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Español15 Eagles leftovers from the 2026 NFL Combine originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
INDIANAPOLIS — It was a busy week inside the Indiana Convention Center for the annual NFL combine. We heard from Nick Sirianni, Howie Roseman and a bunch of GMs and coaches from other teams as well as a bunch of draft prospects.
Among the Eagles headlines from the week:
• How the Eagles landed on Sean Mannion as OC
• The latest on the A.J. Brown situation
• Nick Sirianni’s side of the Jeff Stoutland departure
• Howie Roseman’s free agency preview
• Will the Eagles be able to keep Jaelan Phillips?
• How Jalen Hurts will fit into the Eagles’ new offense
• Sean Mannion’s former colleagues not surprised by his rise
And here are some other nuggets as we clear out the notebook after a busy week in Indianapolis:
1. The Eagles’ biggest new hire this offseason was the addition of Sean Mannion as the offensive coordinator. But the Eagles brought in some other new coaches as well: Passing game coordinator Josh Grizzard, offensive line coach Chris Kuper and tight ends coach/run game coordinator Ryan Mahaffey.
In their search for a new OC, the Eagles cast a wide net. They interviewed 17 candidates and seven of them got second interviews. Grizzard was one of the finalists for that job but the Eagles ended up with him in a different role. The Eagles felt like that was a win. Grizzard was the Bucs’ passing game coordinator in 2024 and did a good enough job to be promoted to OC for 2025. He was fired after just one season but at least has called plays before.
2. As for Kuper and Mahaffey, Sirianni made sure to point out that he thinks both are good coaches, but it’s clear that it was important for the Eagles to let Mannion bring in some of his own guys. He has a history with both and those two have experience in the scheme Mannion will be implementing in Philly.
“I think that’s important that you have some familiarity within,” Sirianni said. “Because we’ve had great coaches here. We’ve won a lot of games. And so, of course I’m indebted to the guys that aren’t here at this particular time. But I also think, on the other hand, it’s really important that the coordinator be able to bring in some guys that he feels really good about and that he’s worked with, because that’s worked for us in the past.
“And that’s just growing through the job. I feel like you always are looking at yourself to see what mistakes that you’ve made. And I’m like, well, with a couple of guys, maybe I forced some things on them and that didn’t work. So you go the other way and you adjust and maybe you don’t go all the other way, but you adjust a little bit more where you pick it together. And ultimately, at the end of the day, the coordinator needs that familiarity with people.”
3. While the Eagles did bring in some new coaches they decided to keep Parks Frazier as their new quarterbacks coach to replace Scot Loeffler after just one year. Frazier spent the 2025 season as the Eagles’ passing game coordinator, a role now held by Grizzard.
So why did the Eagles move Frazier to QBs? Part of it is to be a translator.
“Even though you’re running a new system,” Sirianni said, “there’s a lot of things that you have to translate and you have to say, ‘Hey, do we want to keep these words the same or these words the same for there to be less learning for the players?’ They got to learn a scheme. So how have we done this in the past? He’s a good bridge, I guess, to say within that.”
In addition to that, Frazier has experience with this style of offense from his year in Miami in 2024 under Mike McDaniel. And Sirianni also said Frazier already has a strong relationship with Jalen Hurts.
4. The Howie Roseman GM Tree got another branch this offseason when the Falcons hired Ian Cunningham to be their new general manager. Cunningham spent the last four years with the Chicago Bears as their assistant GM after a five-year stint with the Eagles. Cunningham joined the Eagles in 2017 and was the team’s director of player personnel for that final season in 2021.
I asked Cunningham on Tuesday what he learned most from his time working under Roseman.
“He’s awesome, man,” Cunningham said. “He’s energetic, he’s passionate, he loves ball, he’s always thinking. He’s always thinking outside the box. I really take away the roster building and team construction from him and finding different methods in doing that, whether that’s via free agency, whether that’s via a trade or the draft. It feels like he’s always a couple steps forward. Really trying to pick his brain on how he does those things. But I still don’t know.”
