Jeffrey Lurie explains why Nick Sirianni was retained as coach after Eagles’ ‘disappointing’ end to the season
Lurie was impressed with Sirianni's ideas for the future and his track record over the last three seasons.
ORLANDO — Although the Eagles suffered a 1-6 collapse to end the season, including their wild-card exit from the playoffs, owner Jeffrey Lurie is standing by head coach Nick Sirianni going forward.
Speaking to reporters for the first time in roughly a year at the NFL’s annual league meeting on Tuesday, Lurie revealed his rationale behind opting to retain Sirianni in the wake of an “extremely disappointing” conclusion to the season. After meeting with Sirianni and general manager Howie Roseman as part of their standard year-end evaluation process, Lurie said it was “very easy to be very, very encouraged” about where the team stands and where the Eagles are headed with both leaders in place.
He elaborated on the plans for the future that Sirianni shared with him and called them “very proactive” in terms of identifying the areas where the team can evolve next season.
“The things with Nick, I have to say, were really impressive,” Lurie said. “Were wanting to truly improve the ingredients of the offense. Truly improve who is going to ... in terms of leading the offense and the direction it would go. Wanted to be much more innovative. Much more dynamic. Of course, bring the things that brought us a lot of success. But very open to finding the best possible offensive coordinator and the same with defensive coordinator.”
Those plans were put into action last month with the hirings of offensive coordinator Kellen Moore and defensive coordinator Vic Fangio. While Sirianni hasn’t divulged much about what the new offense will look like, he has called it a “meshing” of his scheme and the successful elements of past Eagles offenses with Moore’s.
» READ MORE: Eagles’ Nick Sirianni remains tight-lipped on what the offense will look like with his influence and Kellen Moore’s
Lurie called the decision to retain Sirianni “a very straightforward decision based on a very straightforward process.” That straightforward, “analytic” process, Lurie said, is conducted at the conclusion of every season, regardless of how it ends. Lurie meets with players, coaches, and personnel to assess their strengths and weaknesses, all while determining what the plan is for next season.
The owner said he takes a “holistic look” at where the franchise is at, trying to avoid any sort of recency bias when making decisions about how to move forward. While still emphasizing his disappointment in the ending to the season, Lurie spoke with reverence about Sirianni and his potential to get the team headed down the right path given his ideas for the future and his overall track record over the last three seasons.
Lurie pointed to the Eagles’ record before the end-of-season skid dating back to Week 8 of the 2021 season, which was Sirianni’s first year as head coach. In 38 regular-season games, the Eagles went 31-7, a feat that Lurie called “exceptional.”
“That’s starting with taking a team that has a four-win season in our final year with Doug [Pederson] and taking it right into a playoff team right away and then into the Super Bowl and then into a 10-1 beginning of this past season,” Lurie said. “A very disappointing ending, but I don’t take light in 31-7 in the National Football League. That’s extraordinary.”
He also listed all of the reasons why he initially hired Sirianni in January 2021 and said that they have held true, even during the struggles that characterized last season, including the coach’s ability to connect, his authenticity, his work ethic, and his football IQ.
That sense of authenticity was a blessing and a curse at times for Sirianni last season, especially as it related to his fiery sideline demeanor. At the end of the Eagles’ narrow Week 16 victory over the New York Giants, Fox Sports cameras caught Sirianni yelling at Haason Reddick while the edge rusher ran toward the sideline.
» READ MORE: Haason Reddick seemed to know his time with the Eagles was over after the Tampa Bay loss
The following day, Sirianni confessed that he was “too tense” at times during the game. Generally speaking, Lurie said that Sirianni’s demeanor on the sideline can be a negative at times, pointing to the need to avoid upsetting the referees. However, Lurie also stressed the importance of Sirianni’s passion, which is a product of his authenticity.
“I don’t want him to overreact,” Lurie said. “But I love his passion. So I think he recognizes that it can be a little bit counterproductive if he overdoes his own passion. But you don’t want to stop where that passion is coming from. So you’ve got to find a sweet spot. I think he wants to find a sweet spot of what that’s like.”
Lurie also stood by Sirianni’s decision to strip then-defensive coordinator Sean Desai of play-calling duties and hand the reins to Matt Patricia in the lead-up to the Week 15 game against the Seattle Seahawks. At the time, the Eagles’ defense ranked last in the league in third-down stops and 30th in red-zone defense.
Ultimately, the defense showed little to no improvement under Patricia, finishing second to last in third-down conversion rate (46.4%) and 30th in red-zone rate (66.1%). Lurie acknowledged that Sirianni’s decision to switch defensive play-callers ”didn’t work,” but he respected the move that was intended to serve the best interests of the team.
“One of the things I really respect about Nick is his ability to evaluate where we’re at, where he’s at, where he thinks the team needs, and he’s very little ego to go in with that,” Lurie said. “That’s really important, I think, in a leader. So I applaud the aggressiveness and the attempt and I would say in conclusion, it didn’t work the way it was expected to work.”
Despite the shortcomings Sirianni and the Eagles experienced in 2023, Lurie pushed back on the notion that Sirianni’s job is on the line going into his fourth season as coach, including the context that every NFL coach is under pressure to get results regardless of the situation.
“Nick has had a pretty spectacular first three seasons,” Lurie said. “He’s shown all the ingredients to have outstanding success. So I’m just looking forward. There’s no coach that’s not feeling pressure to perform. That’s the way it is in the National Football League.
“But, wow, no. I think Nick is, he’s got all the ingredients, as I’ve said, and I’m just really excited about this coming season.”