FOX Sports’ Greg Olsen: Eagles’ Offense Could Look VERY Different Next Season

The Philadelphia Eagles offense is heading for a visual overhaul, FOX Sports analyst and former tight end Greg Olsen told Rich, with new coordinator Sean Mannion expected to pull Jalen Hurts out of permanent shotgun and into a Shanahan-LaFleur play-action system that turns the quarterback's back to the defense.

"I think the Mannion system, the tree he's coming from, the organizations and the coaches that he's been with is going to be more of, you know, not necessarily the modern-day McVay, but like think the Shanahan, LaFleur, under center, play action, turning your back to the defense, not sitting there in shotgun RPO quarterback read that we've seen really Jalen Hurts for the most part throughout the course of his career," Olsen said.

The scheme is a college fit for Hurts but a stylistic departure from how Philadelphia has built around him in the pros, and Olsen argued the diminishing willingness to run Hurts at his earlier-career volume softens the cost of moving him under center. The footwork shift, he said, will pair with a different look in the run game for Saquon Barkley and a wholesale change in presentation.

On A.J. Brown, whom every indication suggests is on his way out behind the drafting of Mekhi Lemon and the acquisitions of Dontavian Wicks and Hollywood Brown, Olsen was direct about the bar Howie Roseman has to clear.

"You better have a really good plan in place before you just letting great players go out the door, and A.J. Brown is a fantastic wide receiver in the NFL," Olsen said. "They've had a hard time building that passing game around his strengths long, you know, over long periods of time."

Olsen acknowledged that addition-by-subtraction has worked elsewhere in the league, but only when teams either upgraded the same position, upgraded the surrounding cast, or changed the system. Philadelphia, he conceded, is checking all three boxes this offseason.

He still trusts the architect.

"Howie Roseman has shown, in my opinion, you know, he's a top two personnel guy in the entire league, and if anyone's earned the right to make these decisions and I have the trust that it's going to work out, it's him," Olsen said.

Rich framed the stakes around a division that just got tougher, with the Giants improving and the Cowboys hammering the defensive side of the ball in the draft, leaving the Eagles to integrate a new coordinator, a new offensive identity, and a remade receiver room all at once. Olsen, who played alongside Steve Smith in Carolina, closed with the practitioner's caution that elite receivers change games on Sundays in ways that are hard to replace by committee.