5. During the Eagles’ year-end press conference, Sirianni had just finished answering a question about whether or not the next OC would be able to bring in his staff when Roseman interjected. The Eagles’ GM took it upon himself to talk-up Sirianni in that moment. He talked about how Sirianni only cares about winning and is an elite head coach and relationship-builder. He also touted Sirianni’s fundamentals, game management, situational awareness and accountability.
It was a concerted effort from Roseman to publicly back Sirianni. The GM explained why he did that.
“Because I’m kept abreast of what goes on,” Roseman said. “(Senior vice president of communications) Bob (Lange) keeps me posted of what’s going on and I don’t think it’s fair. I think that to be a head coach in the National Football League for five years and to make the playoffs five years and to be in two Super Bowls is hard. I think that a lot of the strengths that he has are things that people don’t get to see that I get to see every day.
“I thought it was important to get that out there. To understand what he does. Because I hear it. [Lange] tells me all the time. It’s like, ‘If you’re not the offensive coordinator, you’re not the defensive coordinator, you’re not the special teams coordinator, what do you do as the head coach?’ There’s more to being a head coach than just that. I think that these jobs sometimes it’s like it’s the same in my role. Well, is the GM just scouting? It would be fun if we just sat in our office and just watched players all day. That’s not really the job that I have. That’s part of the job, the fun part of the job. It’s the same thing for him. The things that he does are really a huge part of our success. I thought it was important that that was out there.”
6. There’s another Trotter coming into the NFL this season. Josiah Trotter, the younger brother of Jeremiah Jr. and the son of Jeremiah Sr., is a 6-foot-2, 237-pound linebacker out of Missouri.
Like his brother, Josiah Trotter played at St. Joseph’s Prep before going off to college, first at West Virginia and then at Missouri. As you might imagine, things were pretty competitive in the Trotter household growing up.
“It was definitely an experience with him,” Josiah said this week. “Being the younger brother, sometimes you get beat up. Sometimes you win games, you lose games with him. But it was fun. I love having him as an older brother. He’s the reason I love playing football. Just watching him, he just means a lot to me. He’s a big factor why I’m the player I am today. Just continuing to help me, checking up on me. A lot of the mistakes he made, I was able to learn from him. I appreciate him, growing up with him in the household, just as an older brother.”
7. Give credit to Broncos head coach and competition committee member Sean Payton for being honest about the Tush Push, which is no longer under attack this offseason.
“I don’t think the push sneak — I think if that ever goes away, it’s not a health and safety thing,” Payton said. “We discussed that last year for two hours and we just adopted a thousand more kick returns. Which play do you think is more of a health risk? A thousand more kick returns. So I think if we choose to ever move on from that, it won’t be because of health and safety. It will just be like, ‘We don’t like it.’ Which is OK.”
So many of the arguments about the Tush Push last offseason — especially the health and safety concerns — were clearly disingenuous. Payton finally cut through all that.
8. Does Howie Roseman think Cooper DeJean is elite?
You tell me.
“Elite. Elite player at the nickel position,” Roseman said. “So when you have someone who’s elite at something and you move him, he could be elite as an outside corner too, but what he’s able to affect the run game, he’s able to affect the pass game, the screen game from there. You just see the difference that he makes in that role. Then when he plays outside, very little separation, he’s got size, speed, unique athletic ability. I joked that he could be an elite receiver. He’d probably be an elite quarterback too. I’ve seen him throw the ball too. Just an elite athlete with elite character and just happy he’s a Philadelphia Eagle.”
9. While most of the headlines about a potential Eagles trade revolve around A.J. Brown, there’s a chance there is going to be a developing market for backup quarterback Tanner McKee too. The former sixth-round pick has one year left on his rookie contract and the Eagles aren’t going to be eager to give him away.
But they’ll listen.
“I can’t speak to what everyone else thinks of our players,” Roseman said. “I know what we think of our players. That’s always been a position that we’ve put a great deal of priority on, to have a backup quarterback that we have a lot of confidence in. We have a lot of confidence in him. Again, I go back to how we started this conversation. My job is to listen to anything about anyone. Whether I pull the trigger is a totally different story.”
10. When the Eagles drafted Quinyon Mitchell at No. 22 in the 2024 draft, Mitchell became the first Toledo player to ever be selected in the first round. Safety Emmanuel McNeil-Warren could follow his lead this year. It meant a lot to McNeil-Warren to see Mitchell get drafted in the first round.
