PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Philadelphia Eagles officially announced the nearly two-dozen members of Nick Sirianni’s coaching staff who will help lead his first year with the franchise.
Standouts from the group of 22 assistants include defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, offensive coordinator Shane Steichen, special teams coordinator Michael Clay, quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson, running backs/assistant head coach Jemal Singleton, well-respected run game coordinator/offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland, wide receivers coach Aaron Moorehead, defensive line coach Tracy Rocker, defensive backs coach Dennard Wilson, tight ends coach Jason Michael, and linebackers coach Nick Rallis.
Stoutland has been with the Eagles since Chip Kelly’s regime, and Moorehead will be entering his second year with the Eagles — noteworthy because between 2016 to 2020, the team had a new wide receivers coach each year.
Gannon was the cornerbacks coach for the Colts the last three seasons and will be a first-time defensive coordinator. He joins Sirianni from Indianapolis.
Steichen was the offensive coordinator for the Chargers, which explains his connection to Sirianni.
Clay was an assistant special teams coach on Kelly’s staff in 2015 and a defensive quality control coach in 2014. His most recent stop was with the 49ers, where he was the assistant specials teams coach. When Kelly went from Philadelphia to San Francisco, Clay went with him.
Johnson was the University of Florida’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, and he’s known Jalen Hurts since the Eagles quarterback was 4 years old.
Singleton was supposed to be at the University of Kentucky but came to the Eagles instead, after being the Bengals running backs coach in 2019 and 2020.
Rocker coached the University of South Carolina’s defensive line in 2020 and was supposed to be at Auburn before coming to the Eagles.
Wilson was a coach on the New York Jets.
Michael was the tight ends coach for the Colts the past two seasons, so he is also leaving Indy with Sirianni. His experience includes two seasons as the Titans’ offensive coordinator.
Rallis comes from the Vikings, where he was a defensive quality control/assistant linebackers coach.
And maybe the most understated hire of them all, way down on the Eagles’ announcement list, is head strength and conditioning coach Fernando Noriega. The Eagles have had tons of problems with injuries in recent seasons, making things rather difficult, especially after winning Super Bowl LII. Noriega was a strength assistant with the Los Angeles Rams from 2017 to 2020 and a conditioning intern with them in 2016.
According to Football Outsiders, the Rams were the healthiest team in the league in 2017 based on “adjusted games lost due to injury” — the Rams also went to the Super Bowl in the 2018-19 season.
If the Eagles find a way to avoid the number of injuries they’ve experienced lately, Noriega will likely get a lot of credit.