Eagles Make Surprise Move Involving $255 Million Super Bowl MVP

The Philadelphia Eagles have climbed to the top of the NFL mountain by not thinking like everyone else. The latest surprise move on the coaching staff is just another example.

ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg reported on February 28 that the Eagles had hired Bowling Green head coach Scot Loeffler as their new quarterbacks coach to replace Doug Nussmeier, who left to become the offensive coordinator of the New Orleans Saints after former Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore was hired as head coach.

“Scot has been dedicated to not only BGSU Football, but to all our student-athletes and BGSU Athletics,” Bowling Green president Rodney Rogers said in a statement. “He cares deeply about player development and student success, and we wish him all the best as he continues his coaching career in the NFL with the Super Bowl-winning Philadelphia Eagles.”

The Eagles are coming off a convincing Super Bowl win over the Kansas City Chiefs in which quarterback Jalen Hurts was named Super Bowl MVP — the central player Loeffler is being brought in to work with.

Loeffler’s Coaching Arc Goes Back 30 Years

Loeffler played quarterback at the University of Michigan before a shoulder injury ended his football career. He spent 4 seasons as a student assistant and graduate assistant at Michigan that included winning a national championship in 1997 on a team that featured Heisman Trophy winner Charles Woodson and backup quarterback Tom Brady.

Loeffler has one previous season of NFL experience, when he was the quarterbacks coach for the Detroit Lions in 2008 — the season the Lions went 0-16 for the first winless season for a non-expansion team since World War II.

Before being hired as Bowling Green’s head coach in 2019, Loeffler was an offensive coordinator at Temple, Auburn, Virginia Tech and Boston College. While Loeffler went 27-41 in 6 seasons at Bowling Green, that included bowl appearances the last 3 seasons and back-to-back winning records in 2023 and 2024.

Eagles Have Hurts in Prime of His Career

Loeffler steps into a situation where, if things go right, one year from now he should be hearing his name considered for offensive coordinator openings around the NFL.

The Eagles have the most rare of NFL commodities in Hurts — a Super Bowl-winning quarterback headed into the prime of his career at 26 years old. He’s also one of the NFL’s highest paid players after signing a 5-year, $255 million contract extension in April 2023.

Even though it’s been mostly forgotten with Hurts’ brilliant performance in Super Bowl LIX, he’s coming off what was his worst statistical passing season since he became the starter in 2021, with 2,903 passing yards, 18 touchdowns and 5 interceptions.

It’s important to point out that Hurts’ passing stats being down in 2024 came with 2 huge caveats. One of those was free agent running back Saquon Barkley becoming just the ninth player in NFL history to rush for over 2,000 yards in a single season. The other was Hurts battling injuries all season — a broken finger followed by missing the last 3 games of the regular season with a concussion.

In 2022, Hurts was named NFL All-Pro and NFL MVP runner-up after he threw for 3,701 yards, 22 touchdowns and 6 interceptions to go with 231 rushing yards and 9 touchdowns.