Latest / Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast / The DiCecco Daily Special, Part 1: Former Eagles OC Marty Mornhinweg On Scouting, Coaching QB Jalen Hurts
Transcript
- 0:09Speaker 1: Hey everyone, it's Andrew to CHECKO. I recently had the
- 0:12Speaker 1: opportunity to sit down with former Eagles offensive coordator Marty
- 0:15Speaker 1: Morningwig to do a two part to check Out Daily
- 0:18Speaker 1: podcast series in which we talked about Jalen Hurts and
- 0:21Speaker 1: the Eagles offensive cordator Search. Marty was part of the
- 0:24Speaker 1: coaching staff that helped the organization draft Jalen Hurts and
- 0:27Speaker 1: developed him as a rookie, and Marty really took us
- 0:29Speaker 1: behind the scenes of how that came about. We cover
- 0:32Speaker 1: all of it, including Hurtz's rise to Super Bowl MVP.
- 0:35Speaker 1: In Part one, You're gonna love Marty's energy and enthusiasm.
- 0:40Speaker 1: And in part two we get into the Eagles offensive
- 0:43Speaker 1: coordator search and Marty talks about his own experiences as
- 0:46Speaker 1: a play caller, both with the Eagles and elsewhere. It's
- 0:50Speaker 1: a really fun trip into the mind of one of
- 0:52Speaker 1: the best offensive cordators in Eagles history, someone who has
- 0:55Speaker 1: been both the head coach in the NFL along with
- 0:57Speaker 1: an offensive coordator for several different teams for several different quarterbacks.
- 1:01Speaker 1: Now let's get to Part one. Hello everyone, and welcome
- 1:05Speaker 1: into a special edition of the check O'dale. It's Andrew
- 1:08Speaker 1: decheco here Eagles beat reporter friendsidethebirds dot com, and with
- 1:12Speaker 1: me today a very special guest. I have former Eagles
- 1:17Speaker 1: offensive coordinator Marty Morningweg, who is also a former head
- 1:21Speaker 1: coach the Detroit Lions and former offensive coordinator of three
- 1:25Speaker 1: other NFL teams. Marty, I thank you for joining me
- 1:29Speaker 1: and carving out a few minutes here, Howard thinks.
- 1:33Speaker 2: Andrew, I'm excited to be on with you. There's a
- 1:35Speaker 2: little excitement and filling right now or in the middle
- 1:39Speaker 2: of hiring a coordinator and that team. Uh, let's say,
- 1:46Speaker 2: what do you think, Andrew? A little bit maybe just
- 1:49Speaker 2: a little bit of a super Bowl hangover? It looked
- 1:53Speaker 2: to me like from afar right. Offensively, it looked like
- 1:57Speaker 2: in many games they were just off a touch, just
- 2:00Speaker 2: to touch quick. That can make it look horrible, right
- 2:04Speaker 2: if you're on just the touch. So they're still very
- 2:08Speaker 2: talented team, very tough team, very physical team. They've got
- 2:12Speaker 2: a heck of a defense. They've got a heck of
- 2:14Speaker 2: a quarterback that's coming off of a Super Bowl win. Right,
- 2:18Speaker 2: don't be complaining about a quarterback that's just won you
- 2:21Speaker 2: a super Bowl. You know, I learned to love the
- 2:24Speaker 2: fans of Philly. But they're different, aren't they. They are different. Yeah,
- 2:28Speaker 2: they want to pull some of those great players down
- 2:31Speaker 2: just a little bit, and then when they retire, they
- 2:33Speaker 2: want to build a statue of them. You know. That's
- 2:35Speaker 2: kind of a strange mentality there, but I grew to
- 2:38Speaker 2: love it. Right So anyway, there's a little excitement there
- 2:41Speaker 2: in Philadelphia with the Eagles right now, and I'm so
- 2:45Speaker 2: happy to be on your show to discuss it just
- 2:48Speaker 2: a little bit.
