Mike McDaniel, Brian Daboll Among Eagles’ OC Candidates

After removing Kevin Patullo from the offensive coordinator role on Tuesday, the Eagles have begun reaching out to potential replacements. Former head coaches Mike McDaniel and Brian Daboll are atop the Eagles’ list, per Dianna Russini of The Athletic. It’s unknown if either will interview for the job.

McDaniel and Daboll join the previously reported Kevin Stefanski and Kliff Kinsbury as established offensive coaches on the Eagles’ radar. Judging by that group of four, the Eagles and head coach Nick Sirianni are aiming high in their quest to upgrade an offense that fell flat in 2025.

In 2024, Kellen Moore‘s lone season running their offense, the Eagles ranked seventh in scoring and eighth in yards. Running back Saquon Barkley put together the ninth 2,000-yard rushing season in NFL history, helping the Eagles to a Super Bowl championship. Their offense was unable to follow up on that performance after Moore left to become the Saints’ head coach.

In the wake of Moore’s departure, Sirianni opted for continuity in promoting Patullo from pass game coordinator to OC. The Eagles won 11 games en route to their second straight NFC East crown, but their offense frustrated the team and its fans throughout the season.

Barkley’s rushing total declined from 2,005 to 1,140, which played a big role in the Eagles’ below-average offensive performance. Despite boasting a strong offensive line (albeit one that went without cornerstone right tackle Lane Johnson for a large chunk of time), a championship-winning QB in Jalen Hurts, and pass catchers A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert, the Eagles finished 19th in total offense and 24th in scoring.

Considering their past accomplishments, either McDaniel or Daboll could end up as Sirianni’s pick to help Philadelphia’s offense rebound in 2026. McDaniel, long considered one of the game’s brightest offensive minds, is coming off a four-year run as the Dolphins’ head coach. He got plenty out of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa at times, especially when the Dolphins led the league in total offense and finished second in scoring in 2023. Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle and De’Von Achane joined Tagovailoa as part of a well-oiled offensive machine that year, but the unit’s production fell off a cliff in the past couple of seasons.

Hill missed almost all of 2025 after suffering a torn ACL in Week 4. That didn’t help Tagovailoa, who performed so poorly that McDaniel benched him for seventh-round rookie Quinn Ewers in Week 16. Ewers was at the helm for the last three games of a 7-10 campaign for McDaniel, who lost his job after two straight sub-.500 seasons. Although his final two years in Miami didn’t go well, McDaniel is highly likely to stay in the league as either an offensive coordinator or a head coach in 2026.

Like McDaniel, Daboll is fresh off a first-time head coaching stint that began with a flourish but ended with a thud. The Giants went 9-7-1 and won a playoff game in 2022, Daboll’s rookie year as a head coach. He meshed well with quarterback Daniel Jones, who landed a four-year, $160MM extension in the ensuing offseason. That wound up as a major misfire for the Giants. Jones endured a horrid 2023 in which a torn ACL limited him to six games. After he failed to bounce back the next season, the Giants released him in late November.

After combining for a 9-25 mark from 2023-24, Daboll entered this season on the hot seat. The Giants remade their QB room in the offseason with two free agent pickups, Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston, as well as first-round pick Jaxson Dart. Wilson began 2025 as the Giants’ starter, but Daboll pulled the plug on the former star after an awful showing in a loss to the Chiefs in Week 3. Dart took over under center and went on to impress as a rookie, though Daboll didn’t last the year. The Giants fired him after a 2-8 start.

Daboll went a dismal 20-40-1 as New York’s head coach, but he joins McDaniel as someone who at least figures to work as a coordinator next season. Taking over the Eagles’ offense would give Daboll his fifth try as an NFL O-coordinator. He previously held the position with the Browns (2009-10), Dolphins (2011), Chiefs (2012) and Bills (2018-21). The Giants hired Daboll after a particularly fruitful run in Buffalo, where he helped Josh Allen go from raw prospect to superstar.

Also a former Alabama offensive coordinator and QBs coach, Daboll has prior working experience with Hurts and Smith. The three were together in 2017, a national championship-winning season for the Crimson Tide. Hurts was at the helm for the majority of the season, but after a rough first half in the title game, Alabama benched him for Tagovailoa. It ended up as a wise move in a 26-23 win over Georgia. Smith caught the game-winning 41-yard touchdown in overtime.

Adding to his familiarity with Hurts and Smith, Daboll coached Barkley in New York from 2022-23. General manager Joe Schoen let Barkley walk to the division rival Eagles in free agency in March 2024. Barkley, who has become an integral part of the Eagles’ offense since then, could reunite with Daboll soon.