Sean Mannion’s Coaching Rise Continues
Former Vikings players and coaches have continued to find opportunities across the league this offseason, and former backup quarterback Sean Mannion is the latest example.
Mannion isn’t the only former Vikings backup quarterback moving quickly up the coaching ladder, as Washington recently hired David Blough as its offensive coordinator.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported, “Sources: Eagles are hiring Packers QB Coach Sean Mannion as their offensive coordinator. Mannion interviewed twice for the Eagles OC job and now will be moving on from Green Bay.”
Mannion, who was on an NFL roster as recently as 2023, worked with the Green Bay Packers in 2024 and 2025. In his first year in Wisconsin, he was an offensive assistant. Prior to the 2025 campaign, he was promoted to quarterbacks coach, with some impressive results from Jordan Love and Malik Willis.
The Eagles are hoping Mannion can help revive an offense that struggled last season under fired OC Kevin Patullo. Philadelphia has been a volatile landing spot for play-callers, with recent coordinators either quickly promoted elsewhere or dismissed after short tenures.
ESPN wrote when officially reporting the hire, “The defending champion Eagles endured a sharp decline in offensive production this season. Scoring dropped from 27.2 (ranked seventh) to 22.3 (19th) points per game this season; offensive efficiency dipped from fourth best in the league to 19th; and the rushing attack plummeted from 179 yards per game (2nd) to 116.9 (18th).
Sean Mannion’s time in Minnesota began in 2019, when the Vikings brought him in as a free agent to serve as Kirk Cousins’ primary backup. That season, Cousins delivered one of the most efficient years of his career, with Mannion often credited internally for his preparation and behind-the-scenes work. Mannion remained with the Vikings through the 2020 season before a brief stop in Seattle in 2021, where he ultimately failed to make the final roster and soon found his way back to Minnesota.
His next departure came ahead of the 2022 season, when head coach Kevin O’Connell opted to move forward with Nick Mullens instead. Mannion once again landed in Seattle, continuing a pattern that saw him bounce between familiar systems. During the 2023 season, injuries briefly reopened the door in Minnesota, and Mannion spent several weeks on the Vikings’ practice squad before returning to the Seahawks to close out the year.
In all his stops in the Twin Cities, Mannion appeared in four games (two starts), most notably a 2021 loss at Lambeau Field that Cousins missed due to COVID. You might remember Zimmer’s presser after the game when he took a shot at Kellen Mond.
During his time with the Vikings, Mannion was mostly viewed as an additional coach in the quarterback room who helped Cousins prepare rather than being a real alternative to play.
Last year, Cousins said about his former colleague, “I really can’t speak highly enough of Sean to you. It would be difficult for me to fully articulate how much I believe in him, how much he helped me as a player when he was in the quarterback room with me, how much I leaned on him to just be another voice, another set of eyes, another person to go to for input. And I think I played my best football around him largely because of his involvement there. So, when it was time for his playing career to wind down, it seemed like a natural fit for him to go into coaching.”
In hindsight, Mannion’s reputation in Minnesota as more coach than quarterback now reads like a preview rather than a criticism. His influence in quarterback rooms followed him around the league, and the Eagles are betting that it can now translate into results on a much larger stage.