Report: Eagles to add Virginia Cavaliers offensive coordinator Bill Lazor to coaching staff
- The Eagles will hire University of Virginia offensive coordinator Bill Lazor to Chip Kelly's staff.
- He was a quarterbacks coach with the Seattle Seahawks and Washington Redskins.
- The experience coaching quarterbacks in the NFL will help Lazor working with Kelly and Shurmur, if that's the role he's assigned.
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The Eagles will hire University of Virginia offensive coordinator Bill Lazor to Chip Kelly's staff, according to a CBS Sports report.
Lazor, 40, would be an intriguing addition to the Eagles staff, which still could use a quarterbacks coach. Before he called plays for the Cavaliers for the past three seasons, he was a quarterbacks coach with the Seattle Seahawks and Washington Redskins, and also spent time as an offensive assistant with the Atlanta Falcons. His seven seasons as an NFL coach were spent working for such coaches as Dan Reeves, Joe Gibbs, and Mike Holmgren.
The former Cornell quarterback oversaw an inconsistent offense in Charlottesville, Va., that went from No. 57 in total offense in 2010 to No. 44 in 2011 to No. 81 in 2012. The program was juggling quarterbacks throughout that period, searching for the star passer the program lacked since Matt Schaub graduated.
But there were also some impressive performances, including a win over Miami this season in which quarterback Mike Rocco threw for 300 yards and four touchdowns.
Lazor’s roots are not with the type of offense that Kelly ran in Oregon, continuing a diversity of ideas that Kelly is introducing to the staff. Pat Shurmur is expected to be offensive coordinator, and Shurmur has run a West Coast-style offense. Lazor similarly ran a pro-style offense at Virginia.
The experience coaching quarterbacks in the NFL – and especially under Holmgren – will help Lazor working with Kelly and Shurmur, if that's the role he's assigned.
"When I went to the Seahawks, one of the things coach told me is, 'If you're going to coach the quarterbacks for me, you better wear an iron jock strip.',” Lazor said in 2010. “Coach Holmgren had a really unique way of coaching the quarterbacks. He was very honest with me up front. He had a real specific vision of what he thought offensive football should look like. He was very quick to see when his team did not look the way he wanted it to look, and he corrected it. ...And he also had a very specific way that he believed you coach the quarterback. It wasn't a very touchy-feely way, but it's a way that's been proven over time to develop quarterbacks."
