Deposed Eagles offensive coordinator Brian Johnson staying in the NFC East – NBC

Deposed Eagles offensive coordinator Brian Johnson is staying in the NFC East. But he won’t be an offensive coordinator.

ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported Thursday morning that the Commanders are hiring Johnson to their offensive staff, likely as Washington’s passing game coordinator.

The Commanders have already hired Kliff Kingsbury as offensive coordinator. Kingsbury also interviewed for the Eagles’ OC vacancy that opened up when they cut ties with Johnson. And Johnson interviewed for Washington’s OC job last week before they hired Kingsbury.

New Commanders head coach Dan Quinn replaced Ron Rivera – a former Eagles linebackers coach. Quinn and Johnson both coached at the University of Florida but not at the same time, and Kingsbury and Johnson both coached at the University of Houston but not at the same time.

Johnson was Nick Sirianni’s quarterbacks coach in 2021 and 2022 before getting promoted to offensive coordinator this past year, replacing Shane Steichen, who left to become Colts head coach.

Although the Eagles finished the season ranked 7^th in the NFL in offense, they grew “stale” late in the year, to use Sirianni’s word, and scored fewer than 20 points in five of their last seven games, including just nine in the wild-card loss to the Buccaneers.

Through the Bills game, they were tied for fourth with the 49ers in scoring at 28.2 points per game and averaging 365 yards per game. 

The rest of the season, including the playoff game, they averaged 18.9 points and 328 yards per game.

Washington hasn’t ranked better than 23^rd in the NFL in scoring since 2017 and has ranked in the top 10 just twice since 2000. They were 4^th in 2012 – RG3’s rookie year – with current 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan offensive coordinator and his father, Mike Shanahan, head coach. And they were 10^thin 2015 with current Rams coach Sean McVay offensive coordinator under Jon Gruden.

The Commanders haven’t had a winning season since 2016 – before they were the Commanders – and haven’t won a playoff game since 2005, when Joe Gibbs was their head coach and Mark Brunell their quarterback.

So Johnson won more playoff games with the Eagles in 2022 than Washington has won in the last 17 years.

Former Stanford quarterback Tavita Pritchard, who overlapped in 2009 with Zach Ertz in Palo Alto, spent last year as Washington’s quarterbacks coach, but it remains to be seen whether Quinn plans to keep him.

Johnson has never held a coaching position in college or the NFL other than quarterbacks coach or offensive coordinator.

Johnson is the fourth member of the Eagles’ 2023 coaching staff to find a new job. Quarterbacks coach Alex Tanney joined Steichen’s Colts staff with a title still to be announced, secondary coach became co-defensive coordinator at Kansas and senior offensive assistant Marcus Brady was hired by new Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh as passing game coordinator.

We will likely learn of…