Nick Sirianni got a kick out of telling this one.
Several months back, his newly minted offensive coordinator Sean Mannion flew home to Green Bay for a weekend. A snowstorm grounded every return flight to Philadelphia. Mannion never picked up the phone to explain himself or ask for cover. By the time Sirianni reached him, the 33-year-old was already five hours into a drive across the Midwest.
“I got in the car and I drove from Green Bay to here,” Mannion told him.
That, more than anything on a practice field, is why Sirianni is staking his offense on a guy who’s been coaching at any level for all of two seasons.
“This dude loves football and he loves to work,” Sirianni told reporters before the Eagles broke for the summer. “Sometimes we think ‘man he’s talented’ about everybody, ‘man he’s just got it.’ But it doesn’t happen without, whether it’s a player, whether it’s Sean, it doesn’t happen without just this obsession to get better.”
Sirianni said there wasn’t a morning during spring workouts when he beat Mannion to the Jefferson Health Training Complex. Wasn’t a night when Mannion’s car had left the lot before his, either.
The Eagles hired Mannion in late January after an exhaustive search to replace Kevin Patullo. Sirianni initially wanted someone with previous coordinator experience before making what the organization clearly considers the right concession. Mannion spent two seasons on the Packers’ staff but logged nine years as an NFL backup quarterback — the kind of career that teaches you every room in the building without ever getting the corner office.
Now he’s a first-time offensive coordinator and a first-time play-caller, and Sirianni isn’t pretending the learning curve doesn’t exist. He’s attacking it. During OTAs, Sirianni has been firing pop quizzes at Mannion — third-and-12 from the minus-3, have your call sheet ready, go. The same scenarios Sirianni used to hand Kellen Moore and Shane Steichen, except now sometimes Mannion gets no warning.
“I’m not at all concerned there as far as his inexperience on that because he’s worked his ass off,” Sirianni said. “And I know that he’ll work his ass off to be as ready as he possibly can that day. And he’s got people there and coaches there with him, like Coach [Josh] Grizzard, Parks [Frazier], myself, that have done this and have been in this situation.”
Early returns from Sirianni, quarterback Jalen Hurts, and a cluster of offensive players have been positive. The 2026 offense will blend Shanahan-system elements with what the Eagles have run well in Sirianni’s first five years. There are obvious unknowns — new scheme, new voice in the headset, a guy who’s never called a live play in the NFL.
But Sirianni has already made his peace with the risk. The kid drove five hours through a snowstorm rather than make an excuse. That’s the bet.
“This guy works his butt off,” Sirianni said. “It’s been fun to watch.”
