Eagles first-year offensive coordinator Sean Mannion has likely been called many things over the course of his professional career.
Having entered the league as a third-round pick in 2015, Mannion was a longtime backup for the Rams, Seahawks, and Vikings before beginning his coaching career as a Packers assistant in 2024.
But now that he’s with Philadelphia, left tackle Jordan Mailata has a new moniker for the coach.
“Sean is an evil genius,” Mailata said during the Eagles’ offseason program, via Tim McManus of ESPN. “That is my first impression.
An evil genius?
“The guy knows ball,” Mailata said. “If I were to lock the three smartest people in the facility in one room, Sean would be there. And I think Sean would just be by himself. It would just be Sean. He’s a wizard. And man, I’m super excited. As the year goes on, we get to display what is in that beautiful mind of his.”
Mannion is tasked with improving an offense that felt flat and stagnant in 2025. Though the Eagles won the NFC East, they finished No. 19 in points and No. 24 in yards last season.
The Eagles have a new offensive coordinator in Sean Mannion and a new quarterbacks coach in Parks Frazier, and starting quarterback Jalen Hurts says the offseason program is all about learning a new way of doing things.
Asked if he’s comfortable in the offense, Hurts said that’s what Organized Team Activities are for.
“Yeah, the comfort comes with the repetition,” Hurts said. “The comfort comes with the teaching and the time on task to what you’re doing. And so you just want to continue to build in those areas. I think it’s been the same for me every year when it comes to coaching points, intention, vision, what are we really trying to drive what we’re doing. And so just really having a listening ear, asking questions, getting answers, going out there and repping it, feeling it, seeing different looks, seeing different coverages, knowing what to adjust to with the field. So obviously a different voice, different perspective of the game, and every OC has added their own flavor on it. I think another component is quarterback coach, too, because that’s something that’s changed along with the play caller. So, just being able to adjust to all those things, filter it out, figure it out as time goes.”
Hurts said doing one-on-one work with Frazier has helped him develop as a quarterback.
“Parks has been great. I’m excited to see what the summer brings and training camp brings so we continue to grow,” Hurts said.
After a disappointing 2025 season for the Eagles’ offense, Hurts believes things are going to be better in 2026.
Edge rusher Za’Darius Smith abruptly retired from the Eagles last October, but he’s now free to play for any team if he wants to return to the NFL.
The NFL’s daily transaction report for Wednesday shows that the Eagles have released Smith from the reserve/retired list. He will now become a free agent, although there’s no word on whether he plans to resume his career.
Smith announced his retirement after recording 1.5 sacks in his five games for Philadelphia.
Smith entered the league as a 2015 fourth-round pick by the Ravens. He spent four years with Baltimore, had 26 sacks in three seasons with Green Bay and also spent time with Minnesota, Cleveland and Detroit before joining the Eagles.
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts spoke to reporters on Wednesday for the first time since wide receiver A.J. Brown was traded to the Patriots and he was asked about comments Brown made about their relationship last week.
Brown said “nothing happened, people just grow apart” when asked about Hurts and that he thought both men accepted that sometimes “you just you find yourself drifting away” despite being closer when Brown first joined the Eagles. Brown said he still hopes Hurts accomplishes “everything his heart desires” and Hurts said he couldn’t push back at someone else’s feelings.
“I’m not in the place to challenge anyone’s perspective on anything,” Hurts said at a press conference. “Seemingly so, it was. That’s where I am. I’ve always been focused on the collective. I’ve always put my energy towards that. As a leader, I’ve always put an onus on giving maximum effort to achieve the shared mission we have in the team.”
Hurts said before the trade that nothing can take away what he and Brown accomplished as members of the Eagles. He returned to that theme when asked if he’s disappointed about how things came to an end.
“You come into it and you have a sense of pride in how it began, and definitely what we were able to accomplish,” Hurts said. “The same thing I said last time, nothing can take that away. For the great things that we did, now it’s time to focus on achieving great things with this new iteration of the team.”
Hurts has a new offensive coordinator to go with a revamped receiving corps, so there will be plenty of on-field matters to keep the quarterback occupied heading into the regular season.
Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter didn’t do team drills at this week’s minicamp, but head coach Nick Sirianni had no interest in discussing the reason why Carter was not part of that work.
Carter is eligible for a contract extension after finishing his third NFL season and he is also coming off shoulder injuries that cost him time during the 2025 season. Carter had surgery to address his shoulders this offseason, but Sirianni declined to answer a question about whether either of those situations factored into his workload.
“I’m sorry, I’m not going to get into all those different things,” Sirianni said, via a transcript from the team. “Right now, I’ve been able to work some individual scenarios and individual practices, and everybody’s in a little bit different boat right now of where they are in the offseason, and that’s where Jalen is right now.”
Sirianni was asked a followup about his shoulders as well.
“He’s worked really hard to continue to get himself [into] the best position he can possibly be in to go into training camp and he’s continuing to work with that,” Sirianni said.
Carter is signed through 2027 after the Eagles exercised their $27.127 million option on his contract earlier this offseason. If he remains off the field during training camp, there will be more pointed questions about whether a desire for a new deal is driving those decisions.
