PHILADELPHIA - The Super Bowl LIX-champion Eagles have already lost Kellen Moore to New Orleans and other coaches could be following.
As expected, Moore, the Saints’ new head coach, will interview his long-time consigliere Doug Nussmeier to be the offensive coordinator with NOLA. Moore will also speak with Eagles secondary coach Christian Parker about the Saints’ defensive coordinator position.
“I don't let that happen, usually. But sometimes you can't help it,” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said earlier this month when asked about potential assistants leaving with Moore. “Just like Frank [Reich] said to me, 'This is my staff, and you can't have these guys.'
“It's hard to build the staff and have that continuity in there, but there's sometimes you can't — like the Nick Rallis situation, he had the opportunity to go and be promoted, and that's the way the rules are now. Every situation is a little different. But my general thought on that is, this is my and the Philadelphia Eagles' staff."
Rallis, a former Eagles linebackers coach, became Arizona’s defensive coordinator after the Cardinals hired Jonathan Gannon as their head coach after the 2023 Super Bowl. The Eagles couldn’t block it because that bump is now considered a promotion in the NFL.
The same would hold true with Nussmeier and Parker.
Moore and Nussmeier, 54, have been coaching together since the former crossed over from player to coach in 2018 with the Dallas Cowboys. Moore was the quarterbacks coach while Nussmeier coached tight ends for the Cowboys.
When Moore was elevated to OC in Dallas in 2019, Nussmeier stayed at TE coach for one season before being promoted to QBs coach in 2020 and two stayed in those positions through the 2022 season.
When Mike McCarthy made a change at OC in 2023, Nussmeier followed Moore to the Chargers as QBs coach when Moore ran the offense for Brandon Staley.
Finally, the two migrated to Philadelphia this season winning a Super Bowl together with Moore calling plays for Nick Sirianni and Nussmeier, a former high-level QB himself in college at Idaho, tutoring Jalen Hurts on a daily basis.
Besides his relationship with Moore, Nussmeier has other obvious connections to New Orleans.
He was a fourth-round pick of the Saints in 1994 and threw for 455 yards and one TD as a backup through 1997. Also, his son, Garrett Nussmeier, will enter his second season as the starter at LSU in nearby Baton Rouge.
Parker, 33, helped engineer an amazing Eagles defensive turnaround this season as the team's defensive passing game coordinator and defensive backs coach.
A rising star in the profession, Parker’s tutoring of rookie cornerbacks Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean, was a key part to the sea change that took Philadelphia from one of the worst pass defenses to arguably the best in a calendar year.
Parker was first hired by Vic Fangio to be Denver’s secondary coach in 2021 and reunited with the veteran mentor this season in Philadelphia.
A North Jersey native, Parker is regarded as a future DC but Moore’s old boss with the Chargers, Staley, is regarded as the favorite for the Saints DC job by most around the NFL.