- 2:49Speaker 1: Absolutely. Well, you've pretty much seen an experienced at all
- 2:52Speaker 1: throughout your career that spanned over two decades at the
- 2:56Speaker 1: NFL level, but you have a unique connection to Philadelphia, Marty,
- 3:00Speaker 1: So let's start there.
- 3:02Speaker 2: You were brought on.
- 3:03Speaker 1: In twenty twenty as a senior offensive consultant with under
- 3:07Speaker 1: Doug Peterson, and as I understand it, you had a
- 3:10Speaker 1: unique role where you were working exclusively with quarterbacks and
- 3:14Speaker 1: Jalen hurts if I'm correct on that. And so just
- 3:18Speaker 1: to start, what were your initial impressions of Jayalen?
- 3:22Speaker 2: Well, Jalen's in Philadelphia in part because of my evaluation, uh,
- 3:28Speaker 2: and so I got a couple of calls right leaning
- 3:31Speaker 2: up to the draft you remember that was COVID time.
- 3:33Speaker 2: It was a strange time. I was sitting in this office.
- 3:37Speaker 2: Everybody was at their own residences all around the country,
- 3:41Speaker 2: many of them in Philly if they had kids, you know,
- 3:43Speaker 2: they were in school, and we were doing the draft
- 3:48Speaker 2: evaluations and we actually did the draft from from our home.
- 3:52Speaker 2: So I got I got a couple of calls, one
- 3:54Speaker 2: from one from Howie because my evaluation was was really
- 3:59Speaker 2: really high with Jalen and he's asking why, and I'm going,
- 4:03Speaker 2: why are you asking me? Because you just signed Carson
- 4:08Speaker 2: to a huge contract, huge and uh, well it was
- 4:12Speaker 2: something like, uh, I don't know if I've got the
- 4:16Speaker 2: numbers exactly right, but they had played in We've played
- 4:19Speaker 2: in uh, let's say eight or nine playoff games since
- 4:24Speaker 2: Carson Wentz has been our starter, and he's played in one.
- 4:29Speaker 1: It was just playing their tenth. They just played in
- 4:30Speaker 1: their tenth playoff game.
- 4:32Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, uh so uh but uh since they had
- 4:37Speaker 2: Carson though, they had played and they had played and
- 4:40Speaker 2: like they had like eight or nine playoff games and
- 4:42Speaker 2: Carson had only played one. So so availability you know,
- 4:46Speaker 2: that's where Jalen comes in to play a little bit too.
- 4:48Speaker 2: You can tell on biased towards Jalen. He's typically you know,
- 4:53Speaker 2: normally available and healthy. He's just kind of built to
- 4:56Speaker 2: play the game. That's uh. Within an national football you
- 5:01Speaker 2: get the quarterback spot, which is really important. So anyway,
- 5:04Speaker 2: and then, and then, and then maybe a week later,
- 5:07Speaker 2: I got a call from Doug asking the same question,
- 5:10Speaker 2: and I asked him my same question, okay, what well
- 5:14Speaker 2: the same answer okay, in in case Carson Wentz goes down, Uh,
- 5:20Speaker 2: we're gonna draft this man. And really it was cold.
- 5:23Speaker 2: So then we get back to the office and you know,
- 5:26Speaker 2: the rule was, oh my gosh, you know you had
- 5:28Speaker 2: to get tested every morning going through there and put
- 5:32Speaker 2: a tracker on and a tracer some people call it.
- 5:36Speaker 2: And the rule was at your office. Uh, if the
- 5:39Speaker 2: door was open, you had to have your mask on.
- 5:43Speaker 2: If the door was shut, you could take your mask off. Well,
- 5:47Speaker 2: so you would walk down the hall and everybody's door
- 5:50Speaker 2: was shut. It was just so the communication wasn't there.
- 5:55Speaker 2: So anyway, it kind of fell to me where two
- 5:58Speaker 2: things with Jalen. Two things with jam two goals, let's
- 6:03Speaker 2: say many goals, but the two most important work get
- 6:06Speaker 2: him ready to play. If Carson gets nicked right. And
- 6:11Speaker 2: then secondly, I here's Jalen for you. Coming out of college.
