3 Eagles on Thin Ice After Kellen Moore Hiring
By Jovan Alford
The Philadelphia Eagles finally found their new offensive coordinator, reportedly hiring former Los Angeles Chargers offensive coordinator Kellen Moore on Saturday night.
The 35-year-old Moore will try to get the Eagles’ passing game back on track, which struggled this season under first-year offensive coordinator Brian Johnson. Philadelphia fired Johnson earlier this week after he spent three years with the organization.
Moore brings some creativity (motions and play-action passes), which should help the Eagles’ offense not be so stale as they have the playmakers at the skill positions to light up the scoreboard.
However, anytime a team hires a new coordinator on either side of the ball, there could be roster changes on the horizon. Let's discuss three few players who could be on thin ice with Moore now taking charge of the offense.
1. D’Andre Swift
With Moore bringing his style of offense to Philadelphia, many fans believe the Eagles’ running game could take a step back as the former Chargers and Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator can be pass happy at times.
In Moore’s four-year tenure as the Cowboys’ offensive coordinator, Dallas was ranked 5th, 17th, and ninth (twice) in rushing yards per game. The Cowboys’ offense averaged 126.5 rushing yards per game over that four-year period, which isn’t bad.
However, Dallas was ranked in the 20s twice in rushing play percentage in 2020 (38.6%, 21st in the NFL) and 2021 (40.3%, 22nd), which is slightly concerning. This season, the Chargers only averaged 96.6 rushing yards per game (25th in the NFL) and were ranked 27th in rushing play percentage (38.9%).
If you are D’Andre Swift, seeing those numbers doesn’t bring you comfort after having a career year this season with the Eagles. Swift is set to be an unrestricted free agent this offseason, and it’s not certain that Philadelphia will bring him back.
That being said, we saw Moore be successful in Dallas using Tony Pollard and Ezekiel Elliott in the passing game, and we know Swift can catch the ball out of the backfield. But will he get his number called in the rushing department? That remains to be seen.