The Eagles need a fresh new outlook for their offensive scheme and they've found their guy in play-caller Sean Mannion. The new-look Eagles offense will feature a more traditional dropback pass game with maybe even a few under-center snaps sprinkled in for Jalen Hurts. The expectation is a more rhythmic pass game that should lead to more volume.
Dave Richard has ranked all 18 new play-callers from worst for Fantasy to best, and we're going team by team through his rankings to see how your perception of every key player should change before Fantasy football draft season. Up next at No. 5: Sean Mannion and the Eagles.
Who's new?
After just two years as an assistant coach, the Eagles hired Sean Mannion to be their offensive coordinator. He was the Packers QB coach in 2025 and an assistant under Matt LaFleur in 2024. Mannion played as recently as 2023 and has spent parts of his nine-year career as a backup quarterback working with coaches like Sean McVay, Pete Carroll, Gary Kubiak, Kevin Stefanski, Klint Kubiak and Dave Canales. The expectation is that he'll implement a West Coast offense greatly influenced by McVay/Kyle Shanahan specifics.
What's expected this year?
Better organization and more creativity for starters. Mannion has already said he intends to blend what the Eagles have been doing with new concepts. He also stressed the importance of proper timing and rhythm. The drafting of Makai Lemon reflects those ideas and suggests more throws over the middle of the field; Lemon was outstanding at finding space versus zone coverage and being on time to catch targets and extend plays, all of which are crucial in West Coast schemes. It would be shocking for Philadelphia to go pass-crazy (Jalen Hurts has never been above a 54.8% pass rate), but they should be more efficient on a pass rate they're used to having. Mannion heaped praise on Hurts' accuracy in practice so far during his first media session. Mannion figures to stay true to the run as long as it's effective. Why waste a strong, veteran offensive line and one of the best runners in the league? Last year, the Eagles averaged 21.9 RB runs per game, their second-lowest total in the Nick Sirianni era. In 2024, that number was a whopping 26.7. Don't be surprised if the Eagles land somewhere near the middle in 2026.
Winners and losers for Fantasy
Working under the assumption that A.J. Brown isn't on the team (Mannion didn't mention him once at the podium), I would expect crafty route-runners like DeVonta Smith and Lemon to frequently soak up short and intermediate targets. Smith is easily the more appealing receiver since he's got time banked with Hurts and is a phenomenal receiver. Dallas Goedert has not averaged more than 5.9 targets per game in his career, and Lemon's arrival should keep that number down but his red-zone prowess should keep him on the Fantasy map. You already know what to expect from Saquon Barkley and Hurts. Maybe Hurts runs a little less like he did in 2025, but otherwise, they'll both be heavy contributors. If Mannion loves Hurts' accuracy, then maybe the bounce-back year comes through; hopefully, Hurts doesn't have a late-season swoon like he's had the past few years.
