Can Nick Sirianni & his boy-band staff create harmony in Philadelphia Eagles locker room? | Marcus Hayes

Nick Sirianni is 39, but he’s the old man on stage. His defensive coordinator, Jonathan Gannon, is 37. His offensive coordinator, Shane Steichen, is 35. They all are white, which matters some, as the NFL allegedly seeks diversify its coaching ranks. They also all are slim, and relatively handsome, which matters not at all, but which is aggravating, nonetheless.

Together, they look like 60 percent of *NSYNC. But can the NFL’s boy-band staff handle a dysfunctional, aging, entitled, fractured locker room? Or will they be saying, “Bye-Bye-Bye” sooner than later?

This latter day Justin Timberlake and his scruffy harmonists inherit a core of players scarred by battle, grizzled by the business, and hamstrung by an entitled, disgruntled quarterback, whose selfishness led to the dismissal of popular head coach Doug Pederson.

The Eagles have long drafted and signed players with an eye toward high character, and, generally, they’ve gotten what they bargained for.

Carson Wentz aside, there isn’t a malcontent among the core: offensive linemen Lane Johnson, Jason Kelce, and Brandon Brooks, defensive tackle Fletcher Cox, and defensive end Brandon Graham. However, all will be at least 30 when the season begins, and their average age is 32. What do they have left? A year for Kelce? Two for Cox and Graham? Johnson and Brooks will be returning from catastrophic lower leg injuries, and they weigh about 330 pounds. Their windows are closing.

What’s going to happen the first time Sirianni blows a timeout early in the third quarter because, at the last second, he doesn’t like where the safety shifted to? What’s going to happen when Cox, as so often happens, decides he needs a week off from practice?

What’s going to happen when Wentz changes the play call for the 12th time before the end of the first quarter? That’s assuming Wentz deigns to return to the team that signed him to a $128 million contract. League sources Wednesday confirmed to The Inquirer a report earlier in the week from the NFL’s media arm that Wentz remains churlish about being benched in 2020, and he remains peeved about failed roster moves in the past two years.

To be fair, any first-time NFL head coach can expect to clash with incumbent players. This I’ll promise you: No matter how strategically gifted the coach, how the coach handles these clashes usually determines his fate.

When Andy Reid demoted offensive lineman George Hegamin during Reid’s first preseason in 1999, Hegamin drove away from the team. Upon Hegamin’s return, after the day’s practice ended, as teammates and the assembled press looked on, Reid forced Hegamin to push a blocking sled up and down the field in withering August heat. Hegamin collapsed at the end of his punishment. Later that season, Reid benched tackle Tra Thomas for exiting the previous game with a slight injury. These moves established a culture of consistent discipline, which Reid parlayed into five trips to the NFC championship game.

Chip Kelly dealt with the indifferent professionalism of running back LeSean McCoy and receiver DeSean Jackson by trading McCoy and cutting Jackson, then smearing them on the way out the door, while extending the contract of receiver Riley Cooper, whose racist slur eventually ensured that he never played in the NFL again. These moves established a culture of intolerance, fear, and resentment, and Kelly was done before the end of his third season.

Pederson bungled the release of receiver Josh Huff after Huff was arrested on gun and drug charges in November of 2016, then had to quell a mutiny a month later when he publicly criticized Zach Ertz and Rodney McLeod for cowering in a physical loss at Cincinnati; teammates stormed his office and demanded greater loyalty and protection. By the time he got fired two weeks ago Pederson had become such a blood enemy of Wentz that Wentz boycotted his exit interview and, for a third time, indicated he might want to be traded. Winning Super Bowl LII looks more like a fluke with each passing day.

Sirianni was Frank Reich’s protege with the Chargers and then the Colts. In Philadelphia if nowhere else, that’s a fine recommendation.

For the moment, with no losses on his record and no criticisms of his decisions, you hear about Sirianni what you hear about every hot young coach: Manageable ego ... loyal to players ... good communicator.

You heard it about Sean McVay, who was 30 when the Rams hired him, making him the youngest coach hired in the modern era; and who, at 33, was the youngest Super Bowl coach in history. But you also heard it about Adam Gase, who since spurning the Eagles in 2016 as a 37-year-old hotshot, has ruined two franchises.

One of those franchises was Miami, who hired Brian Flores in 2019. Unlike Pederson, Flores had never played in the NFL. Unlike Pederson, Flores had never been a coordinator. Unlike Reid, who made six stops before taking over the Birds, Flores never coached for anyone except Bill Belichick, and Belichick never promoted him higher than linebackers coach. Flores lost his first six games, and lost his first four by an average of 28 points. But in 2020 he led the Dolphins to their third 10-win season in 17 years.

Further, Flores was only 38 when the Dolphins hired him. Once again, Sirianni is the old man in the conversation.

Of course, unlike the Eagles, Flores had a talented young core to develop. And, God bless him, Frank Reich ain’t Bill Belichick.

Sirianni has a much sterner test ahead. If the Eagles’ JT, JC, and Joey Fatone fail to win over an overpaid, over-the-hill locker room loyal to their predecessors and unsure of their quarterback, they quickly will be ...

Gone.