Eagles news: A pro-Jalen Hurts roster move, Vic Fangio rocks and Kellen Moore interview

It’s a busy week for the Philadelphia Eagles. They’re game planning for a Wild Card game against a team they played four months ago, dealing with the most important player having a concussion, and the offensive coordinator getting requests for head coaching interviews. That last one is where we’re going to start with this week’s news. 

Kellen Moore is a wanted man

Kellen Moore is used to head coaching interviews. After the Eagles and Doug Pederson split ways in 2021, Moore was one of the guys they brought in for a head coaching interview. On top of that, he interviewed for the Vikings’ and Chargers’ head coaching jobs in 2022 and 2024 respectively.

When the Eagles hired Moore as the offensive coordinator this past offseason, there was a thought that if the Eagles made a deep playoff run, he would probably get more interviews too. 

That thought was right. So far, the Jaguars and the Saints have requested to interview him. The Bears, the Jets, the Patriots, and the Raiders all have head coaching vacancies too, so there could be more to come. 

Teams try to get those spots filled as fast as possible, which means they’ll have to wait to hire coaches whose teams are still playing. 

Look at last year: When the Detroit Lions lost in the NFC Championship Game, the only two teams that hadn’t hired a new head coach were the Seahawks and the Commanders. The Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson was (and still is) a big-time prospect for teams, but he hilariously said that he was going to stick with the Lions because he wanted to coach for a team that could win. That implied that the Commanders and Seahawks were losers … which he was half right about.

The point is, that teams might have to pass on Kellen Moore out of urgency if the Eagles make a deep playoff run. 

Whether you consider that a good or bad thing is up to you. Jalen Hurts looked the most comfortable and had his best season ever in 2022 when he had Shane Steichen as his offensive coordinator for back-to-back seasons. 

On the other hand, you want your offensive coordinator to have teams fawning over them. Currently, no NFL offensive coordinators have held their roles since before 2022. It’s a job with a crazy amount of turnover. 

OCs get hired or they get fired. Kellen’s clearly doing a good enough job to not get fired, but he’s also on his third team as an offensive coordinator despite having the opportunity to move up. 

A coordinator getting head coaching interviews in the postseason is a fresh scar for Eagles fans because of Jonathan Gannon: After the 2022 season, he was hired to be the Cardinals’ head coach two days after losing the Super Bowl. Later it came out that he interviewed with them the week after the NFC Championship game. Not only was that illegal, but it also explained his defense’s historically terrible performance against Patrick Mahomes.

So now the question is, ‘Will head coaching interviews distract Kellen Moore from the Eagles postseason?’ Hopefully, the answer is a solid ‘No.’

Kellen’s been through this whole rigamarole a handful of times, and you’d have to expect that the Eagles’ culture bleeds from the locker room into the coach’s offices. The team is hungry, and Kellen has to see that this team gives him the best shot at a ring than any other team he’s been on.

Please don’t be dumb Kellen … Don’t be like Gannon.

The Eagles defense gets recognition

One of the cool things about the NFL’s postseason is that there are only 14 teams, and only about five of those are teams that have a real shot at winning the Super Bowl. That means national reporters and big-wigs are starting to publicly acknowledge everything that we’ve been seeing from the Eagles all year. 

ESPN’s Dan Graziano wrote a piece about general misconceptions about every playoff team. For the Eagles, he said, “Myth: Running back Saquon Barkley has been the difference-maker between last season's Eagles and this season's team.”

It’s understandable to think that. Saquon is an elite playmaker who got paid a crazy amount of money, has been making headlines and highlights since Week 1, rushed for over 2,000 yards, and is the front-runner to win the NFL’s Offensive Player of the Year. That’s all sexy stuff that people pay attention to. 

Graziano continues, “Why it's a myth: The real difference is not on offense…Instead, the big change is on defense, where new coordinator Vic Fangio has been maybe the highest-impact coordinator hire of the 2024 offseason.” 

Now that’s the good stuff, Dan. The Eagles were a bottom-three defense in 2023, but those dog days ended with Fangio, who turned that hellscape into the best defense in the league. Dan says, “This season? They were first in defensive efficiency and second in defensive EPA.” Love it.

He also brought up how well Quiyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean, and Jalen Carter have been playing. That’s cool. Jalen Carter gets a lot of shine because after Aaron Donald retired, a void opened up for ‘ the NFL’s most game-wrecking defensive tackle’ and Jalen’s been filling it. Cooper DeJean gets his time in the spotlight because … well … he’s a white cornerback. 

Quinyon doesn’t get a whole lot of publicity, but Dan mentioned him first. Jared Verse will win Defensive Rookie of the Year because he got a bunch of sacks and pressures and Quinyon didn’t get any interceptions (even though that’s dumb because interceptions are harder to get than sacks and pressures), but it’s nice to see the guys that we really appreciate get recognition.

Now watch Quinyon get four interceptions and two pick-sixes in the postseason while Verse gets pancaked every single play … That’s how this works, right? The Football Gods work in mysterious ways.

The Eagles seem confident that Jalen Hurts will be healthy for the Wild Card game

This whole thing could be moot depending on when you’re reading this. Jalen Hurts will have an incredibly important practice on Wednesday that could lead to him clearing concussion protocol. 

If he makes it through that practice and is cleared, then everything is good to go. If he doesn’t, then everything is terrible and it’s time to panic. 

On Tuesday the Eagles released quarterback Ian Book, who they signed for quarterback depth while Jalen was in the protocol. 

This move is equally as telling as it was when they signed Book to the practice roster back on Thursday, December 26th, three days before the game against the Cowboys. When that happened, it essentially told everyone that Jalen wasn’t going to clear concussion protocol and Ian would be the emergency quarterback for that game.

The timing of Ian’s release seems like it’s more than coincidental with the timing of tomorrow's potentially great news. Now we just have to hope for a practice report tomorrow where Jalen is listed as a “Limited Participant” and as a “Full Participant” on Thursday. If not … woof.