As Doug Pederson puts together his coaching staff in Jacksonville, he’s reportedly poaching an assistant from his former team.
Pederson is hiring Jim Bob Cooter to serve as his passing game coordinator, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported.
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Cooter, 37, wasn’t officially listed on the Eagles’ coaching staff but the former Lions offensive coordinator served as a behind-the-scenes consultant under Sirianni in 2021.
Sirianni and Cooter worked together in Kanas City in 2012, the year before Andy Reid took over and brought Pederson with him.
Back in September, Sirianni explained Cooter’s role with the Eagles.
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“Obviously, he's got a lot of experience and he's a great football mind. I think very highly of him,” Sirianni said. “So, he's doing special projects for me and consulting here, which has been great. If I see a play or if we talk about a play that -- I just think this is really important. When you put a new play into your system that you maybe saw on tape, I think it's very easy for a coach to do that and be like, ‘Oh, I saw that on tape. This looks great. I'm just going to through it my offense.’
“Well, do you know everything there is to know about that play? I'm not saying Jim Bob knows everything there is to know about every play, but what he is able to do is while we're doing something else, he's able to go research that play. I've already seen the benefit of that with a couple new wrinkles we have in this offense.
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“So really excited to have him. I haven't really ever had that on a staff, and sometimes it deters you from putting in a play that you might like. So we have really gotten a lot out of him and really excited he's here.”
This offseason, several Eagles assistants garnered interest around the league for promotions. Namely, passing game coordinator Kevin Patullo was an OC candidate in Chicago and quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson was an OC candidate in Green Bay. Neither got hired.
But if the Eagles did lose a top offensive assistant this offseason, they would have likely been prepared to replace him with Cooter. Instead, he’ll leave for his promotion.