January 18, 2024
Now that the Philadelphia Eagles' disastrous 2023 season is over, we'll be taking a position-by-position look at which players will likely be back with the team in 2024, and which ones won't. But first, let's start with the most pressing figure, head coach Nick Sirianni.
When Jeffrey Lurie initially hired Sirianni in 2021, he made sure to note that he was excited about “the coach he could become,” signaling that there would be early growing pains that they were willing live with in the short-term.
“Nick was sort of the culmination of a lot of thought that went into it, a lot of projection," Lurie said, before introducing Sirianni. "Of course, that's what it is. It's an evaluation of what is now and what coach he can become and what organization we can become with his leadership.”
Sirianni took over a 4-11-1 team and helped guide it to a five-win improvement. Of the seven head coaches hired during the 2021 offseason, Sirianni was the only one who made the playoffs in his rookie season as a head coach.
| 2021 coaching hires | 2021 record |
| Nick Sirianni, Eagles | 9-8 (0-1 in the playoffs) |
| Brandon Staley, Chargers | 9-8 |
| Arthur Smith, Falcons | 7-10 |
| Robert Saleh, Jets | 4-13 |
| David Culley, Texans | 4-13 (fired) |
| Dan Campbell, Lions | 3-13-1 |
| Urban Meyer, Jaguars | 2-11 (fired in-season) |
The low point of that season was a blowout loss to the Raiders, which dropped the Eagles to 2-5. It was around that time that Sirianni gave up playcalling duties to then offensive coordinator Shane Steichen, and the team began to commit to a run-heavy approach. The Eagles quickly changed course from a finesse offense to one with a mean, nasty identity led by their star-studded offensive line, even becoming the first team since the 1985 Bears to run for at least 175 yards in seven straight games.
They saw that what they were doing wasn't working, they adjusted, and they found success, which is something they didn't do in 2023, but we'll get to that.
The Eagles were one-and-done in the playoffs that season, as they were blown out by the reigning Super Bowl champion Buccaneers. Despite the disappointing result, the 2021 season was largely viewed as successful, relative to expectations. Sirianni and his staff weathered some early bumps in the road, and found a way to finish strongly.
In Year 2, the Eagles had heightened expectations, and Sirianni more than delivered on them, leading the team to a Super Bowl appearance alongside a vastly improved Jalen Hurts and an otherwise stacked roster. They mostly dominated their competition, winning nine games by at least two scores. Sirianni was not bashful about enjoying the team's success.
LMAO!!! pic.twitter.com/a1IysW4Cs0
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) January 22, 2023
In Year 3, the town's expectation heading into the season was "Super Bowl or bust," and through the first three months of the season the Eagles delivered, racking up a 10-1 record, and even winning the first three games of the super difficult portion of their season against the Cowboys, Chiefs, and Bills. While those 10 wins were mostly not aesthetically pleasing — and a play here or there might've changed the outcome in some of them — every other team in the league at the time had at least three losses.
If you read "power rankings" during the season, they were the unanimous No. 1 team for like the entire month of November. Sirianni's bluster certainly didn't go anywhere, as he screamed at Chiefs fans while leaving the field after the team's win in Kansas City, and minutes later scolded a Philly reporter who had picked the Chiefs to win the game.
It would all eventually crash in December and January.
The Eagles got blown out by the 49ers and Cowboys, they handed away a game to the Seahawks, and after a shaky win over the Giants, they went into full-on nuclear meltdown in their final three games against three bad teams in the Cardinals, Giants, and Buccaneers, who all kicked their asses. Here's a look at the Eagles' and their opponents' team stats during that 1-6 stretch:
| Stat | PHI | Opp | +/- |
| Points | 132 | 214 | -82 |
| First downs | 140 | 155 | -15 |
| Total plays | 425 | 456 | -31 |
| Yards per play | 5.4 | 6.0 | -0.6 |
| Total yards | 2293 | 2729 | -436 |
| Rushing yards | 766 | 939 | -173 |
| Passing yards | 1527 | 1790 | -263 |
| Turnovers | 12 | 4 | -8 |
| Time of possession | 196:00 | 224:00 | -28:00 |
During that miserable stretch, yes the offense and the defense were both bad, but it was also crystal clear that the team was getting outcoached every week.
