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EspañolFormer Sean Mannion colleagues not surprised by his meteoric rise originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
INDIANAPOLIS — Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst was hoping his team would be able to hold on to Sean Mannion for more than just a couple seasons.
But he saw this meteoric rise coming.
“Not shocked that it’s happened that fast, because the way he works,” Gutekunst said at the NFL combine this week. “He’s a tireless worker, exceptionally bright.
“You know, usually when you bring in a young, really talented coach, you’re kind of hoping to have him for a number of years, and that’s unfortunate for us. But he’s going to do a great job. He has the ability to see the game through a quarterback’s eyes because of his playing career, coming from a coaching family. And there’s just a lot to like there.”
The Eagles obviously thought there was a lot to like about Mannion too. After an exhaustive search for their offensive coordinator that included 17 candidates and seven second interviews, the Eagles decided to hire the 33-year-old Mannion, who has been coaching for just two seasons.
The Packers hired Mannion as an offensive assistant in 2024 and promoted him to quarterbacks coach in 2025 only to lose him to an offensive coordinator job in Philly a year later. While Mannion has been coaching for just two seasons, he played nine years in the NFL as a backup quarterback and has ties all across the league.
And you’d have a hard time finding someone to say a bad word about him.
“Great friend, highly intelligent, really good with the players,” said Dolphins head coach Jeff Hafley, who was the Packers’ defensive coordinator the last couple seasons. “What he did with Jordan (Love), all the extra time he put in with him, you could just see that it was going to happen sooner than later.
“Not surprised. Not surprised at all. And he’ll have a really, really bright future. A guy who played the position, studied the game. I’ll be rooting for him because he’s one of the really good guys in this league.”
The St. Louis Rams drafted Mannion in the third round back in 2015 and he played for the Rams for four seasons before bouncing between the Vikings and Seahawks for the rest of his career.
When Mannion was in Seattle his position coach was Dave Canales, who then went to Tampa Bay as an OC and has been the Panthers’ head coach for the past two seasons. Canales said Mannion was “incredible” as the Seahawks third quarterback and things he learned from Mannion changed the ways he has coached quarterbacks since.
Even years ago, Canales knew Mannion was destined for a future in coaching.
“Absolutely,” Canales said. “That was something that I knew was going to be in his future. It was just a matter of if he was dumb enough to get into the profession. I guess he is and here he is.”
All the good things you hear about Mannion publicly, the Eagles heard when they made phone calls during the hiring process. The Eagles go through exhaustive interviews and then follow up with former colleagues of their finalists.
Nick Sirianni on Tuesday said it’s very similar to how any company checks references before they make a hire. In Mannion’s case, those references were exceptionally positive.
“You’re looking for common themes,” Sirianni said. “Everyone spoke very similar about Sean and you could imagine that those were glowing reviews. … Everyone had great things to say about him. The person he is, the coach he is, the football mind that he is. And so really excited about that.”