“It means everything,” McNeil-Warren said. “He’s our motivation for real. He just pushed us to be great, pushed us to work hard every day and be the best person we can be.”
McNeil-Warren said that he’s in group chats with Mitchell and other defensive backs from Toledo and they talk every day about football and life. McNeil-Warren said Mitchell proved that they can make it out of Toledo and into the NFL. Like Mitchell a few years ago, McNeil-Warren said he didn’t leave Toledo for a bigger program because of his sense of loyalty.
11. The A.J. Brown trade speculation isn’t going to go away anytime soon. There are plenty of reasons the Patriots could be a potential landing spot for Brown and one of them is Brown’s relationship with head coach Mike Vrabel, who coached him in Tennessee.
Vrabel this week explained his relationship with Brown.
“It has meant a lot,” Vrabel said. “I’ve watched him grow. I’ve watched him mature. I’m proud of him, proud of the father that he is. I’m proud of the husband. That has nothing to do with where he plays or where he played. Those are the things that are important. We reach out and text each other during the good things that happen to each other. Sometimes things don’t go so well for the people that you’re close with, and you text for those as well. It’s a two-way street of support and reminders of what got us to where we are here today.”
12. The Eagles will have plenty of decisions to make about the tight end position for 2026. Not only are Dallas Goedert, Grant Calcaterra and Kylen Granson all pending free agents, but the Eagles are also undergoing a significant scheme change.
The tight end position will likely need to change with it. Roseman ahead of the combine admitted in hindsight that he didn’t build a tight end room that was complementary enough in 2025.
“The tight end position starts with me in evolving,” Roseman said. “I think that, from my perspective, I’ve always had an affinity for the receiving tight ends. I think that’s show in my work. Unfortunately for me, I can’t hide behind anything but the product we put out there, which I’m proud of. I think that’s also something as you evolve as a GM, as an evaluator and you watch what’s out there, you’ve got to be cognizant of the fact that at some levels the game has changed. There’s certainly room for both of those spots. I think when you look at our room this year, probably needed more of a diverse skillset at that position. All good players that we had there but probably could have used that.”
13. When the Eagles were going through their OC search, they requested to interview Cowboys OC Klayton Adams. Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer shut that down pretty quickly when Nick Sirianni gave him a call.
Schotty’s response: “Don’t bother, buddy. I’m going to have to deny you on that one.”
Schottenheimer said Sirianni understood and then they started chatting about their kids. The Eagles still ended up interviewing 17 different candidates before making a hire.
14. The Eagles will have a first-time play-caller in 2026 after hiring Sean Mannion as their new OC. And the thing about first-time play-callers is that you just never really know how it’s going to go.
The Eagles had one last year and it didn’t go well. But every great play-caller had to do it for the first time at some point. One of the best we’ve seen in Philly was former OC Shane Steichen, who is entering his fourth season as the Colts’ head coach.
This week, Steichen was asked about the biggest issues for first-time play-callers and his answer is worth reading.
“I think it’s learning your guys,” Steichen said. “When you’re a first-time coordinator calling it, if you go into a new situation it’s really learning your personnel is a big part of it and how you want to use those guys. And then from a down-and-distance point, how you’re setting up plays, varying plays, play-action, when to call certain things.
“There’s an element and there’s a feel to calling plays as well. You have your list of plays, you have your third downs, you have your red-zone section and sometimes you may be like, ‘Hey, I’m going to call this here my first time I get in the red zone,’ but all of a sudden they change personnel on defense and it’s like, ‘Well, I’m not going to call that play here.’ You’ve got to be able to adjust on the fly. Think fast is a big part of it. Once you get in the flow of it and you start to feel it, obviously if guys are good at it and you’ve got good personnel to run it, it could be really good.”
15. The one thing I really learned in Indianapolis is how well-liked and respected Mannion is around the league. I asked just about every coach I ran into about the Eagles’ new OC. Several of them admitted they have no idea how things are going to work out for Mannion in Philly but I didn’t find one person to say a bad word about him all week — on or off the record.