Offensively, there was no mystery that opposing defenses were going to blitz the Eagles heavily, and yet the staff rarely had any basic, quick-hitting throws that could exploit opponents' over-aggressiveness. Unlike in 2021, the Sirianni and his staff either did not or could not adjust.
Defensively, the results were even worse, especially after the team demoted defensive coordinator Sean Desai in favor of Matt Patricia, as players often didn't know how to line up or what their assignments were. Opposing offenses bulldozed them in the run game, and easily found ways to get receivers running wide open through the secondary.
By the time the Eagles suffered their embarrassing playoff loss in Tampa, they were arguably playing like the worst team in the NFL. I'm not a football historian, so I can't speak confidently on individual teams' seasons before I was born, but to go from a team with a two-game cushion over the entire rest of the NFL to arguably the worst team in the league — all while remaining reasonably healthy — is probably in the conversation among the worst collapses in NFL history, right?
Sirianni will meet with Jeffrey Lurie, and he will be expected to have a plan on how to turn the franchise around. Lurie will expect Sirianni to come in armed with ideas for a new supporting coaching staff, including coordinators. It's a meeting that Doug Pederson failed three years ago.
The plan for formulating a coaching staff aside, it's hard to come up with arguments that Sirianni can make to defend what happened this season. One of the unknowns is who exactly made the call to switch from Desai to Patricia. After the move was made, Sirianni emphatically declared that it was his decision. Of course, there's no other answer he could have given, as any hinting of dissention on the topic would have sent a message that he did not have confidence in his new defensive play caller, creating an even more dysfunctional situation than it already was. If the decision was not Sirianni's alone, then shouldn't whoever made that call also be held accountable?
A number of players, notably Jason Kelce and Fletcher Cox, expressed strong support for Sirianni. However, when given the opportunity to have Sirianni's back during his postgame press conference following the loss to the Bucs, Hurts pretended like he didn't understand why Sirianni's job status was a question, saying, "I didn't know that he was going anywhere." When pressed for a real answer, Hurts said, "I have a ton of confidence in everyone in the building."
When given another chance to endorse his head coach during locker room cleanout day, Hurts said that he has confidence in Sirianni and that he expected Sirianni to be back, but he did not exactly give a ringing endorsement, like some of his other teammates did:
Jalen Hurts on the Nick Sirianni endorsement. #Eagles pic.twitter.com/058L0vVbuh
— Jeff Kerr (@JeffKerrCBS) January 18, 2024
Hurts doesn't exactly have a warm, cuddly personality, but maybe he could have mustered up a little more enthusiasm for his embattled coach if he truly wanted to continue working with him?
If the Eagles fire Sirianni, they will likely not be a desirable landing spot for some head coaching candidates, for two main reasons:
If the Eagles definitively knew that they were bringing Sirianni back, they would have already leaked it to some national reporter willing to put a positive spin on the situation. We're now more than two full days removed from the Eagles' elimination from the playoffs, and there have been no reports of Sirianni staying, a clear indication that his fate hangs in the balance.
#JimmyVerdict: Sirianni seems to have gotten some good advice from someone who is aware of why Pederson was fired in 2021, as he has been working to have answers prepared for Lurie whenever the two meet:
Though this may suggest that Nick Sirianni is safe, I’m told he has not met with owner Jeffrey Lurie, something that was not possible today because of logistical issues.
— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) January 18, 2024
Until that meeting happens, all bets are off. https://t.co/G7zM4YhK82
While there is a good argument for Sirianni to lose his job in the wake of the Eagles' epic collapse to close the season, the fact that he is getting a chance to convince Lurie otherwise is telling. My read is that unlike Pederson, Sirianni will be willing to do whatever Lurie suggests, and he will retain his job, but will head into the 2024 season squarely on the hot seat. Stay.
Your vote:
My verdict is what I think the team will do. Here, you can vote on what you would do, not necessarily what you think will happen.
Stay or go: Nick Sirianni
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