Looking at the creativity that Kellen Moore can bring to the Eagles

As I said in the last Kellen Moore post, I have watched so much film on the new Eagles offensive coordinator that I will turn all the clips I recorded into a series of posts, rather than just one long article. Each one will focus on multiple different aspects of Kellen Moore’s philosophy. If you haven’t checked out the previous two articles, then please do so before reading this one!

Part 1: Run Game, PA Naked Bootleg and Motion

Part 2: The Blitz, Quads/Trips Formations and Vertical Shots

In this one, I will look at a few bits I didn’t get to in the first two pieces and then give my overall thoughts on the hire.

Creativity

I’ll be honest, I’m not someone who is a big fan of ‘trick plays’ or whatever. Yes, the Philly Special is the greatest Super Bowl play of all time. But, let’s be real, when we are analyzing an offense and breaking down the scheme, we rarely include trick plays in our analysis.

However, why not? If you watched the Eagles’ offense last year, you were probably pretty bored at times. The Eagles didn’t try anything fancy or unique, even when nothing was working. I think that will change next year, as Kellen Moore uses more creative plays to try and surprise defenses and also to set them up for a similar look later on in the game.

I’ve called this section creativity, but I could have named it ‘WR Fly Sweeps’. Kellen Moore likes to use his receiver in the run game and I am going to be looking hard at wide receivers who excel with the ball in their hands in the draft this year. The Eagles absolutely need a new profile at WR3 this offseason. WR3 plays an important role in Moore’s offense because he likes to run plays like this.

As I said in the tweet, this is another way that Moore wants to stretch defense horizontally.

I saw quite a lot of 21 personnel with our of backs split out wide too. If you read my work last year, you know that I’m a huge fan of 21 personnel so I got excited when I saw this play. It’s another way that Moore tries to disguise what he wants to do. I’ll go back to the quote from my first article on Moore…

Our whole goal from an outside perspective is to make it look as confusing as possible. And at the end of the day, it’s pretty simple for us. It’s a lot of the same concepts, it’s a lot of ways of doing the same things.

How cool is this play? Just watch the Texans linebackers. They have no idea what is going on.

This next one is easily my favorite play that I saw online. This is just awesome. It’s not just a random trick play either. This works because of what Kellen Moore’s offenses like to run. We know he likes to run toss plays (read article 1!) and we have already said above that he likes to run fly sweeps with his receivers too.

Positives

If I haven’t backed everything up with stats here, please go back and read the 1st and 2nd articles. This is more of a summary of things that I am pretty certain of, based on the film and the stats!

+ Kellen Moore has a proven track record of success. He led a very good Cowboys’ offense over several years. This is not an unproven young coach who will be overruled by Nick Sirianni.

+ He has proven that he can plan an offense to succeed against the blitz. The leaked 2021 playbook highlights that he takes this part of an offense very seriously.

+ He has a track record of successfully using motion over several years, in both the run game and pass game.

+ He runs an offense that includes a lot of under center which will give the Eagles’ offense another dimension.

+ His offenses will have several ways that he can beat the defense, and I expect more adjustments week to week rather than a ‘we are better than you and we will run our offense no matter what’ identity.

+ He fits the philosophy of an aggressive coach who wants to take shots down the field and features his star talent at receiver.

+ He is willing to commit to the run when he needs to. His Cowboys’ offenses were consistently very strong in running the ball.

Negatives

– Make no mistake, this is going to be a change in scheme for all the offensive players. The offensive line is going to have to get used to running more outside zone. The receivers will be asked to run concepts based on timing and not just isolation down the field routes. All eligible receivers will have to be prepared to potentially alter their routes depending on if the defense blitzes.

– This is going to be a big test for Jalen Hurts. Kellen Moore’s offense will ask him to do different things. He hasn’t been under center in a long time. He hasn’t been asked to turn his back to the defense on play-action. He hasn’t shown that he can run an offense that really focuses on hot routes when the defense blitzes.

– I want an offense that features an under center run game, but it does take away the mobility of the quarterback at times. This could impact the Eagles’ offense run game negatively if it doesn’t work and he could clash with Jeff Stoutland.

– He hasn’t featured the screen game as an offensive coordinator, which is a shame because the Eagles’ offensive line is very strong. But the team hasn’t had a good screen game in years, and I don’t expect that to change.

– He only lasted one season with an extremely talented quarterback at his disposal. Although he wasn’t technically fired as the Head Coach was fired.

– The Chargers’ offense wasn’t great last year. Yes, they had a lot of injuries and a disastrous running game. But they underperformed.

Overall

I am excited by this hire. Sadly, despite watching a hell of a lot of film on Kellen Moore’s offenses, I can’t tell you that the hire is guaranteed to work! It is really difficult to predict these things because there are so many variables. I thought I’d get my excuses out of the way early…

I think Moore fits Nick Sirianni’s philosophy well, but the way he does it is very different. This offense is going to look different next year if Moore is truly the man in charge. The aggressive mindset is similar, but the scheme is a lot different. I am sure the Eagles will keep elements of the offense that have been successful these past few years, but this team needed a shakeup.

I wanted the Eagles to hire a new offensive coach who will bring new elements, including the use of motion, answers against the blitz, and someone who is proven and not inexperienced. Kellen Moore ticks all these 3 boxes. This is going to be a different offense, and there could be a learning curve for Jalen Hurts, but I think this offense can be successful and I’m optimistic that Kellen Moore is the man to lead this time forward. Whatever happens next year, if Moore is given full control, I expect this to be a very different offense than what we saw towards the end of this year. That can’t be a bad thing.