The New Look Birds
If you were disappointed in the Eagles 2025 season, especially the ending, don’t worry, the sequel is going to look a lot different.
When the Eagles open training camp at the end of July, a lot of familiar faces both on the field and on the sidelines will be missing. The team’s top wide receiver, best assistant coach and a couple of mainstays on defense are all gone.
This is a different Eagles team with significant changes on offense, defense and the coaching staff. Will the results be different? We won’t know that until January. Here’s what we do know about what has changed since last season’s playoff loss to San Francisco.
The Coaching Staff
Head coach Nick Sirianni is back for his sixth season and will look to extend his playoff streak to six years on the way to his third Super Bowl. Those around Sirianni will not be the same. Quarterback Jalen Hurts will have his sixth different offensive coordinator in just his seventh NFL season. Sean Mannion, who turned 34 the weekend of the draft, replaced Kevin Patullo as offensive coordinator. Patullo replaced Kellen Moore, who replaced Brian Johnson, who replaced Sean Steichen, who replaced Doug Pederson/Press Taylor. Steichen (Colts) and Moore (Saints) were hired as head coaches. The rest, including Patullo, were fired. Mannion, a one-time backup quarterback, spent one year as Green Bay’s quarterback coach. The biggest change will be the absence of offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland.
Hired in 2013 by Chip Kelly, Stoutland made his mark as one of the best to ever do his job. A disagreement over his title of run game coordinator being removed, the long-time coach decided to take a year off. The last time Stoutland wasn’t on the Eagles coaching staff, Andy Reid was. Think about that for a minute. Ryan Mahaffey, who came with Mannion from Green Bay, will serve as tight ends coach and run game coordinator. Josh Grizzard will be the new passing game coordinator and Chris Kuper will try to fill the giant shoes Stoutland left behind as offensive line coach. Grizzard, who turned 36 in June, was a quality control coach in Miami before spending last year as Tampa Bay’s offensive coordinator. Kuper, 43, played guard for six years in Denver before becoming an assistant for both the Broncos and Dolphins. He was Minnesota’s OL coach the past three seasons. Defensively, coordinator Vic Fangio will be back for another season. Fangio denied reports he mulled retirement and said he has at least two more years in him. Fangio did lose his top assistant when secondary coach Christian Parker left to become the DC in Dallas. Joe Kasper was promoted from safety coach to replace Parker and Mike Pellegrino was added to the staff. This will be Kasper’s fifth season with the team. Pellegrino, a college lacrosse star at Johns Hopkins, spent nine years as an assistant in New England and last year in Buffalo.
The Offense
Wide receiver A.J. Brown and his 339 receptions, 5,034 yards and 32 touchdowns as an Eagle are gone. While a trade (to New England) was inevitable, Brown will still be missed. Fellow receiver Jahan Dotson, not so much. The former No. 1 pick of Washington cost the Eagles a third-round pick but caught just 37 passes in his two years with the team. DeVonta Smith becomes the true No. 1 WR after being 1A to Brown. Battling for spots 2 and 3 will be first-round draft pick Makai Lemon, free agent addition Hollywood Brown and trade acquisition Dontayvion Wicks. Another free agent, Elijah Moore, could also be in the mix. The Eagles moved up a few slots to No. 20 to select Lemon, and the team hopes it bucks history.
The last three times the Eagles have taken a first-round wide receiver with the 20th overall pick, or later, it turned into Freddie Mitchell (25), Nelson Agholor (21) and Jalen Reagor (20). Hollywood Brown will be on his fourth team. His best years came in Baltimore. Last year in Kansas City, the 5-foot-9 speedster caught 49 passes for 587 yards and five touchdowns. Wicks, a tough possession-type receiver, had 108 catches for 1,238 yards in his three years in Green Bay. He dropped nine passes in 2024, but cut that number to just two in 2025. While Stoutland is gone his last offensive line somewhat surprisingly returns intact. The Eagles did not address their line until the third round of the draft when they selected Miami tackle Markel Brown. The team is obviously hoping for better health from right tackle Lane Johnson, who missed eight games last season and has not played a full season since 2015 and center Cam Jurgens, who missed three games last year and 10 over the past three years. Johnson and guard Landon Dickerson both thought about retirement but decided to return for another season.
The Defense
Fangio is back, but four of his starters from 2025 are not. Edge rusher Jaelen Phillips, who the team traded a third-round pick to get at the deadline, safety Reed Blankenship, linebacker Nakobe Dean and cornerback Adoree Jackson all left as free agents. A draft day trade of two third-round picks was spent to acquire Jon Greenard from Minnesota to replace Phillips. Jihaad Campbell was taken in the first round of the 2025 draft to eventually replace Dean and that’s what he’ll do. Riq Woolen was signed away from Seattle as a free agent and will replace Jackson. Fangio said Pro Bowl nickel back Cooper DeJean will play safety in base defense and move back to the slot in nickel. Untested Marcus Epps and Andrew Mukuba will man the safety spots when DeJean moves to slot.
Greenard had 24 1/2 sacks for Houston and Minnesota in 2023 and 2024, but just three last season for the Vikings. Woolen had an up-and-down season for the Super Bowl champion Seahawks. He started at the beginning of the season but came off the bench later. He allowed three touchdown passes during the regular season, and then three more in three playoff games.
The Division
When the Eagles became the first team since 2004—when they also did it—to repeat as NFC East champions it wasn’t that difficult. At 11-6, they were the only team in the division to finish over .500. Dallas was 7-9-1, Washington was 5-12 and New York was 4-13. It was the first time the division didn’t have at least two .500, or better, teams since 2020 when nobody in the division was .500. That figures to change this season.
The Cowboys, who have suffered back-to-back losing seasons in 2024 and 2025, have not had three consecutive losing seasons since 2000-01-02. Washington, who made it to the NFC Championship Game, where they lost to the Eagles, in 2024, was ravaged by injuries a year ago. A healthy Jayden Daniels, at quarterback, could make all the difference in the world for head coach Dan Quinn’s team. And speaking of head coaches, the Giants took a huge jump in class, going from Brian Daboll to former long-time Eagles assistant coach John Harbaugh. The Giants have a lot of room to improve from 4-13 and still might have a ways to go, but you have to think Harbaugh, who had great success in Baltimore, will have them pointed in the right direction.
The Schedule
There are eight playoff teams from a year ago on this year’s slate. That’s two more than last year when the team went 3-3 in those six games with wins over Buffalo, Green Bay and the Rams and losses to Denver, Chicago and the Chargers. Four of those eight games in 2026 will come in consecutive weeks when the Eagles face the Bears, Rams, Jaguars (in London) and Panthers between Sept. 28 and Oct. 26. Three more will come over the final month of the season when they face the Seahawks, Texans and 49ers. The eighth playoff team they face is Pittsburgh and Aaron Rodgers in week 11.
