The Eagles want Nick Sirianni to have a plan. But do they have one?

A coach who is coaching for his job is a coach who has already lost it. Everything else is paperwork.

That’s as axiomatic as it gets in the NFL. In any sport, really. There is only one optimal time for an owner to fire a coach, and that’s the very first moment they wonder if they should. The clock starts then. Every subsequent moment is a delusion. It is avoidance.

If the Eagles do not part ways with Nick Sirianni, then they have botched this thing worse than anybody could have imagined. Should they fire him? That’s a separate question. The point here is that they may have forced their own hand. They allowed it to become a story. Now, it is the story about the 2023 Eagles. If Sirianni stays, his job status will become the story about the 2024 Eagles.

It’s the kind of story that infects everything it touches. Players. Assistant coaches. Staff members. They hear it from their friends, their family, the media. Most of all, they feel it from their head coach.

Coaching in the NFL is an endeavor that requires a significant amount of political capital. Possession is nine-tenths of the gig. This is your team. What you say goes. Your word is your currency, and it’s only worth something when backed by the full faith and credit of the guy who signs everyone’s checks. You are in charge because the owner says so. Because he or she believes that you are the best person for the job. The moment that stops being the case, the whole thing collapses.

» READ MORE: The Eagles’ problems are much bigger than Nick Sirianni. How can they not be after this?

The doubt is already out there. It’s not the kind of thing that goes back in the bottle. If the Eagles are going to bring back Sirianni, they’d better march out there with a contract extension and a five-year plan with his face plastered all over it. They’d better let him pick his coordinators, and have a say in personnel. If he wants to change the stadium name to Spaghetti and Meatballs Field, let him do that, too. A coach is either Your Guy or he isn’t. The Eagles need to make it clear where Sirianni stands.

The fact that they have not done any of that yet is either a sign or a mistake. Granted, narratives are difficult to control. This particular one gathered mass at a speed seldom, if ever, seen. Just two months ago, any question about Sirianni’s job status would have been treated as preposterous or insane. He was a young, well-respected head coach who’d guided his team to wins in 24 of 29 games and now had them on the inside track for a second straight Super Bowl berth. The Eagles were at the tail end of a brutal stretch of their schedule that they weathered better than anyone could have imagined. Even after blowout losses to the 49ers and Cowboys, nobody could have credibly questioned whether Sirianni’s job was in jeopardy. You can’t blame Jeffrey Lurie if he didn’t see the storm before it was too late.

Yet, if Sirianni was still the guy, there were opportunities to let it be known. Statements can be released. Interviews can be granted. There are all sorts of ways to stage a vote of confidence. They aren’t some sort of foreign concept. Fletcher Cox did it emphatically the other day. It isn’t complicated.

» READ MORE: Has Fletcher Cox played his last game for the Eagles? He indicates he hasn’t decided on his future.

Even after Monday’s blowout loss to the Bucs, the Eagles could have moved quickly to give Sirianni the backing he’d need in order to credibly remain as coach. The worst thing they could have done is wait to say anything. It’s either business as usual or it isn’t.

At some point, maybe on Friday, Sirianni will sit down with his boss and lay out his case for keeping his title. That may not be the explicit purpose of the meeting, but we are well past the point where it can be anything but. Competitive realities change fast in the NFL. Three of the last six Super Bowl champions have since replaced their coach. One is the Eagles. Another is the team the Eagles beat in 2017. The third is the team that just beat the Eagles.

Sure, Sirianni’s situation feels different. He is at a different stage of his career than Bruce Arians and Bill Belichick were. His reversal of fortune has been far more dramatic than Doug Pederson’s was. But the NFL operates on a week-by-week basis. You are only as good as your last game. Your only concern is the next one. Sirianni preaches that message with as much fervor as any coach. In a world where every game is its own season, the Eagles have been losing for a lifetime.

Sirianni can make a good case for himself. The real problem is that everybody will know — or at least assume — that he had to do so. Whether he keeps his coaching staff intact or makes significant changes at coordinator, few will view those decisions as his. Even if they are his, they will be the hires of a guy who could be gone in a year.

» READ MORE: Nick Sirianni’s meeting with Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie scheduled for Friday

Actually, that’s not the real problem. The real problem is that the most important questions facing the Eagles are ones Sirianni can’t answer. Who are we? Who do we want to be? Where do we want to go? Who should lead us there? Are we happy with the current boom-bust cycle of general mediocrity interrupted by occasional flashes of brilliance? Do we want to build a sustainable identity on the defensive side of the ball or keep patching things together? How much power and say should the franchise quarterback have?

Those issues are the real reasons the Eagles are in such an unwinnable position. Sirianni is just a casualty. If not now, the only question will be when.