- 6:16Speaker 2: He was at at Alabama and then he goes to Oklahoma,
- 6:20Speaker 2: made a big jump as far as passing the football
- 6:25Speaker 2: at Oklahoma from Alabama. Now, he's always been a winner, right, tough, smart, talented,
- 6:34Speaker 2: I mean, you can go on and on in stinkes.
- 6:36Speaker 2: He normally a pretty good decision maker, all of those things.
- 6:40Speaker 2: He had all of those things. And so my thought
- 6:47Speaker 2: before the draft was, if he makes one more big
- 6:49Speaker 2: jump his rookie year wherever he goes passing the football,
- 6:54Speaker 2: that there would be no cap, no cap on this
- 6:57Speaker 2: young man. The sky's limit, uh or there is no limit,
- 7:02Speaker 2: depending on how you want to look at it. And
- 7:04Speaker 2: sure enough that's what happened. So so so the second goal,
- 7:08Speaker 2: most important goal, was make a big jump passing the football,
- 7:11Speaker 2: which he did and and uh uh that was really
- 7:16Speaker 2: my job. I didn't have much, uh input on game
- 7:19Speaker 2: planning or anything like, well I should Jalen's first start.
- 7:22Speaker 2: I had a little bit of input because when when
- 7:25Speaker 2: you when you're playing a rookie quarterback. I've been through
- 7:28Speaker 2: a lot of rookie quarterbacks, right, Garcia Nick Foles, uh uh,
- 7:33Speaker 2: Geno Smith, Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts. I mean that's a
- 7:38Speaker 2: lot of rookie stuff, right, that's a lot of rookie quarterbacks,
- 7:42Speaker 2: and they all play. Uh. But preparing a rookie quarterback,
- 7:45Speaker 2: you must play Andrew, you must play directly to the
- 7:49Speaker 2: quarterback strings because that's that's your only hope with a
- 7:53Speaker 2: rookie quarterback of him having success, which equals offensive success. Right.
- 7:58Speaker 2: And then on top of that, after that ball game,
- 8:01Speaker 2: you better stay one step ahead of your opponent. Uh.
- 8:05Speaker 2: And and so if you if you utilize that the
- 8:08Speaker 2: thought process, typically you're going to be in decent shape
- 8:11Speaker 2: with a rookie quarterback.
- 8:13Speaker 1: Well, do you remember your initial interaction with Jalen when
- 8:16Speaker 1: he finally got to Philadelphia.
- 8:18Speaker 2: Yes, it was, uh, Well, we hit it off because
- 8:22Speaker 2: he would come into my office with the mask and
- 8:25Speaker 2: shut the door, would take the mask off, and then
- 8:26Speaker 2: we'd head down to you know, to the a meeting
- 8:30Speaker 2: room and he I knew this about him, but I
- 8:34Speaker 2: didn't know how much he had it. This man was
- 8:38Speaker 2: there till midnight. And I know, I know because I
- 8:42Speaker 2: was in the meeting room with him right down there.
- 8:44Speaker 2: Nobody knew, you know, because it was COVID, you kind
- 8:47Speaker 2: of had to work around some some things. And uh
- 8:51Speaker 2: and and to the point where I'd say, I'd say, Jalen, Uh,
- 8:54Speaker 2: look at you. You probably need a little sleep because
- 8:57Speaker 2: we're up early tomorrow, and he goes sleep is secondary.
- 9:01Speaker 2: Preparation is the key. So he understood and he still
- 9:05Speaker 2: understands that the hard work and preparation that goes in
- 9:10Speaker 2: each and every day to win a single football game
- 9:15Speaker 2: in the National Football League is extremely high, especially at
- 9:20Speaker 2: the quarterback position. And he understands there is no substitute
- 9:24Speaker 2: for the hard work and preparation that goes into it.
