They’ll have a bunch of new starters on defense. They lost their Pro Bowl running back and Pro Bowl defensive tackle. They have a new defensive coordinator and a new defensive staff.
In an offseason of change, the biggest change for the Eagles may be Brian Johnson replacing Shane Steichen as Nick Sirianni’s play caller.
Steichen was a brilliant play caller who knew how to keep defenses off balance, how to maximize Jalen Hurts’ talents, how to mix in the running game, how to stay unpredictable.
Steichen’s flair for play calling is one of the biggest reasons he’s now head coach of the Colts, and while Johnson is very highly regarded in the NovaCare Complex and has a terrific relationship with Hurts – whose father was his high school coach – Johnson has never called plays in the NFL.
Last week, for the first time since he was promoted from quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator 2 ½ months ago, Johnson spoke publicly about his play-calling philosophy, what he learned from Steichen and how things will change under his watch.
“I think a lot of play calling (is preparing) during the course of the week, so I think just the way you structure your week to put yourself and put the players in the best position to do what they do well,” he said. “When you talk about in-game, I think it becomes a little bit of art and science. It's a little bit of a feel of feeling when to call certain things and being able to hunt and find match-ups that you like throughout the course of the game.
“That ability to have that feel, that ability to adjust quickly, is something that really shows up compared to the college game because you don't get as many plays. Your adjustments have to come fairly rapidly in terms of after the first, after the second series to see how teams are playing you, and you've got to be ready to roll with those adjustments and not be a play behind.”
NFL
One of the reasons Johnson was an attractive candidate for Sirianni when he was named head coach of the Eagles after the 2020 season was the job he did as Florida’s play caller in 2020.
Kyle Trask threw for 4,283 yards and 43 touchdowns and the Gators ranked No. 1 in the BCS in passing offense and No. 9 in total offense with over 500 yards per game.
Because he’s been here the last two years, Johnson already has a tremendous understanding of Sirianni’s scheme and the Eagles’ personnel, as well as a fantastic relationship with Hurts.
“The beauty of football, and we talked about this with the offense, is that each team has a one-year lifespan,” Johnson said. “I think one of the things that's important is that you have to continually evolve each and every year. We obviously had a lot of success on offense last year, but we also lost some pieces. That's the challenge of it is to find new pieces to integrate them in and to find ways to continually improve.
“So I think that's the beauty and that's the challenge . … You can't remain the same, so you're going to have to find ways to tweak the base and the core of our offense here. … We as a staff are just trying to find new ways to challenge ourselves, to challenge our players to become a little bit better, to find maybe a better way to do something than we did last year. I think that's where the improvement is.”
The Eagles finished last year ranked No. 3 in the NFL in both total yards and total points. They averaged 28.1 points and 389 yards per game during the regular season and 35 points and 367 yards in the postseason.
More than half the offensive starters – Hurts, Sanders, Jason Kelce, Lane Johnson, A.J. Brown and Landon Dickerson – made the Pro Bowl.
“I think Shane is obviously a great play caller,” Johnson said. “I think we see the game very, very similar in terms of how to attack defense, what pops in our brain vs. structure. There were many times throughout the course of the game where we were on the same page of what we needed to get to.
“(And) I think Shane had a great demeanor. He was very, very meticulous in his weekly routine of what he needed to see in order to get himself ready to call the game, how he studied the call sheet.
Some of the best play callers I've been around are guys who have that great feel.
“You have these big call sheets, but you can just kind of feel the flow of the game of what the game needs at that certain point, and you're able to make those adjustments quickly.”