Jeffrey Lurie learned his lesson, gave Eagles coach Nick Sirianni the autonomy he denied Doug Pederson | Marcus Hayes
The owner likes a pass-first approach, but the Eagles have rushed their way into the playoffs, and Lurie likes winning more than anything.
One of the more startling revelations that emerged at the end of the Doug Pederson Era involved owner oversight. Jeffrey Lurie meddled, on schedule.
Two different investigative stories told of Lurie’s meeting with Pederson on Tuesdays, usually the quietest day of an NFL week, to review on-field decisions, personnel usage, and overall philosophies. Lurie sometimes would be critical of Pederson’s strategies, especially when Lurie believed Pederson should have called more passing plays than he had called. He wanted Pederson to commit more fully to analytics, which, generally, dictate that a pass-first attack will prevail. These criticisms even happened after wins.
This no longer is true.
And that’s what has brought the Eagles to a playoff game in Tampa on Sunday. Nick Sirianni operated with autonomy, changed the Eagles offense seven games into the season, and did so without limitation.
Lurie scrapped the weekly meetings after he fired Pederson in January and hired Sirianni to replace him. League sources say Lurie realized that routinely critiquing his head coach inevitably erodes the relationship. Such oversight also can affect how an offensive coach calls plays, which undermines the coach’s ability to do what’s best for his team.
A source close to Lurie said Lurie has given Sirianni one overriding direction:
“Do whatever you need to do to win us games.”
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Sirianni on Friday confirmed the source’s contention.
“I don’t have meetings with Mr. Lurie,” Sirianni said.
Not that they never communicate. In fact, they communicate quite a bit, compared with most owners and coaches.
“Obviously, we talk a lot. We text back and forth to each other,” Sirianni said. “We call each other on the phone. When he’s at practice, we talk ... just how things are going.
“All I ever have from Mr. Lurie is unconditional support. He hired me to do a job. He’s trusting me to do that job. I really appreciate that. That’s the relationship.”
This was not the relationship between Pederson and Lurie in the three seasons after the Eagles won Super Bowl LII, according to a former Eagles assistant coach. Which, frankly, says a lot about Lurie.
He can learn.
“Jeffrey isn’t a person who fixes on one idea and that’s that,” said a league source familiar with Lurie.
Case in point: run vs. pass.
Tampa turning point
The Eagles’ Oct. 14 loss dropped them to 2-4. They’d gone 1-3 in their last four games. Why? Because they’d barely tried to run the ball. Eagles running backs averaged fewer that nine runs per game in that four-game stretch.
Sirianni was asking second-year quarterback Jalen Hurts to do far too much. This made sense, considering Lurie’s longstanding view that the best formula for winning in the NFL was to pass the ball early and get a lead. Of course, this philosophy works only if you have a good passer and good catchers, and between injuries and inexperience, the Eagles had neither.
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The Oct. 14 game left the Birds with a 10-day stretch to reorganize. Sirianni & Co. resolved to morph into an old-school NFC East ballclub, relying on a stout offensive line and talented running backs to control games. It worked.
The Eagles ran for at least 130 yards in nine straight games, their longest such streak since the 1943 and 1944 seasons. They also logged at least 175 rushing yards in seven straight games, one short of the NFL record.
All with Lurie’s blessing.
Lurie declined to speak on the record for this column, but sources close to him insist that he is not displeased with the way the Eagles reached the postseason. Does he still think the best teams will win more with a pass-first attack? Certainly.
But that doesn’t mean a team can’t be successful by pounding the rock early and often. Lurie’s 2017 Eagles, who earned the NFC’s No. 1 seed and later won the Super Bowl, ranked third in rushing. In fact, half of the Super Bowl participants since 2013 have ranked among the top five teams in rushing.
The Eagles this season were No. 1. Lurie loved it.
Because, more than anything, Jeffrey Lurie likes to win.