- 9:28Speaker 1: So his commitment to winning is a prominent, intangible and
- 9:32Speaker 1: that was immediately evident. What are some things you look
- 9:35Speaker 1: for having worked with Steve Young, Brett Faarr, Michael Vick,
- 9:39Speaker 1: Donom McNabb, that tells you early on that that person
- 9:44Speaker 1: has what it takes to be successful at the next level.
- 9:47Speaker 2: Yeah, it was about day three. It was about day
- 9:50Speaker 2: three in training camp, and I remember Doug Peterson asking
- 9:58Speaker 2: me what do you think? And I told him on
- 10:02Speaker 2: day three that this young man has a chance to
- 10:06Speaker 2: be really special, you know, And so and like I
- 10:10Speaker 2: said it was COVID. So communication just wasn't there. Within
- 10:14Speaker 2: a staff to staff, you know, coach to coach, player
- 10:18Speaker 2: to coach, coach to play, it just wasn't there, I think,
- 10:21Speaker 2: And for those that year or two, really the teams
- 10:25Speaker 2: that communicated really well had a little advantage, and we
- 10:30Speaker 2: just we just didn't get it done.
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- 13:53Speaker 1: So based off of what you've seen from Jailhen having
- 13:56Speaker 1: work with them from day one to this point. Right now,
- 13:59Speaker 1: from your opstions, Marty, where have you seen him make
- 14:02Speaker 1: the biggest advancement in his game?
- 14:05Speaker 2: Okay, so he made a big jump from Alabama to
- 14:08Speaker 2: Oklahoma passing the football. He made a big jump in
- 14:11Speaker 2: his rookie year passing the football. Right, two big jumps,
- 14:14Speaker 2: and then he's made some smaller jumps since then. Right,
- 14:19Speaker 2: and that that is so small you almost can't measure.
- 14:21Speaker 2: But the man knows. We already discussed all his traits.
- 14:26Speaker 2: But he knows how to play the quarterback position at
- 14:29Speaker 2: a high level. He's been doing it since he was
- 14:31Speaker 2: a young man. His dad was part of that, of course,
- 14:35Speaker 2: high school coach, so he understands how to win all
- 14:41Speaker 2: different types of games, the low scoring game, the high
- 14:45Speaker 2: scoring game, the battle of the playoff games, all those things.
- 14:47Speaker 2: And he's proven that. So and then he's got some experience, right,
- 14:52Speaker 2: experience counts typically the only rookie quarterbacks that have done
- 14:58Speaker 2: really really well. Let's say Rothlinsberger Flacco, they had a
- 15:04Speaker 2: top three type defense, you know, maybe even number one
- 15:07Speaker 2: in the league. That helps. That helps any quarterback, but
- 15:10Speaker 2: especially a rookie quarterback. And Jalen has that. He's got
- 15:15Speaker 2: a fantastic defense. So he understands he can play just
- 15:19Speaker 2: a little bit towards the defense. He can take some
- 15:22Speaker 2: calculated risk over here, because if it blows up on you,
- 15:25Speaker 2: he's got that defense booth that'll come in and stop
- 15:29Speaker 2: the opponent. So he understands all of those things. And
- 15:33Speaker 2: so I would say to answer your question, he has
- 15:35Speaker 2: gained experience in the National Football League and that tends
- 15:40Speaker 2: to go a long long way.
- 15:42Speaker 1: Do you two still share dialogue?
- 15:45Speaker 2: Yeah, normally TETs you know, and look, look, right, so
- 15:50Speaker 2: players coaches a team when everything's going brilliantly right, I mean,
- 15:58Speaker 2: they don't need much support, right, But when they're going
- 16:02Speaker 2: through a little bit of hell, that's when I tend
- 16:05Speaker 2: to text some of the guys that I've coached that
- 16:06Speaker 2: are still playing, because that's when players and coaches and
- 16:10Speaker 2: team a team needs it needs a little support when
- 16:13Speaker 2: they're going through it. They're going through the mess, right,
- 16:16Speaker 2: and you've you've heard the thing about when the bleep
- 16:19Speaker 2: hits the fan, right right, No need to go clean
- 16:22Speaker 2: it because it's going to happen again, right, so so so.
