10 unheralded people who had huge roles in Eagles' championship originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
When you win 18 games, when you go 16-1 after the bye week, when you win your playoff games by an average of 17 points, when you steamroll the three-time champs and their Hall of Fame quarterback and coach in the Super Bowl, that’s the culmination of incredible work by a lot of people.
Jalen, Saquon, Jeffrey, Howie, Nick and Vic are the biggest reasons the Eagles are Super Bowl champions, but for each one of them there are a dozen people behind the scenes who played a major role in this historic season.
Position coaches. Scouts. Trainers.
Without them, there’s no Super Bowl championship. Without them, there’s no parade on Friday.
Here’s a look at 10 unheralded non-players from within the Eagles organization who played significant roles in everything that this football team accomplished this year.
Clint Hurtt:
The job Hurtt did in his first year as Eagles defensive line coach is remarkable. Every defensive lineman improved dramatically this year – Nolan Smith from rookie finding his way to a sack machine, Jalen Carter from a promising rookie to a Pro Bowler, Josh Sweat from an up-and-down veteran to a Super Bowl wrecking machine, Milton Williams from a solid rotational tackle into Patrick Mahomes’ biggest nightmare, Jordan Davis from OK starter into a more consistent interior force, Jalyx Hunt and Moro Ojomo from young backups into playoff standouts. In his first year with the Eagles, Hurtt turned an under-performing group into one that helped the Eagles to the No. 1 defensive ranking in the NFL and became an unstoppable machine in the Super Bowl.
Jon Ferrari / Alec Halaby:
Howie Roseman has had to replace a huge number of his top assistants over the past few years – Joe Douglas and Andrew Berry left after the 2019 season to become Jets and Browns GMs, Catherine Raiche left after the 2022 season to become Browns assistant GM, Ian Cunningham left after the 2021 season to become Bears assistant GM and Andy Weidl left after the 2021 season to become Steelers assistant GM. All but Douglas still hold those positions. It’s a challenge to keep replacing front office talent, and in June of 2022, Roseman promoted two VPs of football operations – Ferrari and Halaby – to assistant general manager, and the Eagles have gone 39-12 with two Super Bowl appearances and a Lombardi since. Ferrari and Halaby are two of the most important people in the scouting department. Until they get GM jobs of their own.
Connor Barwin / Matt Leo:
Barwin, a one-time Eagles Pro Bowler, and Leo, a one-time Eagles practice squadder, are the key figures in Sirianni’s developmental program, which gives the young backups who don’t get practice reps – practice squad members and deep backups – a chance to get some structured, hands-on work after practice. The young players who have grown into bigger roles have all sworn by the developmental program, which gives them valuable supplemental practice time without the starters and rotational guys in the mix.
Tom Hunkele / Jerome Reid:
Hunkele is vice president of sports medicine and head athletic trainer, and Reid is senior athletic trainer, and when you look at the overall health of the Eagles during their two Super Bowl runs you see how valuable they are. Especially compared to where the Eagles were in terms of injuries before they arrived. Hunkele has been in his current role since 2021 and Reid since 2020. The Eagles went into the postseason this year with every starter healthy, and that speaks volumes to the training staff’s ability not just to treat injuries but to oversee recoveries for guys who get hurt during the season. Just their ability to guide Brandon Graham back for the Super Bowl tells you how effective Hunkele, Reid and their entire department is.
Anthony Patch:
This was Patch’s 23rd season with the Eagles, so he’s been in the scouting department longer than anybody other than Howie Roseman, who started here in 2000. Patch has moved up from regional scout to assistant director of scouting to his current role of senior director of scouting, which he’s held since 2016. Patch is one of Roseman’s most trusted advisers and to evaluate the job he’s done, just look at the number of draft picks who were starters this year. To have the kind of sustained success the Eagles are having you have to draft well, and the Eagles have and Patch is a big part of that.
Tony Leonard:
Leonard is one of the best in his field … literally. He’s been the Eagles’ head groundskeeper – now vice president of grounds – since 2000, and his job means not only making sure the Linc’s hybrid playing surface is safe and one of the best in the league but also maintaining the grass practice fields at the NovaCare Complex, which are used almost every day. Taking care of the fields in the Northeast with constantly changing weather conditions and extreme heat and cold is a unique challenge, and Leonard, who grew up outside York, has been a critical part of the Eagles’ staff for a quarter of a century now.
Adam Berry:
Adam, twin brother of Andrew Berry, played football at Princeton, where he graduated cum laude before embarking on a business career on Wall Street. After 14 years as an upper executive with Goldman Sachs (head of U.S. loan trading sounds pretty important), he was lured to the Eagles in 2023 by Roseman and is currently vice president of football operations and strategy, where he works in pivotal areas such as resource allocation strategy, contract structuring, integrating analytics into roster management and scouting.
T.J. Paganetti:
There are only two coaches in Eagles history that have two Super Bowl rings. One is legendary offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland, the other is Pags. Paganetti started here in 2013 under Chip Kelly, who he coached with as a post-grad at Oregon. He returned to Eugene and spent a couple years under Mark Helfrich before returning to the Eagles in 2016 under Doug Pederson. He’s had a bunch of different jobs here – offensive analyst the first time around, then assistant offensive line coach for two years, assistant running backs coach for two years, then offensive quality control for two years under Sirianni, then run game specialist and assistant tight ends coach in 2023 and run game specialist and assistant offensive line coach this year. So he’s had his hand in a little bit of everything in his time with the Eagles, who have been to the playoffs in eight of his 10 seasons here with three Super Bowl trips.
Christian Parker / Roy Anderson / Joe Kasper:
Parker joined the Eagles this year as passing game coordinator / secondary coach after three years with the Broncos, Anderson came aboard as cornerbacks coach after a year with the Seahawks and Kasper, a quality control coach here in 2021 and 2022, returned as safeties coach after spending last year with the Dolphins. Three newcomers, and they worked together to transform the Eagles’ pass defense from one of the worst in the league to the best. With two rookie starters and three new starters, passing yards allowed dropped from 253 to 174, touchdowns allowed from 35 to 22 and opposing passer rating plunged from 97.6 to 82.5. And they were even better in the postseason. This trio worked some serious magic with the Eagles’ pass defense this year.
Dave Caldwell:
Roseman quietly hired Caldwell as a personnel executive in 2021 after he had spent eight seasons as Jaguars general manager, then promoted him to senior personnel director and adviser to the general manager a year later. Caldwell gives Howie a trusted veteran adviser who has a ton of GM experience and probably isn’t going to get poached for a general manager job anywhere at this point in his career. Another behind-the-scenes scout with a ton of experience for Howie to draw on.
Subscribe to Eagle Eye anywhere you get your podcasts:
Apple Podcasts | YouTube Music | Spotify | Stitcher | Simplecast | RSS | Watch on YouTube
