Eagles Will Promote Press Taylor to QB Coach

PHILADELPHIA (973espn.com) - The Eagles are poised to promote the man responsible for bringing the "Philly Special" to coach Doug Pederson.

According to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, Pederson is expected to replace John DeFilippo, who left to become the offensive coordinator in Minnesota, with his former assistant Press Taylor.

Taylor, who just turned 30 last month, was originally hired by Chip Kelly as an offensive quality control coach in 2013 and Pederson decided to keep him around, promoting him to assistant QB coach in 2016.

One of Taylor's other responsibilities as trick plays and he now famously culled the "Philly Special" play from watching old film of the Chicago-Minnesota game from what was a meaningless 2016 regular-season finale.

The Eagles kept it in their back pocket before running it on 4th-and-1 just before halftime in their Super Bowl LII win over New England when Corey Clement took the direct snap from center, and flipped the ball to Trey Burton before the former high school QB turned NFL tight end found a wide-open Nick Foles in the end zone.

In college, Taylor won consecutive NJCAA national championships as the quarterback at Butler Community College before transferring to Marshall.

He started his coaching career as a graduate assistant and QB coach with Tulsa before Kelly brought him to Philadelphia.

Taylor inherits an MVP candidate coming off a torn ACL and LCL in Carson Wentz as well as the Super Bowl MVP in Nick Foles, although there is a potential that Philadelphia could trade the latter if it finds a deal too good to be true. Third-stringer Nate Sudfeld is the developmental prospect on the team and would become much more important if Foles is peddled elsewhere.

Taylor's elevation to the QB job takes receivers coach Mike Groh out of the running. Groh played quarterback at Virginia in college and spoke about a desire to coach the position again. He and running backs coach Duce Staley are the top in-house candidates to replace offensive coordinator Frank Reich, who left to become the head coach in Indianapolis.

-John McMullen covers the Eagles and the NFL for 973espn.com. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen