The Chargers and Eagles are among playoff teams hoping for boosts from new play-callers

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Making the playoffs wasn't nearly enough last season for the Los Angeles Chargers and Philadelphia Eagles.

Despite winning 11 games each and making it to the postseason, the Chargers and Eagles decided that some change was needed and both sought out new offensive coordinators to spark struggling units.

Philadelphia continued its revolving door at the key spot with Sean Mannion getting hired to replace the fired Kevin Patullo after the team's scoring dropped nearly five points per game in 2025. Mannion, the former Green Bay QBs coach, is the fifth offensive coordinator in the past five years for the Eagles with Shane Steichen and Kellen Moore turning successful stints into head coaching jobs, while Brian Johnson and Patullo got fired after one season.

The Chargers made a similar decision, deciding to fire Greg Roman and bring in Mike McDaniel in hopes of finding a coordinator who can put together an offense that can maximize quarterback Justin Herbert's talents.

“I think a lot of guys will say it: He’s a wizard,” tackle Joe Alt said. “It’s exciting to see what we’ll be able to do.”

The Chargers and Eagles aren't alone among playoff teams with new playcallers in place this season. Super Bowl champion Seattle had to find a new OC after Klint Kubiak got hired as head coach by Las Vegas, taking tight ends coach Brian Fleury from division rival San Francisco.

The 49ers and Green Bay Packers both had to replace defensive coordinators who got head coaching jobs with Raheem Morris replacing Robert Saleh in San Francisco and Jonathan Gannon replacing Jeff Hafley in Green Bay.

Two playoff play-calling head coaches have given up that duty with Denver's Sean Payton handing offensive play-calling to newly promoted 31-year-old Davis Webb and Carolina's Dave Canales giving the duties to Brad Idzik.

Including teams that changed head coaches, there are 22 of the 32 teams with a new primary play-caller on either offense, defense or both sides of the ball.

Here's a look at some of the key new playcallers around the league on teams that didn't change head coaches:

After helping design a dynamic run game for San Francisco under coach Kyle Shanahan, McDaniel got to call plays as head coach in Miami the last four seasons. When healthy, the Dolphins had one of the best offenses in the league with Tua Tagovailoa at QB, finishing second in the league in scoring in 2023.

McDaniel will modernize a Chargers offense that looked stale at times the past two years with Roman calling plays. He will utilize more motion and play action to take pressure off Herbert.

Herbert is the most talented QB McDaniel has had and his strong arm could open up even more aspects of the offense with the ability to stretch the field in an offense that stresses speed.

"It means everyone playing to their full speed, shocking the defense at the snap, a physical brand of football with elite technique and fundamentals,” McDaniel said.

The Eagles are hoping that Mannion can help Jalen Hurts and the offense get back to the level it was at in 2022 under Steichen and '24 under Moore with the alternate year pattern continuing.

The 34-year-old Mannion has had a meteoric rise since ending his playing career after the 2023 season, spending two years as an assistant in Green Bay before getting his own offense to run. He will bring some of the concepts of the Packers offense that is an off-shoot of the successful systems run by Shanahan and Sean McVay to Philadelphia.

He has plenty of talent to work with in a unit that features Hurts, Saquon Barkley, DeVonta Smith and a strong offensive line.

"We’ve got to put them in the best positions possible, that they feel comfortable that they can go out and play the game,” Gannon said. “Before scheme, I truly believe it’s not what you play, it’s how you play.”

Fleury has a high bar to reach after Kubiak put together an offense that helped the Seahawks win the Super Bowl in his first season in Seattle. Kubiak's offense got the best out of QB Sam Darnold and helped WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba win AP Offensive Player of the Year after leading the NFL with 1,793 yards receiving.

Fleury has never been an offensive play-caller at any level but spent the last seven years on Kyle Shanahan's staff in San Francisco where he finished his stint as the team's run game coordinator. He plans to keep the same system as Kubiak ran and will hope to be able to duplicate the success as the Seahawks ranked fifth in the league with 75 plays of 20-plus yards.

“I’ve thought as a play caller for a long time,” Fleury said. “Obviously, doing it for the first time at this level is going to present some challenges.”

Morris will be the fifth defensive coordinator in the past five years for the Niners after Saleh left for the head coaching job in Tennessee. While the previous four DCs ran similar systems, Morris is bringing more changes with the use of five-man fronts and more aggressive man coverage on the back end.

The Niners ranked last in the NFL last season with 20 sacks but should get a boost in the front seven from the returns from injury of Nick Bosa and Fred Warner and the addition of defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa. They hope that a better pass rush and a simplified scheme by Morris will allow the defensive backs to be more aggressive and improve on last season's total of six INTs that were tied for second fewest in the NFL.

“He allows us to play fast,” cornerback Deommodore Lenoir said. “He broke the defense down and made it as simple as possible to where we’re able to just read and react and just play, and not think about it too much.”

The Cowboys had one of the most prolific offenses in the league last season but were done in by a defense that has allowed the most points and yards per play in the NFL the past two seasons. That led to the decision to hire Parker from Philadelphia to bring some of the coverage schemed that have made the Eagles so successful.

Parker has studied under Vic Fangio and is viewed as one of the promising young defensive minds in the game. He should be helped by the addition of first-round picks Caleb Downs and Malachi Lawrence in his goal to elevate the Dallas defense.

“The whole offense is pretty much set,” new safety Jalen Thompson said. “Now, it’s just time for the defense to get on board and communicate, do what we got to do in order to get that Super Bowl.”

Payton has long been viewed as one of the top play-callers in the game but he has decided to give up that duty this year. He made the decision after last season to promote Webb from quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator and let him call plays for a team that reached the AFC title game.

The 31-year-old Webb is on the fast track after finishing his playing career in the 2022 season. He spent three season as QBs coach and now will call plays for a Super Bowl contender.

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