What Sean Mannion hopes to accomplish in his debut as a play caller – NBC10 Philadelphia

This is the first time we’ll see rookies like Eli Stowers, Markel Bell and Cole Payton, the first time we’ll see newcomers like Willie Lampkin, A.J. Epenesa and Andy Dalton, the first time time we’ll see undrafted free agents like Maximus Pulley, Kapena Gushiken and Joshua Weru.

Just as importantly, it’s the first time we’ll see Sean Mannion.

Mannion, the Eagles’ rookie offensive coordinator, will make his debut as a play caller Saturday when the Eagles open the preseason at 7 p.m. against the Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.

He won’t have Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley, DeVonta Smith or Dallas Goedert as well as several other starters, but he’ll be under the microscope nonetheless as he calls plays for the first time for his newly installed West Coast Offense.

“For ourselves as an offense, I want to see execution, I want to see play style,” Mannion said. “Those are the two things I want to see. We talk about play style a lot, the effort, the physicality, the strain to finish. 

“Then offensively, just can we have a clean operation? Can we line up? Can we execute the offense? Those are the major things I’m looking for.”

Mannion, the Eagles’ sixth play caller since 2021, modeled his scheme after the concepts made popular by Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay. Mannion coached in Green Bay under Matt LaFLeur, who coached under both Shanahan and McVay.

So even though Hurts and the starters won’t be playing, this will be our first look at Mannion’s offense, featuring wide-zone, play-action, under-center snaps and lots of play action.

What’s Mannion’s biggest priority Saturday in his first game ever as an offensive coordinator and play caller?

“Just really sharpening the process of the game-day logistics for me and for our staff,” he said. “There’s so many different roles on game day that go on behind the scenes. “You have your position coaches, obviously they’re managing their group from the sideline, communicating in between series, managing substitutions, but there’s so many other elements. 

“You have someone who’s giving you the down and distance from the box, somebody looking for personnel, somebody who’s charting things upstairs. We’ve mapped all that out. We have a super-detailed plan for what exactly every single person on our staff is doing. 

“It’ll be through the first (game) and really all the way through the preseason, working through those logistics in real time and making sure it’s as sharp as we need it to be come Week 1.”

One of Mannion’s priorities will be getting his group to the line of scrimmage quickly, something we just didn’t see last year. How many times did the Eagles stand around in the huddle way too long and then have to rush to the line and scramble to get the play off as the clock ran down to zero?

Saturday night will be our first look at what should be a simpler and more efficient line-of-scrimmage process.

“It’s huge,” Mannion said. “Managing substitutions, getting the play call in quickly, monitoring what the defense has on the field.”

During practice, Sirianni frequently goes off script and calls out an unexpected situation – down and distance, maybe score and time remaining – so Mannion can quickly call a play based on that information.

It’s as close to preparing for game-day situations as you can get. 

“These call-it periods in practice have been huge, both for our operation by position groups on the field and then also as a staff, just to manage kind of the lines of communication that’ll take place on game ,” he said. “It’s critical. 

“We want to apply pressure to the defense at all times. Part of that, frankly, is how you break the huddle, approach the line of scrimmage, get lined up, begin your motions if there’s motions on that specific play. It’s a huge weapon and a huge part of our offense that we work on every day.”

The whole idea is that the quicker the Eagles can get the play off, the more pressure they can apply to the defense. Cadence as a weapon.

“We get to dictate offensively when we snap the ball, that’s kind of the advantage built into the rules for the offense,” Mannion said. “We have to use it properly and master it. There were a couple days early on (at camp) where we weren’t as sharp as we need to be, but we’ve had incremental growth each day, and we just need to keep pushing for pre-snap perfection. 

“That’s what we talk about, and that will make cadence the best weapon it can be for us.”