PHILADELPHIA — The Eagles are hiring Nick Sirianni as their new head coach, The Philadelphia Inquirer confirmed, through an NFL source. ESPN was the first to report the news.
Sirianni, 39, has been the Colts’ offensive coordinator the past three seasons, under head coach Frank Reich, who formerly was the Eagles’ offensive coordinator. Sirianni is from upstate New York and played wide receiver at Division III powerhouse Mount Union in Ohio. He worked for the Chiefs and Chargers before being hired by Reich.
An NFL source called Sirianni a “good guy, solid candidate. Fairly smart but not super smart.” The source questioned whether Sirianni could take a team to the Super Bowl. “Low drama, even keel,” the source said.
Sirianni is the son of Fran Sirianni, who was a high school coach at Southwestern Central, in Jamestown, N.Y. One of Nick’s brothers, Jay, also was head coach at that school. His other brother, Mike, is the head coach at Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pa., near Pittsburgh.
The new coach is the fifth hired during Jeffrey Lurie’s 27-year reign as owner, not counting Rich Kotite, whom Lurie inherited from previous owner Norman Braman. Sirianni might have some work to do, in winning over a fan base that isn’t entirely sure firing Doug Pederson, the only Eagles coach ever to win a Super Bowl championship, was a great idea. Pederson was 42-37-1 in five seasons, 4-2 in the playoffs, where his teams made three appearances, most famously winning Super Bowl LII.
It could be argued that the 2021 Eagles are in a much tougher spot than where they found themselves in 2016, when Lurie hired Pederson after firing Chip Kelly with one game left in what would be a 7-9 season. The core of difference-making players was younger then, and general manager Howie Roseman was about to begin a series of moves that would take the Eagles from the 13th drafting spot to second, where they would select Carson Wentz, hailed by many observers as a sure-fire franchise quarterback.
The new coach inherits a roster whose core of difference-makers hasn’t changed much, except for getting a lot older — Fletcher Cox is 30, Jason Kelce is 33, Brandon Graham will turn 33 in April, Lane Johnson will turn 31 in May, Zach Ertz is 30, Brandon Brooks is 31, and Rodney McLeod will turn 31 in June. The Eagles are coming off a 4-11-1 season, despite playing in a dreadful NFC East, and are way over the projected 2021 salary cap. Roseman has acknowledged that they banked on it rising substantially with new TV deals, instead of falling or staying the same because of the pandemic.
But thornier, perhaps, is the situation at quarterback, where Wentz spent 2020 seemingly trying to prove he wasn’t a franchise quarterback after all. At 28, he is reputed to be hard to coach, unwilling to come to grips with flaws. The Eagles signed Wentz to a four-year, $128 million extension in 2019, and would take on the largest dead cap charge in NFL history — more than $34 million — if they traded him this year.
From what we know of questions asked during the interview process, fixing Wentz was a prime focus of this search. Sirianni’s relationship with Reich ought to help out there; Wentz was at his most productive when paired with Reich.
Then there is the other QB, Jalen Hurts, a second-round draft pick in 2020 who started the final four games of the season after Wentz was benched. Hurts is going to want at least a chance to compete for the starting job. More critically, there will be teammates who won’t be happy if Hurts doesn’t get what they perceive to be a fair chance at winning the job.
The Eagles are scheduled to draft sixth overall in the first round this spring. It’s quite possible there will be an intriguing QB candidate on the board then. Would they take the view that this prospect might be a better bet in the long run than Wentz or Hurts? Could they afford to go to the QB well again, with so many positions needing high-quality upgrades?
How the new coach handles this mess very well might define his tenure.
