There has been some news about the Eagles during this postseason: after the Eagles’ former offensive coordinator, Kevin Patullo, was let go, the Eagles signed Packers QB coach and former NFL quarterback Sean Mannion as the new offensive coordinator. Mannion, who has seen success in Green Bay, is looking to turn around Philadelphia’s poor offensive struggles from last year.
Mannion was born in San Jose, California, and attended Foothill High School. At the school, he played football, varsity baseball as a pitcher, and junior varsity basketball. As a senior starting quarterback, he threw for 3,521 yards and 27 touchdowns in 12 games. This led to him becoming a three-star recruit who would commit to Oregon State.
Mannion spent five years at Oregon State, after he was redshirted his first year. In the beginning of his career, he struggled as the starting quarterback. In his redshirt freshman year, he threw for 3,328 yards and 16 touchdowns, along with 18 interceptions. In his sophomore season, he didn’t get much better, as his passing yards went down to 2,446 yards and only 15 touchdown passes to 13 interceptions. It was his junior year when he had a breakout season. He broke many records, including the pac-12 single season passing yards record with 4,662 yards. He also broke the school record for passing touchdowns in a season with 37 and the school record for most passing touchdowns in a single game with six. He led the Beavers to a 7-6 record, winning the Hawaii Bowl. In his senior season, he became Oregon State’s all-time leader in passing yards and passing touchdowns, and then later broke the record for most career passing yards in Pac-12 history. He finished his college career with 13,600 passing yards and 83 touchdowns to 54 interceptions.
Mannion was selected by the St. Louis Rams in the third round of the 2015 NFL Draft, where he was ultimately a backup his whole career. After his first four years with the Rams, he spent three stints with the Vikings and Seahawks before retiring in 2024.
Mannion first joined the Green Bay Packers as an offensive assistant working with quarterbacks and the passing game. After Tom Clements retired, Mannion was promoted to quarterbacks coach with the Packers. Jordan Love, the quarterback at Green Bay, had statistically one of the best seasons of his career under Mannion, as he threw for 3,381 passing yards, 23 touchdowns, and only six interceptions. He had a 66.3% completion percentage and a 101.2 passer rating, the highest as a starter.
After his two seasons in Green Bay, Philadelphia has made the move to hire Mannion as its next offensive coordinator. Most Eagles fans aren’t too thrilled with the hire, but they will take anything over Kevin Patullo. Sam Letter, a senior at BASH, said, “I’m just happy that Patullo is gone. I thought there were better candidates, but I’m not upset about the decision, just puzzled that the Eagles went with him over other coaches with experience.” This seems to be the general reaction towards the hiring, as Mannion wasn’t the first choice, but surely anything will be better than Kevin Patullo.
Letter added, “I think he will be a better replacement, but I’m scared about him not having any playcalling experience. Our past two offensive coordinators, who we hired with no experience, were not great. I believe he has the potential to be good, though, because of the weapons he gets to work with on the offense. I’m excited to see what he can do.”
With the Super Bowl in a few days, all eyes will be pointed towards the offseason, and especially the draft. The Eagles currently have the 23rd pick in the draft and will be looking to continue the trend of drafting elite players. With any free agent or draft additions, the offense is sure to bounce back, and maybe Mannion will be one of the main catalysts for the spark the offense desperately needed last season.
