Could Nick Sirianni Actually Be at Risk of Losing His Job?
PHILADELPHIA – Opinions are like “you know what,” and everyone’s got one.
When it comes to the future of head coach Nick Sirianni and the free-falling Philadelphia Eagles entering the playoffs, the national scene has started to percolate that much more stemming from speculation from a few big-name insiders.
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The idea that Jeffrey Lurie would decide Sirianni’s fate based on one game in Tampa without A.J. Brown and a banged-up Jalen Hurts flies in the face of how the Eagles’ owner wants to be perceived, however.
The counterargument to that by those who have already done the 180 on Sirianni is that any failure in the Sunshine State on Monday is just the final step of a historic collapse that would have turned 10-1 into 11-7 at warp speed with the head coach coming off as having no answers.
The unprecedented move of shifting defensive play-calling from Sean Desai to Matt Patricia at 10-3 is an even worse look when you consider Sirianni began fermenting the idea during the Eagles’ bye week at 8-1 and first took away third-down autonomy from Desai before the Dec. 10 game at Dallas when the Eagles defense allowed the powerful Cowboys to convert 9-of-16 opportunities (56.3 percent) in a 33-13 loss.
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The third-down defense as a whole over four full games with Patricia and one extra contest with him ramping up involvement has gotten nominally better but that was baked in with lesser competition over the final month and you can make a strong argument that the defense as a whole got even worse especially when grading on the scale of the competition.
Sirianni insists it was his idea to make the move but the history of Lurie and GM Howie Roseman getting involved with coaching decisions was well-documented in the Doug Pederson era, sparking many to question where the decision came from.
In the case of Sirianni, everything we’ve obtained in the wake of the move from Desai to Patricia says it did originate with the coach but that’s also not the kind of thing you can do in Philadelphia without the approval of Lurie and Roseman, something Sirianni essentially confirmed.
“I talk to those guys about everything,” Sirianni said. “But Mr. Lurie from day one, Howie from day one, have always said to me, ‘you’re tied into this, do what you think is best to do to help us win football games. We’ve got your back and your support. We’re always going to back you for everything, whether that’s — anything that you do, we’re going to always back you.”
The nature of the NFL and Lurie’s recent history makes the latter part of Sirianni’s answer look naive, though.
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Lurie isn’t an overbearing owner but he’s an involved one. He likes to describe his style as someone who asks a lot of questions in the hope of making his key employees think about all the possible angles.
Team sources have confirmed to SI.com’s Eagles Today over the years that the frequency of those questions tends to increase when things are not going in the direction that Lurie likes or expects and that’s been the case in the team’s 1-5 rough landing to the regular season.
Lurie’s history with the only Super Bowl-winning coach in franchise history — Doug Pederson — also reveals that there will be scapegoats when internal expectations are not met.
Once the Eagles’ season ends, anything short of a second consecutive Super Bowl berth will likely result in members of the defensive coaching staff being candidates to be the fall guys.
As for Sirianni himself, it’s unlikely that he will be losing his job unless the coach balks at the outside ideas to improve his staff or Lurie takes aim at one of Sirianni’s sacred cows on the staff.
Firing a coach with a .667 regular-season winning percentage and three playoff berths in three tries is also bad optics for Lurie and the kind of rash decision that will put the microscope that the owner typically likes to avoid directly on him.
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Then there’s the idea of who’s being floated as reasons why Lurie might consider pulling the plug on Sirianni, most notably Belichick.
The connection there is that Lurie was a Patriots fan and wanted to buy that franchise before ultimately getting one in Philadelphia. The dots are that the Eagles’ owner couldn’t resist the greatest coach of all time who helped capture his dream franchise’s six Super Bowl wins.
The Eagles’ history since things went off the rails with Chip Kelly has been to hire first-time coaches who are content to pilot the team Roseman hands to them and that’s certainly not Belichick.
Lurie balked at a hot candidate like Adam Gase in 2016 when the now two-time failed coach asked for significant personnel power. In 2021 the belief around the league was that the Eagles were honing in on another two-time failure in Josh McDaniels, who also had the Pats and Belichick seal of approval, before Lure vetoed and kept the search alive for Sirianni to swoop in.
Nothing is 100 percent but the path to someone other than Sirianni being the Eagles’ head coach in 2024 is small and likely tied to Sirianni’s behavior with added scrutiny toward his coaching staff.
“Ever since I’ve been here, whether it was we started off 2-5, whether it was that we won 16 games last year, whether it was we started off 10-1, whether it was that we’ve lost five of our last six because we’ve been through ups and we’ve been through downs, and he’s been nothing but supportive towards me the entire time I’ve been here,” Sirianni said of Lurie.
“Through any tough decision I’ve ever had to make, through any personnel, anything like that, anything with a game decision. Mr. Lurie has been nothing but completely supportive and willing to do anything in his power to help us win football games.”
