Eagles mailbag: Is Nick Sirianni fulfilling his 'CEO coach' responsibilities?
With the Eagles coming out of their bye week, now feels like a good time to answer some questions, solicited from readers on Twitter. This is Part II of a two-part mailbag ( Part I here ).
DM from (anonymous): I know there was the "What would you say you do here" meme this offseason with Nick Sirianni, but for real though, what is he bringing to the table?
I was actually curious to go back and look at how he described his job when he was asked that very question after the team retained him as the head coach following the team's epic collapse last season.
"My job is to be the head coach of the team, not the head coach of the offense, not the head coach of the defense, not the head coach of the special teams, but be the head coach of the football team," he said. "So that's building the culture. That's making sure the culture is working with our five core values, are taking every day at a time. We're not coming up with new core values. We may shuffle where things are that are important and the most important, but that's diving into that, building the culture, having a relationship with the guys on the football team because I know when I have that connection with the guys on the football team, that's when the culture is working and working at a high level, and that's where our connection with the players and their connection with each other works well, too."
OK, so there's culture. I would probably also add that the two most key components of his job otherwise would include game planning for upcoming opponents, and in-game strategy (clock management, fourth down decisions, etc.).
On the game-planning front, the Eagles have scored zero points in the first quarter all season. Every other team in the NFL has first quarter points.
On the in-game strategy front, Sirianni has already made two bad decisions, in my opinion, one of which was fairly indefensible (we'll get to that momentarily).
As far as the culture and personal relationships go, it sure doesn't appear that the most important player on the team is firmly in his corner. When given opportunities to show support for Sirianni (a) after the Eagles' loss in the playoffs to the Buccaneers last season, and (b) during the summer, Jalen Hurts gave non-answers. At the start of training camp, a likely PR-coached-up Hurts finally showed some support for Hurts, but his distaste for questions about his collaboration with Sirianni reemerged after the team's loss to the Buccaneers Week 4.
Hurts isn't going anywhere anytime soon. (We'll get to that momentarily as well.)
As for the rest of the players on the roster, are they still buying into Sirianni's "core values," or have they become stale from a messaging standpoint? That's tough to know.
It's a long season, but I think it's fair to say that Sirianni isn't off to a good start in his new role.
Question from BirdsfaninKS: What's the number of consecutive losses that I have to root for before Jeffrey Lurie fires Sirianni?
The Eagles' next four opponents have a combined record of 3-13.
• Browns: 1-3 • Giants: 1-3 • Bengals: 1-3 • Jaguars: 0-4The Eagles more or less fired Sean Desai after 13 games last year. They have shown that they will make in-season changes if things are not going the way they had hoped. If they are like 3-5 or something after that stretch of games while teams like the Commanders and Cowboys are extending their lead over the Eagles in the division, and Sirianni is at least partially to blame, it wouldn't surprise me if they made a change.
Question from If the wheels fall off and Sirianni is canned mid-season, who is the likely interim head coach? Vic Fangio?
I would like to be clear that I don't think the Eagles' season will go so far off the rails that they'll fire Sirianni in-season, but in my opinion the three most logical candidates in order would be:
• Kellen Moore: Moore has interviewed for the Eagles' head coaching job in the past and they at least thought enough of him to eventually hire him as the offensive coordinator. Moore would be the most logical interim hire who would also be "trying out" for 2025 and beyond.
• Jemal Singleton: Singleton is the assistant head coach. He'd probably be more of a placeholder if the season really went sideways.
• Vic Fangio: He was a head coach in Denver for three years, so he knows the job, but he's 66 years old and may not even want that kind of "promotion."
Question from WalkWithLyle: I have defended Sirianni on all his 4th down decisions except for two. I didn't like going for it before half against New Orleans and I thought he should have gone for it after Saquon dropped the ball against Atlanta. I think he's unjustly getting crushed for his other 4th down decisions. Your thoughts?
I thought the pass call that should have beaten the Falcons was a good, aggressive "go win the game" call on a play they rep a ton in practice. And, you know, it worked, seeing as they got the primary receiver on the play wide open in the flat for an easy first down. That was on the players for not executing the play. I'm with you that he should have gone for it anyway on fourth down after Saquon Barkley dropped the ball.
In the Saints game, going for it on 4th and 1 from the New Orleans 15 with one timeout and just 14 seconds left on the clock was indefensible, in my opinion. If the Eagles had converted, what was the plan at that point? Certainly they would have called timeout, and then what? Take one shot into the endzone, and if you don't get, then kick the field goal? The reward simply wasn't worth the risk. I'm all for being aggressive, but it also has to make sense, and it simply didn't there. Sirianni said that he thought they would have gotten two shots into the end zone, which in my opinion was unrealistic.
Question from Howie Roseman has played the pariah and the savior at different times during his tenure as GM. Why has so much criticism been focused solely on Sirianni this year when most of the recent signings/draft picks have underperformed?
