According to Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff McLane, Eagles head coach Doug Pederson has already began handing off play calling duties to some of his fellow offensive coaches. Pederson hinted that the possibility of giving this task to someone else was on the table earlier this week, but none of us expected it to happen so soon, or that it’s already started happening.
McLane’s report states that Doug has handed play calling over to Press Taylor “several times in recent games and could give him more responsibility starting Sunday in Green Bay.” McLane also reported that senior offensive assistant Rich Scangarello has been handling the two minute play calling ever since the beginning of the season.
The two minute offense has actually been pretty decent this season. Whenever the offense is in a two minute situation, they always seem to be able to move the ball. in 29 drives that qualify as two-minute drills, when running no huddle or hurry up, the Eagles have scored 10 touchdowns with two missed field goals. On the other 101 possessions, the team has scored 19 touchdowns and 11 field goals.
My issue with this report lies with the revelations on Press Taylor, the team’s passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach. He has no business calling plays for the Eagles. He hasn’t earned it whatsoever, and there are clearly better options on this coaching staff.
Let’s just lay out some of the reasons Taylor hasn’t earned being a play caller.
For starters, ever since he became the quarterbacks coach in 2018, Carson Wentz has seen a steady regression. Here are Wentz’s stats from the past three seasons:
| Completion % | Touchdown % | INT % | Yards Per Attempt | Yards Per Game | QB Rating | |
| 2018 | 69.6 | 5.2 | 1.7 | 7.7 | 279.5 | 102.2 |
| 2019 | 63.9 | 4.4 | 1.2 | 6.7 | 252.4 | 93.1 |
| 2020 | 58.1 | 3.8 | 3.6 | 6.0 | 231.0 | 73.4 |
The stats don’t lie. But what’s even more concerning is Wentz’s regression with his mechanics, his ability to read a defense, and his overall football IQ. These are all things that a good QBs coach should be able to fix. Not only has Taylor not come to close to doing that, they’ve all gotten worse under his watch.
Along with being the QBs coach, Taylor was also named as the offense’s passing game coordinator during this offseason.
The Eagles are 9th in passing attempts with 425, and they’re 27th in passing yards with 2,270. They’re also 32nd in passing yards per attempt, with a measly 4.8 yards.
Let’s compare the passing game stats to the running game stats, Duce Staley’s department. The team is 29th in rushing attempts with 255, but they’re tied for 1st in rushing yards per attempt with 5.0 yards a pop. They’re also 13th in total rushing yards this season with 1,278.
As we know, Duce is also the RBs coach. During his time in Philly, Staley has developed countless backs for the Eagles. He was the RBs coach during LeSean McCoy’s best season as an Eagle, he did a marvelous job rotating the three headed monster of LeGarrette Blount, Jay Ajayi, and Corey Clement during the Super Bowl year, he’s done a fine job developing Miles Sanders, and he’s developed Boston Scott from a practice squad castoff to a formidable change-of-pace back.
It goes without saying that Staley deserves the opportunity to call plays far more than Taylor does. Or even Scangarello for that matter. But, we all just wanted Pederson to give up play calling duties, right?
Beggars can’t be choosers, but my patience with Taylor will run dry very quickly if nothing seems to change offensively. And if we’re being honest, the offense probably won’t get any better until Wentz does, and most of his struggles can’t be fully corrected until the offseason.