- 16:26Speaker 2: But but my point is I would typically text them
- 16:29Speaker 2: after after a bad one or or maybe maybe maybe
- 16:33Speaker 2: after an important win or something like that is typically, uh,
- 16:40Speaker 2: how I do it with with some of the players
- 16:42Speaker 2: that are still playing and coaches so so all uh
- 16:46Speaker 2: and usually it's a text. So when people nowadays, you know,
- 16:50Speaker 2: it's changed, Andrew, Right, when people say I've talked to
- 16:53Speaker 2: so and so, Uh, well, most of the time they
- 16:55Speaker 2: mean a text, right, it's changed. So and to me,
- 17:00Speaker 2: that's not really talking to him. That's like texting him
- 17:03Speaker 2: a few words, you.
- 17:04Speaker 1: Know, knowing that you saw that in him at such
- 17:08Speaker 1: an early stage, before he even got to the NFL level.
- 17:12Speaker 1: I imagine, Marty, you were beaming with pride having watched
- 17:15Speaker 1: Super Bowl fifty nine and going out there and winning
- 17:18Speaker 1: Super Bowl MVP.
- 17:19Speaker 2: Well, and then the year before he played it was
- 17:22Speaker 2: a it was a master class of quarterback both those
- 17:25Speaker 2: years in the Super Bowl. Right, so the man knows
- 17:29Speaker 2: how to win big games. And look, there are some
- 17:32Speaker 2: quarterbacks out there that people say, oh, they can't win
- 17:36Speaker 2: the big one. Oh yeah, right? How many big ones
- 17:39Speaker 2: did they win to get themselves into this big one? Right?
- 17:43Speaker 2: What was John Elway? Oh? And three or four? Yeah,
- 17:47Speaker 2: you know, super Bowl? And then he comes and he
- 17:48Speaker 2: wins too, so so he had experience that goes a
- 17:52Speaker 2: long way. And then and then he always won. How
- 17:55Speaker 2: many big games did he win to get his team
- 17:57Speaker 2: into those Super Bowls that they lost? And you go
- 17:59Speaker 2: back and look at it. I think their team was
- 18:01Speaker 2: the second best team in the Super Bowl for for
- 18:04Speaker 2: probably all three or four of those games. So and
- 18:06Speaker 2: then then you've got some right now play it. Can
- 18:09Speaker 2: they win the big one? Well, once they win the
- 18:12Speaker 2: big one, then they they've proven they win one. But
- 18:16Speaker 2: let's just say Lamar, you know, I coach Lamar as
- 18:19Speaker 2: a rookie. What a fabulous fan. He's got to get
- 18:22Speaker 2: over the hart. He's got to go win the Super
- 18:23Speaker 2: Bowl or two. Uh. The man in in Buffalo is
- 18:27Speaker 2: in the same situation. He's gotta he's got to get
- 18:29Speaker 2: over the hump. You know. Uh, the great first ballot
- 18:33Speaker 2: Hall of Famer Dan Marino. I believe, didn't they go
- 18:36Speaker 2: to the Super Bowl in his second year? I believe
- 18:40Speaker 2: and lost it, But I thought, I think everybody else thought, Oh,
- 18:44Speaker 2: he'll be there many more times. He never got back.
- 18:48Speaker 2: So uh important because the career of a young man
- 18:53Speaker 2: is so short, especially in the National Football League.
- 18:58Speaker 1: I hope you all enjoyed that as much as I did,
- 19:00Speaker 1: and learned a lot about why the organization surprisingly drafted
- 19:03Speaker 1: Hurts in round two and twenty twenty and Marty's involvement
- 19:06Speaker 1: in Hrts's rookie year. In Part two, Marty gets more
- 19:10Speaker 1: into the Eagles offensive coordinator search, along with his own
- 19:12Speaker 1: coaching experiences with Andy Reid and in Philadelphia. This is
- 19:16Speaker 1: Andrew Ducheco for The Dichecho Deaily on Inside the Birds.