How did the Eagles side-step controversy and avoid another meltdown? Go behind the scenes on ‘unCovering the Birds.’
Nick Sirianni and the team’s leadership council spent a lot of time making sure that when turmoil arrived on their doorstep, they were better equipped to handle it than they were last year.
The recent drama surrounding the Eagles didn’t send the team into a tailspin like last season. Instead, they bounced back in a big way from a drama-filled week with questions surrounding the relationship between quarterback Jalen Hurts and star receiver A.J. Brown with a win over the Pittsburgh Steelers that silenced most critics.
That wasn’t by accident.
“The Eagles spent all of last offseason reshaping the roster and coaching staff to upgrade the talent, while coach Nick Sirianni worked on team culture so when turmoil did arise — and it almost always does — the team would be equipped to handle it,” The Inquirer’s Jeff McLane says on the latest episode of unCovering the Birds. “A year ago, one staff member labeled the Eagles “the most miserable 10-1 team” in late November, which foretold their eventual collapse. This year, amid last week’s drama, the same staffer said, ‘This is nothing, it will only make us closer.’ Others in the building, outside the locker room, echoed that sentiment.”
Even Jason Kelce, who is now retired but was there last year during the collapse and remains close to the team, believes last week’s drama “galvanized” the team.
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So how did the team get from where they were a year ago to where they are now? As is the case with most things in football, it started with the head coach and quarterback.
“The quarterback had made strides since last season in opening himself up to his teammates … He’s made more connections in the locker room and has improved his sideline body language when the offense has struggled,” McLane explains. “Improving connectiveness was a Sirianni mandate that started in the offseason and was fleshed out in conversations with the [team] leadership council.”
Safety Reed Blankenship, who became a new member of the council in the spring, said this mandate goes far beyond Hurts.
“I just feel like, not even the leadership council, but what we built in OTAs and the offseason, the connection we’ve got, the relationships we have with each other,” Blankenship said, “that’s what we tried, the people on leadership council, we tried to be more in-depth with the new guys. Rookies, whatever — just be more in-depth with them, just talk to everybody, have a smile on your face. A smile on your face, it means a lot to somebody when you’re walking down the halls. That’s what we try to do.”
And it takes both players and coach working together to accomplish.
“Well, it stems from, obviously, Sirianni talking about it, but he relies on us,” Blankenship said, “especially in the locker room setting, when he’s not in here, to take full effect.”
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The effects had already been evident this season, when the Birds overcame a rocky 2-2 start by winning their next 10 games, a franchise-record streak they’ll look to push to 11 with a win over the Washington Commanders on Sunday.
“I’ve seen the guys in that game room in the back [of the locker room] doing things together more so than it felt — maybe last year we had a little less of that,” Blankenship said. “But it feels again like it did in the 2022 season. I see the guys and I hear about them going to dinners together and spending Thanksgiving together. So again, there’s just been so much work and emphasis on it, just like our tackling, just like our ball security, just like those different things.”
As for the more recent questions about the relationship between Hurts and Brown, defensive tackle Jordan Davis, who is also a member of the team’s leadership council, put things into a different perspective.
“Brothers fight,” Davis said. “Brothers, we fight. And you talk it out, you hash it out. But at the end of the day, the main goal is just to win and win each week. And you know, I think that they got everything that they needed to say, hashed out or whatever.”