*Check out the full 2024 offseason guide for insight on other coaching and roster moves for the Eagles.*
*See more of Kellen Moore’s offense in my film review*
The Eagles have officially selected Kellen Moore to be their next offensive coordinator. Moore checks most of the boxes that fans had been hoping for when selecting a coordinator: several years calling plays, a proven track record of top offenses and a high motion rate. The big one that some fans had been clamoring for, a Shanahan/McVay disciple, is really the only box that he hasn’t checked. That and a deep playoff run.
There are some mixed reviews (and misconceptions) from fans, but there’s a lot to like about Moore. Let’s take a look at some of the offenses that he’s commanded.
GENERAL PERFORMANCE
Before we get into the numbers, I want to preference that I’m primarily going to be looking at his time with the Cowboys. He did coach the Los Angeles Chargers in 2023, but it’s a tough year to fully judge him on.
The Chargers offense dealt with a litany of injuries throughout the season, particularly among their skill players.
Quarterback Justin Herbert missed four games of his own. Between Austin Ekeler (RB1), Keenan Allen (WR1), Mike Williams (WR2) and Gerald Everett (TE1), the Chargers had 23 total games missed among their top skill players. To make matters worse, the guy who should have stepped up, Josh Palmer (WR3), missed 7 games as well. After a promising second season, Palmer looked poised to take on a bigger role, and he certainly is relied on more than the Eagles third receivers over the past several years.
On top of that, former All-Pro center Corey Linsley played three games. The Chargers had to deal with a new cast of weapons essentially every week. That makes it very difficult to build chemistry and gameplan for. Still, the Chargers didn’t fare as bad as you think, but more on that later.
I’ll focus more on the Cowboys years for that reason, as it gives us a better picture of what a Kellen Moore offense can ascend to. While Moore was the Cowboys offensive coordinator between 2019 and 2022, I’ll look more into the 2019, 2021 and 2022 seasons. Starting QB Dak Prescott only made it to the fifth game before sustaining a season ending injury in 2020. Keep in mind, Dak also missed five games in 2022 due to injury. To save characters, I’ll abbreviate the “Healthy Dak Seasons” to HDS going forward.
In the time frame from 2019-2022, Moore’s offenses in Dallas ranked second in both points and yards per game. When accounting for only the HDS seasons, his offenses were first in both categories in those three years.
General counting stats don’t tell the whole story, so let’s look at an advanced metric like DVOA:
- 2019 – 3rd
- 2020 – 24th
- 2021 – 4th
- 2022 – 14th
In other words, with a healthy Dak, the Cowboys had some of the best offenses in the NFL.
PASS FIRST
I kept seeing stories and tweets around the NFL universe saying that Kellen Moore is a pass first offensive coordinator and Eagles fans will have to live with that. I think that has to do with Mike McCarthy throwing Moore under the bus after the Cowboys playoff exit in 2022:

In reality, between 2019 and 2022, the Cowboys were sixth in total rush attempts. The funny part of the whole McCarthy saga is that the Cowboys ran significantly less in 2023 despite blowing teams out. They had plenty of opportunities to run the clock out, but they kept their foot on the gas, probably trying to the light the scoreboard up.
What a joke McCarthy is. Not to mention a coward for deflecting blame and throwing someone under the bus like that. He’s the head coach, if he wanted Moore to run the ball more then he should have made that clear. Rant over.
Let’s look at performance. In terms of yards per carry, they were middle of the pack during those four seasons (14th). When we look at just the HDS, they jump to 11th. But let’s look a little closer.
Team rushing yards per attempt are often heavily skewed by QB rushing. The teams at the top often have a mobile QB. The Ravens, the only team above five yards per carry, were far and away the best rushing team. But the Eagles, Bills, Bears and Cardinals (all teams with QBs over 2,000 rushing yards since 2019) were ahead of them as well. The Seahawks (Russell Wilson-1,656 rushing yards) were ahead as well.
When we control for all non-QB rushing attempts during the HDS, the Cowboys were sixth in yards per attempt. The Eagles were eighth in those three seasons. Kellen Moore has put together very strong ground games.
The Chargers had one of the worst rushing attacks in 2023 (25th in yards per game, 27th in yards per attempt), but I’d argue that their issues are much more structural. They were 30th in both yards per game and yards per attempt in 2022 as well.
The interesting part is that Moore’s offenses fluctuate year to year on rushing, which I think is a good thing. He doesn’t have a mentality that the offense must do “x” every single year. That shows up in several different areas when looking at Moore’s offenses throughout the years. He adapts each season.
I think sometimes we can get too caught up in the “run the ball” narrative, especially in the modern era, but Moore has proven to be a guy willing to run the ball.
SITUATIONAL FOOTBALL
Let’s look into some situational aspects, particularly red zone and third down efficiency.
In the red zone, the Cowboys were third in the NFL in efficiency in the three HDS. For comparison, the Eagles were second in those three seasons.
How about third down conversion rates? In those three HDS, the Cowboys were third in third down efficiency. As a matter of fact, they were third even when you include the 2020 season. The Eagles were second in that time span as well.
Here’s the area that will most excite Eagles fans – third and long scenarios. Much talk was made this season about how often the Eagles threw a screen or ran the ball on third and long (by long, I mean anything 7 yards or more to go).
Since this is just looking at play call rate and not production, I included every season Moore has been a coordinator (2019-2023). He was 25th in screen passes and 25th in rushes in third and long situations.
Now, I do think Eagles fans made a bigger deal out of how often they ran or threw screens in third and long scenarios this past season. They didn’t really care when we did it last year (10.6% screen rate in 2022 and 2023; 15.3% run rate in 2022, 17.6% in 2023).
