Kellen Moore's teaching talent can inspire the Eagles offense and Jalen Hurts

When Dan Orlovsky signed with the Detroit Lions in 2014 as a second-round pick to be their backup quarterback, he needed no introduction to his new teammate, Kellen Moore. He already knew the story of the 2012 undrafted free agent from Boise State whose college accomplishments extended far beyond his 6-foot-3, 195-pound frame.

Despite his size, Moore led the Broncos to a 50-3 record in four seasons, making him the winningest quarterback in college football history. The Prosser, Washington, native amassed 142 touchdown passes and 14,667 passing yards in his career, ranking him second and fifth in the NCAA record books.

“He's just very humble and not even remotely a physically intimidating person,” Orlovsky said. “And you think, 'You were the best passer in the history of college football?'”

While Moore lacked stature, he lacked intelligence. According to former Lions offensive coordinator Scott Linehan, Moore spent time studying film to notice details that the average player would miss, particularly pre-snap cues from defensive personnel that would expose the coverage. Linehan may try to teach that sense of recognition to others, but he said with Moore, it was simply instinctive.

During training camp in 2015, the quarterbacks gathered in the meeting room every day and watched tapes of league and college games. Orlovsky recalled that on each play, Moore talked through possible adjustments to formation and personnel and looked for “insane ways to attack the defense.”

“It was certainly one of those moments where you think, 'Yeah, you're going to be a coach and someday you're going to be really good at it,'” Orlovsky said.

Less than 10 years after that summer in Detroit, Moore has parlayed his football IQ into three jobs as offensive coordinator, first with the Dallas Cowboys, then the Los Angeles Chargers and now the Eagles. Moore, 38, joins a team in 2023 looking for a new creativity after a late-season slump. In January, Nick Sirianni acknowledged the offense was “a little stale” at the end of the season.

Now Moore is tasked with pioneering the new beginning, and the experiences he gained during his playing and coaching careers have prepared him for his latest endeavor, according to former colleagues and teammates.

“He's got a very unflappable personality,” Linehan said. “There's not a lot of bullshit with Kellen. He's all in and spends a lot of time preparing for the game. That's a big reason why you can't measure a person's ability just by their tangible attributes – their size, their weight and their arm strength, all that stuff.”

“Kellen made up for what he lacked with smarts and preparation. That's the real reason he was so successful as a coach at such a young age.”

The ability to “teach intelligently”

Jason Garrett saw a little of his younger self in the 29-year-old Moore, who was on the verge of a career change in 2018.

Like Moore, the longtime Cowboys head coach was the son of a coach. Moore and Garrett had successful college careers before entering the NFL as undrafted free agent quarterbacks. At the end of his 12 NFL seasons, Garrett made an “unorthodox” transition from quarterback to quarterback coach with the Miami Dolphins in 2004.

Moore wanted to make the same jump with the Cowboys after retiring following three seasons in a backup role. Garrett knew from experience that the quick transition from NFL player to NFL coach could be challenging, he said.

“When you're a backup quarterback, you sit in meetings and you have a lot of ideas,” Garrett said. “You've seen different offenses. You say, 'Hey, why don't we try this? Why don't we try that? What do you think?'

“If you turn it around and now you are standing in front of the meeting, holding the chalk and leading the [meeting]There is a different dynamic than when you sit at the back and have ideas.”

But Moore quickly showed Garrett that he had a knack for coming up with new ideas that complemented their version of the Air-Coryell scheme, while also presenting those ideas “in a way that people trusted.”

Garrett valued his voice and perspective so much that the following season he made Moore his offensive coordinator, a position he held for four seasons.

Moore's talent as a teacher has also made an impression on Eagles players. Left tackle Jordan Mailata said his new offensive coordinator “will be a great head coach someday” and compared his teaching skills to those of Jeff Stoutland, who has been the Eagles' offensive line coach for the past 12 years.

Britain Covey has had plenty of smart coaches over the years, but there's a difference between being smart and being able to “teach smart,” he said. After training camp and the preseason, the Eagles' third-year receiver has concluded Moore can do the latter, too.

Moore does a great job of keeping the elements of the offense “simple without being too simplistic,” Covey explained. By and large, the plays are still complicated, but Moore reduces the read progression to a kind of hypothetical. When the defense shows a certain coverage or pressure, the offense focuses on its exact response and eliminates other options.

“It’s like [quarterback] Jalen [Hurts] have a simple pattern of thinking, simpler readings, still complicated games and stuff, but you simplify the reading process,” Covey said. “When they do that, you shut out every other thought because you know exactly what we're going to do.”

“As a receiver, you also have to keep an eye on the development. 'OK, when I see this guy here, I know exactly what he's doing. If not, then this.'”

Moore has marked each play with the read progression. This helps receivers with timing and allows them to understand where the ball is likely to go depending on the coverage.

According to Covey, Moore is placing more emphasis on getting the quarterback and receiver on the same page than in the past. His ability to break everything down in an easy-to-understand way is key, Covey said.

“I think that's why Jalen is going to be great in this offense,” Covey said. “I think that's why the whole offense is going to be on the same page. It might take a little while, like it always does. But teaching it is a skill, and I think he has it.”

“Getting the best out of the boys”

While the Eagles showed early glimpses of their new offense during the preseason, the exact vision and what it will look like with the starters who will implement it remains a secret until the start of the season.

Still, since his first public comments as the Eagles' offensive coordinator, Moore has emphasized that he has been influenced differently as a playmaker by the coaches he has encountered along the way from high school to college to the NFL.

“You take a different example from each of these guys,” Moore said. “You evolve as a coach, just as our systems evolve.”

For example, his longtime love of pre-snap motion stems from his childhood, when he grew up playing the game with his father, Tom, at Prosser High School and at Boise State, where head coach Chris Petersen used it. Motion was a prominent feature of his Cowboys and Chargers strategies, and Covey said its incorporation into the Eagles' strategies represents the biggest departure from last season's offense.

According to Orlovsky, pre-snap motion serves two purposes – information and intent. From an intent perspective, it can give receivers an advantage. It can also give the quarterback cues about the defense's coverage or blitz.

The Eagles have made it clear that Hurts will gain more of a blitzing identity following the retirement of center Jason Kelce. Darius Slay, the veteran cornerback who was Moore's teammate in Detroit, has already noticed progress from Hurts in that area during training camp.

“Now they're trusting Hurts to make plays on his own without just using his feet,” Slay said. “He has to use his mind and beat the defense himself. That's why I see an improvement in Hurts because Kellen has got him to pick up blitzes really well.”

Regardless of what worked for the Cowboys or Chargers offense, Garrett said Moore has an excellent understanding of his players and adapts the game system to those players, especially the strengths of the quarterback. For example, Moore has acknowledged that Hurts' talent in the quarterback running game is “a really beneficial aspect” that the team will utilize.

Those instincts and ideas that once served Moore as a backup quarterback now inform his approach as offensive coordinator. He is molding the Eagles' 2024 offense around his influences while highlighting the personnel's strengths. While Moore's teams have changed over the years, Garrett pointed to some traits that have remained consistent with his former offensive coordinator.

“He loves the game,” Garrett said. “He wants to help the players. He wants to put the players in a situation where they can play their best. It's not really about him or his ego or anything like that.”

“He wants to get the best out of the guys and he did that until the end of his career. I'm excited to see how he does in Philly.”