PHILADELPHIA -- New Eagles offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo learned early in his coaching career about the power of adaptability.
It was 2008 and Patullo was an assistant for the Kansas City Chiefs under offensive coordinator Chan Gailey. The Chiefs had lost a couple quarterbacks to injury and were challenged with finding a scheme that would maximize the next QB in line, Tyler Thigpen.
"I'll never forget, we get into a staff room and the walls are all white, there's nothing on there. [Gailey] goes, 'All right, we got to figure out a new offense for this week.' He was willing to do anything and try anything to be successful. We ended up developing this no huddle system. We were in the pistol and in 2008, nobody knew what the pistol was in the NFL," Patullo said.
"We were successful for the most part. We didn't win a lot of games, but we moved the ball with a bunch of guys that we didn't know really if we could do that with. So him being able to show, look, we do what we have to do to win, it doesn't matter -- it doesn't have to look a certain way -- was huge."
That story went a long way in explaining the offensive philosophy of Patullo, who was elevated from pass game coordinator/associate head coach to offensive coordinator this offseason after Kellen Moore left to become head coach of the New Orleans Saints.
Gailey is one of the two people Patullo cited as his greatest coaching influences; the other is Nick Sirianni. Patullo served as receivers coach and then pass game specialist during Sirianni's stint as the Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator from 2018 to 2020.
Sirianni brought Patullo with him to Philadelphia when he landed the head coaching gig in 2021 to be his right-hand man.
"There's not one decision that I've ever made in the building without Kevin Patullo," Sirianni said in March.
During Super Bowl week in February, quarterback Kenny Pickett described Patullo as the team's "unsung hero", noting he spearheaded the two-minute offense and was key in shaping the game plan behind the scenes each week.
But this is a new role for Patullo, who will be calling plays full-time for the first time in his career. The last time the Eagles promoted from within, tabbing Brian Johnson to replace Shane Steichen in 2023, it did not go well. Sirianni got more hands-on and there was a disconnect in visions for the offense between Johnson, Sirianni and quarterback Jalen Hurts. Things smoothed out last year when Moore took over the offense and Sirianni took a step back and assumed more of a CEO-type role.
Whether that setup will continue with Patullo now at offensive coordinator remains to be seen.
"I think there's a lot of fundamental things that we see the same way, but I do think our brains work differently," Patullo said.
"It's a good back and forth conversational piece that we have constantly. There's a lot of things he believes in that I believe in as well and we're going to do those things. But I do think we challenge each other to grow and he's awesome about just finding new ideas and testing the waters and saying 'What if we did this? What if we tried that?'"
For Hurts, this marks the fifth different playcaller he's had in six NFL seasons. The good news for him is that there won't be any drastic changes on offense. Patullo will add his own flare but plans on keeping much of the verbiage in place.
There's no need for a completely blank whiteboard this time around, though the goal of "building on what our players do best" continues to be a driving principle for Patullo.
"Coach Patullo has been here throughout the journey as well," said Hurts. "He's had a different position, always played a pivotal role in what we've done, and I think he's got a great mentality and a great approach coming into everything right now."