Also, many of the offensive coordinators that were held up on a pedestal used screens at a much higher rate on third and long: the Dolphins, Lions, Rams, Texans, Colts and 49ers. The Eagles were second in run rate in 2023, but everyone’s favorite OC Ben Johnson was first in run rate. The Rams and 49ers were third and fourth respectively (and all higher in screen rate).
I digress. Eagles fans want more aggression on third and long. We’ll have to see how the Sirianni and Moore dynamic plays out, but Moore’s history suggests that the fans will get what they want.
SCREEN UTILIZATION
One thing that I think we’re all in agreement on, the Eagles need to do a better job calling more screens for their running backs. Also, a lot of people are hoping to never see a bubble screen again.
During the past five seasons, Moore’s offenses rank 24th in total screen attempts. They also rank 26th in screen attempts to running backs out of the backfield. That was a surprise to me considering the receiving weapons he’s had over the years. Still, we should see more screens to backs as the Eagles ranked dead last in RB screens the past three season. They were also last in yards per attempt. That should improve as well, as Moore’s offenses ranked 10th in yards per attempt. His designs are much better than the Eagles.
Kellen also uses variations of screens to their receivers, but they don’t run nearly as many bubble screens as the Eagles RPO heavy offense has in the past several seasons.
TARGET DISTRIBUTION
How an offense distributes targets is dictated heavily by personnel. For example, the Chiefs and Ravens rank first and second in targets to tight ends over the past five season, but they’ve also had the first- and second-best tight ends over that time span. My point is, keep personnel in mind when thinking about how targets have been distributed in Moore’s offenses.
His top weapons were Amari Cooper and CeeDee Lamb in Dallas so that heavily favors the distribution to the wide out position. Moore’s offenses were sixth in percentage of targets to receivers. For comparison, the Eagles are 15th in the Sirianni Era.
Tight ends were 13th in percentage of targets (Eagles 15th in Sirianni Era) and running backs were 28th (Eagles 27th in Sirianni Era). I was quite surprised at the running back total considering he’s had great receiving options in Ezekiel Elliott, Tony Pollard and Austin Ekeler for the majority of his time as a play caller.
Targets to running backs are often heavily dependent on a QB getting to his check downs more often than others, but I still thought that percentage would be higher. Especially when you look at the way Moore has schemed up targets to his backs in the past. That’s something that I discussed in my film review.
HANDLING COVER 0
By far the biggest downfall of Nick Sirianni’s scheme has been the inability of his offense to handle Cover 0 blitz looks. During the Sirianni era, the Eagles rank 25th in passer rating against Cover 0. Kellen Moore’s offenses during the HDS? Fifth. Help is on the way. It will be much needed as the Eagles will be tested over and over against next season, much like they were down the stretch of 2023.
UNDER CENTER
One last area to look at – under center usage. During Sirianni’s tenure, the Eagles are 30th in total snaps under center. That is really skewed by his first season when they were under center on 178 snaps. The last two season combined they have had 211 snaps under center. 76 of those snaps were QB sneaks.
We should see that change with Moore in town. In the past five years, his offenses are 13th in total snaps under center. Under center usage will lead to more diversity in the Eagles run game, better fakes when using play action and an increased rate in roll outs and bootlegs.
The Eagles offense has been extremely static in their pocket movement. Changing the launch point with boot action fakes will make the Eagles that much harder to defend. And Jalen should excel on those plays considering he’s one of the more mobile quarterbacks in the league. It makes too much sense to design plays that would allow Hurts to move outside of the pocket.
I will say this though, a lot of fuss has been made about the Eagles not utilizing under center formations more. But to be honest, that’s not the heart of their issues. The Ravens (31st, 318 snaps), Bengals (29th, 412 snaps) and Chiefs (27th, 437 snaps) are primarily in shotgun and they’ve had extremely successful offenses. And so have the Eagles.
Just merely going under center more doesn’t mean they’ll be a better offense, but it does give them more variety in their attack and I do think it should help. But at the end of the day, whether in shotgun, pistol or under center, you still have to block the guy in front of you, you still have to run routes to get open and the QB still has to make the right reads and throws.
QUESTIONS ABOUT KELLEN MOORE
There’s a lot of questions about how good Kellen Moore is as a coordinator. Many are pointing to the Chargers decline in 2023 and saying that the Cowboys offense was better without Moore. There’s also questions if his offense is actually good enough to beat top defenses.
I’ll enlist the help of my friend Greg from the Philly Cover Corner. Check out this article that he put together.
He goes into much more detail and it’s definitely worth the read (and has draft takes with Kellen Moore in mind). But here’s the gist: the Chargers faced a much harder schedule in 2023 vs 2022 (plus all the injuries), the Cowboys played a much easier schedule in 2023 vs 2022, and Moore’s offenses have consistently held up against top 10 defenses. The Chargers offensive DVOA actually increased with Moore despite the hardship they faced.
Not only did the Cowboys play an easier schedule, they got worse in certain areas. Their red zone efficiency was down from 64% in the HDS (60% overall in Moore’s tenure) to 56.3% (14th) in 2023. Their rushing yards per attempt were also way down as well. They were at 4.52 when Dak was healthy and 4.44 overall, to 4.10 in 2023.
Kellen Moore is a good offensive coordinator. He has several years of experience calling plays and he’s put together some of the best offenses in the NFL in his short time as an OC. And keep in mind, for all of his successes and all of his flaws, he’s still only 35 years old. He has yet to hit the peak of his coaching career.
And the scary part is, this is likely going to be the best collection of talent he’s ever had to work with.