyler Steen was fine in his first season as a starter, particularly in pass pro, he wasn't tossing guys around in the run game like Mekhi Becton did a year ago.

So there are injury excuses in play here. However, what I thought the Eagles did a poor job of was continuously asking those above players — and also role players like TE2 Grant Calcaterra — to execute difficult blocks that they just weren't physically able to this season. They never really adjusted to account for the fact that their offensive line had star power only in name in 2025, but not in actual performance.

I don't know how much of that is specifically on Stoutland, and how much of it was on Sirianni and Patullo, but it feels like they should have been able to recognize that the run game needed to be simplified, and that never really happened.

Question from @GreaseThePoles: Do the Eagles view any of their current OTs (Cameron Williams, Myles Hinton, Hollin Pierce) as successors for Lane such that they don’t invest a high pick there?

None of those guys showed any real potential to get excited about during training camp, and didn't deserve to make the team. I also can't imagine that Williams or Hinton showed major improvement, since they both didn't practice for the bulk of the season while redshirting on injured reserve. The one rookie offensive lineman who I thought at least showed something was Drew Kendall, but he's an interior guy.

Williams, Hinton, and Pierce should not factor into any decision to draft an offensive tackle with a high pick.

Question from @brockstar91: Which is the bigger risk, giving Cam Jurgens an offseason to get healthy and roll with him in 2026, with the hope he returns to his 2024 form, or going into an entirely different direction at center and cutting him? He was amongst the worst centers in the NFL in 2025.

They're not going to cut Cam Jurgens. He'll start again in 2026, barring some sort of major surprise. Obviously, their doctors know a whole lot more about his condition than we do. If they throw up some red flags on Jurgens' long-term outlook, then I could see them preparing contingency plans. 

Question from @fandru (via Bluesky): Who doesn't love a good QB2 controversy?  I was digging the "Round 2: Trinidad Chambliss, QB, Ole Miss" mock selection. Do you think Tanner McKee has to be gone for the Eagles to spend a decent pick on a "more than developmental" QB?

I don't. If you look at 2016, for example, the Eagles drafted Carson Wentz with the idea that he would probably be inactive on gameday at least initially during his rookie season, behind Sam Bradford and Chase Daniel. And then Teddy Bridgewater shredded his knee, and yada yada yada, overnight Wentz went from QB3 to QB1.

They also drafted Hurts with a second-round pick when Wentz was still the established starter.

The Eagles draft quarterbacks as long-term investments, not typically for immediate need.

Question from @4LloydChristmas: It doesn't seem like things are off to a good start in 2026 for the Eagles.  Pressure is again at its highest on both Sirianni and Hurts.  It is early but it seems like a perfect storm is brewing for a step back season for the Eagles after a five-year run of playoff appearances.

Well, my rebuttal to that would be that Hurts and Sirianni have both bounced back in the past when the heat has been on. So, we'll see.

Question from @VeriteVentures: Howie said Nick was "elite" at game management. Is there any chance the Eagles' analytics have deviated from consensus and Nick is following a process, or is just fluff from Howie?

Obviously, Sirianni is not an "elite" game manager. Howie is smart, and can't possibly believe that. That's fluff.

Question from TheMilkMan015: Do you think the Eagles locker room toilets get cleaned daily?

Yes.

Question from @bwentzel711 (via Bluesky): Are we gonna get the final press box food reviews for the 2025 season?

Yes, I will get to them at some point. They're tough to get to during the season, because I'm busy with my regular coverage of the team, and when I have a rare free moment I don't want to fill it with more writing. 2025 will probably be my last season doing the food spread reviews, as they have become more of a burden than a labor of love.

I will update the stadiums I missed this past season, and then have one more big, special food spread review during the slow summer months, and then they will probably be retired. 🥲

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