Four days until Super Bowl LIX kicks off. And there’s plenty to get you caught up on, both game-related and otherwise …
• The day after the NFC title game, a picture popped up on Kellen Moore’s phone—he’d taken it landing in Philadelphia, readying to go to work as the Philadelphia Eagles’ offensive coordinator. It appeared because it’d been a year, and Moore showed it to the other guys in the meeting room, marveling at how fast the time had gone by.
The guys on hand to see it have accomplished a lot since. And the proof was right there in the room with them, in that their 2024 season was still ongoing, with a Super Bowl on tap.
To be sure, where Moore has the Eagles’ offense now is far from where it was a year ago.
Last winter, he and his right-hand man/quarterbacks coach Doug Nussmeier arrived in Philadelphia with an offensive system, a lot of ideas and six years spent working for two teams together. What they wouldn’t even pretend to have was all the answers. So they also brought open minds to what they were taking over, as Nick Sirianni welcomed his third offensive coordinator in four years as head coach.
It started with a dinner the day Moore arrived, with Sirianni, the new OC and pass-game coordinator Kevin Patullo diving into an informal kickoff of discussion on the direction of the scheme that would stretch all the way into training camp. Soon thereafter, Moore dove into a full evaluation of the existing scheme, with Patullo taking him through the passing game, and well-respected line coach Jeff Stoutland explaining the Philly run game.
What followed was a process of melding philosophy, terminology and scheme to the talent on hand. Through the spring, the Eagles kept workshopping the system, and culling it, and narrowing it down. The exercise forced the incumbent side to self-evaluate as the group went through three years of tape—every game Sirianni had coached in Philly. So while some of the verbiage remained, in other cases, the staff found things they were doing that had become tangled up, and worked to simplify them.
Through it all, the other offensive coaches found someone in Moore who, according to one assistant, “is so smart, and knows where he wants to go, and will find a path to get there.”
The goal all along was to synthesize the scheme into something digestible for the players, where they could play fast while keeping the defense off-balance. In some cases, that meant presenting four different formations to get you to the same thing, which is, again, a version of the Eagles knowing where they wanted to go and finding the path (or multiple paths) to get there.
So over time, Moore made the scheme both his and one that the holdovers—Patullo, Stoutland, receivers coach Aaron Moorehead and tight ends coach Jason Michael—could take ownership of, too. On Wednesday, I relayed to one of those coaches that a couple of coaches who’d played both the Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs said Philly’s offense was relatively simple. He smiled, and said, “That’s the idea.”
And it’s a credit to Moore’s ability to take a lot of people, and a lot of ideas, and boil them down to allow for players to play fast and, by the way, score 55 points in the NFC title game.
Which should give people in New Orleans a pretty good idea on what they might see Sunday.
• The news of the NFL heading to Australia has been a few months in the making, and marks a vastly different venture than other International Series games the NFL has staged.
The Rams, for what it’s worth, have hosted the Brisbane Broncos of the Australian professional rugby league at their home facility, and have worked with New Zealand’s All Blacks rugby team in the past. So those franchises, who’ve played all over the world, should be a good resource in educating the Rams on how to handle the trip. The Nuggets, also owned by Stan Kroenke, could be, too, since they traveled to play in Abu Dhabi earlier this year.
It’ll almost have to be in Week 1 of the 2026 season, to give the teams some cushion to get back and recover for Week 2. Figuring out a day and time will be tricky. If the NFL wants a primetime ET start—say 8 p.m. on the Wednesday before Week 1—the game would have to kick off at noon local time Thursday in Australia (midday starts are actually customary for games over there). The league could hold the game Saturday in Australia, and broadcast it Friday night, like it did with the Brazil game this year—if the teams agree that they’ll be O.K. reacclimating when they return without as many extra days.
As for who’ll go with the Rams over there, the team can protect two games that year to be played at SoFi, and it seems academic that those two games would be against the Dallas Cowboys and Kansas City, who land on L.A.’s 2026 home slate via the scheduling formula. It’d also be fair to guess that it’ll be a team from the Western side of the country going.
So, yes, that’s a lot to consider, which is why it’s good that the league has some time to sort through all this.
• On Wednesday, Cleveland Browns DE Myles Garrett told the Rich Eisen Show that he’d consulted with LeBron James on "what a transition looked like for him, what was his thought process going into it before he left Cleveland."
That’s interesting, to say the least, and indicative of the thought Garrett put into it.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think the Browns are posturing in their position that they won’t trade their All-Pro—the trade request went in a couple of weeks ago, and Garrett’s frustration with their stance is one reason why Garrett went public. That said, they’re going to get a good look at his worth now, because teams are going to pick up the phone and call.
• NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell came out swinging Wednesday, saying that among his membership, “No one wants to play an 18th game. No one.”
The owners do, though, and how they approach this will be interesting. Would they be willing to allow players to make it to unrestricted free agency a year earlier? Would they loosen the reins on the franchise tag? What exactly would they deal away for that game?
To me, the year to watch on this one is 2029. There’s an opt-out in the broadcast deals then, and you’d think the league would want to go to the market with more inventory to sell to the networks, and maybe additional packages (like a 16-game international package) as a result of that added inventory to put to bid.
• Trey Hendrickson told the Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday that he either wants a new deal or a trade, and that’s fair after he posted 35 sacks over the past two seasons. The trouble is he turned 30 in December, and has eight seasons of wear and tear on his body. But this is a can that the Bengals have kicked down the road for a while, and it won’t be solved with a Band-Aid.
Add to it the Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins situations, and Cincinnati has a lot of business to do.
• Ron Rivera’s decision to head to the University of California in a GM-type of role is another sign of college football moving closer and closer to pro football.
Rivera can be a figurehead for the program and a potential recruiting draw while bringing expertise in managing a roster and all the new challenges that NIL and the transfer portal present. Remember, he actually had final say over the roster in Washington, so a lot of his experience from his four years there should serve him well in his new role.
• As far as health goes, the Chiefs are in as good of shape as you could expect heading into a Super Bowl—Andy Reid said they had nothing to report in that area Wednesday.
That is, in part, the advantage of clinching the No. 1 seed and a bye on Christmas Day. Between that win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the team’s playoff opener against the Houston Texans, the Chiefs had 24 days to manage injuries and rest veterans. Which goes a long way, if you talk to their staff, in explaining why the team seemed to have renewed energy in January.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Kellen Moore Made the Eagles’ Offense Easier for Everyone.