On paper, the Eagles' offense is absolutely loaded. They have a top 3 type of offensive line, an outstanding wide receiver duo in A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, and Saquon Barkley has proven already this season that he is still a great running back, when healthy. At quarterback, Hurts went from question mark to star player, and back to question mark in the three-plus seasons he has been the Eagles' QB1. But certainly, when the Eagles signed him to an extension following the Eagles' NFC Championship season 2022, it made sense and it's not as if there were many people arguing against it.
The talent is there. It's on Sirianni and Hurts to get the most out of it. They did just that in 2022, but failed together in 2023, and 2024 isn't off to a very good start. Obviously, Brown and Smith have missed a combined four games so far, so that hasn't helped, but the offensive issues go back further than this season.
As such, Sirianni and Hurts are ripe for criticism. They are surrounded by a Super Bowl-caliber cast offensively, but often look average. Fans should rightfully expect far more than what they have seen the last two seasons.
Criticism for Roseman is fair too, but on the defensive side of the ball. The Eagles have spent heavy resources — both financially, and draft capital — on the defensive line, and don't have enough to show for it. They have also woefully underspent at linebacker, with predictable results.
Question from Any chance that the inconsistent or not-up-to-par play is due to new OC and DC and revamped staff not being settled in yet, and that things will improve over the next several weeks? I'm disappointed with the performance in Tampa, but the level of competence of the coaching staff seems to be much higher this year.
This is Moore's sixth season as an offensive coordinator, and Fangio's 21st as a defensive coordinator, not even including the three years he was a head coach. There really shouldn't be much "settling in" for this kind of veteran staff. If anything, the Eagles should have been at an advantage, at least offensively, in that there was some mystery to what the offense might look like with Moore and Sirianni meshing their ideas.
So far, it has all looked kinda boring and uninspired.
There's also a notion that Fangio's defenses tend to underperform initially, but they gel later in the season when the players really begin to master their assignments and feed off of each other. We'll see. I would be a little more convinced by that argument if the Eagles haven't already been running versions of his scheme since 2021.
Question from If Jalen Hurts is not the answer, project out how the Eagles can replace him and how long that would realistically take.
Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap.com broke down the Hurts contract shortly after the Eagles extended him in 2023. It's informative, and worth a read.
The benefit to the Eagles was that the per year money totals were kept reasonable, and his salary cap numbers were low at the outset of the contract, and still are. The downside is that because of the way the Eagles structured the contract, they cannot get out of it anytime soon, should Hurts prove to not consistently be what he was in 2022.
Fitzgerald estimates that if Hurts badly regressed and the Eagles wanted to move on, the first real opportunity to do so would be in 2027, with a June 1 release. And even then, it would be very painful.
Question from Everyone is comparing Haason Reddick vs Bryce Huff, but can you compare 2024 Derek Barnett vs. Bryce Huff? If you could go back in time, would you keep Barnett (or sign Barnett back in free agency) instead of Huff factoring in money, performance, and vibes.
Barnett has found some success with a new team in Houston, but he was a mess in Philly. In 2021, his first truly healthy season in years, Barnett had 8 penalties and 2.5 sacks. He tore an ACL Week 1 in 2022, and he had 3 tackles in 8 games in 2023 before they waived him. I'm not ready to suggest they should have kept him.
Question from Surely playing Brandon Graham big minutes will make him fade later on. How will the team address this? Signing a FA? Trade? More snaps for Bryce Huff?
It's a pretty good bet they'll deal for an edge defender at the trade deadline, assuming they're still competitive. Obviously, it's alarming that BG has been their best edge player at 36 years of age.
Question from Any insight into Devin White? He was LB1 all summer and by all accounts played well enough but at the beginning of the season it was "well ACTUALLY he got outplayed by everyone;" if he's so bad in coverage why not use his athleticism and make him an edge rusher a la Micah Parsons?
Personally, I thought Zack Baun had a better, more consistent camp than White, and Nakobe Dean's late surge last two weeks of camp vaulted him over White. I don't fault the Eagles for choosing Dean over White to start the season. Dean had the better overall camp, in my opinion.
Baun has been good to start the season; Dean has not. So, I do understand the frustration of watching Dean miss tackles all over the field in Tampa while White didn't even travel with the team.
Question from If the season continues at .500 pace, will the Eagles be sellers at the trade deadline? Darius Slay and Avonte Maddox are only blocking young players from valuable playing time. Maybe get a few extra picks?
If the Eagles are looking like nothing like contenders at the trade deadline, they might not be buyers, but I can't imagine a scenario where they would be sellers.
Question from Bet the house on an edge rusher with their 2025 1st pick, right?
We're already profiled seven of them in our prospects series , so yeah, put me down for edge rusher as their biggest need next offseason. It's just an OK edge rusher class though, in my opinion, and the value also has to be there wherever they're picking, so I wouldn't "bet the house," necessarily.
