PHILADELPHIA – Rich Scangarello, senior attacking assistant at Eagles, and Marty Mornhin Road, senior offensive consultant, are about to expire contracts and will not return to Philadelphia, sources told Chris Mortensen, ESPN.
This departure follows the news that defense coordinator Jim Schwartz will not return in 2021 and is part of a larger stir in the coaching staff that is expected to end with a new offensive coordinator.
Coach Doug Pederson reversed the course and at the insistence of management in January 2020 parted ways with offensive coordinator Mike Groh and broad reception coach Carson Walch, a day after Pederson publicly said they would return. Owner Jeffrey Lurie and general manager Howie Roseman were active in the subsequent search for a new offensive coordinator. According to a source, Lurie wanted, according to USC’s Graham Harrell, but the Eagles could not land him.
Instead, they passed in 2020 without an offensive coordinator, Press Taylor promoted to a passing game coordinator and added a variety of assistants in Lurie’s quest to introduce new ideas into a weakened offense. The end result was too many votes, because the combination of Taylor, Scangarello, Mornhin Road and Andrew Breiner, analyst of the game, created a cacophony in the ears of Pederson and Carson Wentz.
Pederson appears to be pointing to this dynamic earlier this month.
“There are a lot of positives that come out of communication and those conversations, those ideas. Really everyone has good ideas. It’s part of putting together plans,” Pederson said. “But at the end of the day, I want to make sure there’s one voice, and that’s my voice, that is heard offensively and no one else’s.”
The expectation is that the Eagles will fill the offensive coordinator position this time. Pederson had previously been reluctant to give up duty calls, but he did so situationally and said in December that temporary surrender was “on the table”. How open he is to complete these duties on a full-time basis will affect the candidate pool of the offensive coordinator.
The change to the attacking staff follows a 4-11-1 season in which the Eagles finished 26th (20.9 PPG) and 28th in passing (207.9 YPG).
Wentz deteriorated dramatically in his fifth year, drawing for the first time in interception (15) and top-flight (50), despite playing just 12 games. Jalen Hurts replaces him as an appetizer in Week 14.