Kevin Patullo certainly carried himself like an NFL head coach when he met with reporters for the first time as the Eagles offensive coordinator. Left tackle Jordan Mailata called him “a great communicator,” and he certainly seemed that when he took his place behind a microphone on the stage inside the team’s training facility at the NovaCare Complex earlier in the week.
He could very well parley his latest promotion into just that, if … the Eagles hold serve and repeat as Super Bowl champions. Maybe another team will come calling even if they don’t repeat, but make a nice playoff run after winning the NFC East again.
What the Eagles cannot do is underachieve. Then it will be his fault, and he could be a one-and-done OC, because Nick Sirianni isn’t going anywhere after being rewarded with a multiyear contract extension.
Patullo, who turns 44 in July, is trying to break a streak many may not be aware of - the last three offensive coordinators who were promoted from within to OC were fired.
Only one lasted more than a year, and that was Mike Groh, who was let go after the 2019 season when the Eagles lost a home wildcard game to the Seattle Seahawks. Technically, Groh was the passing game coordinator, but he did the heavy lifting of an OC for Doug Pederson.
The other two were one-and-dones. They were Press Taylor, who was swept out with Pederson in the housecleaning of 2020, and Brian Johnson, who was elevated after two seasons as Sirianni’s quarterback coach but was dismissed after the “Great Collapse” of 2023.
“To be honest, you're just kind of doing your job,” said Patullo, when asked about that ignominious streak. “If you look at something like that big picture, I guess it could be overwhelming, but this is what I do, this is what I wanted to do. I've been wanting to do it, and I have an opportunity to do it and like I said, I've got a great staff around me, great players, great organization, everything. So, it'll be fun.”
While the last three in-house promotions to OC were eventually fired, the last three who were brought in from the outside for “fresh” ideas have become head coaches.
The first was Frank Reich, who helped Pederson win Super Bowl LII in the 2017 season. Reich became the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, a job he held for five years.
Sirianni hired Shane Steichen as his first OC, and after two years in that job, he became the Colts’ head coach. He will enter his third season in Indy with a 17-17 record and is still looking for his first playoff trip with the Colts.
Finally, Kellen Moore turned his one-and-done season as Eagles OC last year into becoming the head coach of the New Orleans Saints. Even though the Eagles won Super Bowl LIX with him, he could have been on the losing side, and he was still going to be the Saints’ head coach.
