Nick Sirianni has earned another week, another year, and many more. The Eagles should extend him immediately.

This time last year the Eagles were reeling. They’d finished the regular season 1-5, they’d been demolished in Tampa for the second time in three playoff runs, the quarterback had regressed, and the defense stunk. Third-year head coach Nick Sirianni and his staff hung on the edge of a cliff.

Sirianni survived, but only after he agreed to fire the assistants he’d handpicked; most notably, Sean Desai, the defensive coordinator, and Matt Patricia, a defensive assistant. He’d hired them to run the defense over former defensive backs coach Dennard Wilson, whom he inexplicably fired after reaching Super Bowl LVII in the 2022 season. Owner Jeffrey Lurie and GM Howie Roseman hired Vic Fangio to run the defense this season, hired Kellen Moore to run the offense, stripped Sirianni of much of his influence over the offense, and let him stay.

Things didn’t improve much through the spring and summer. The Birds had a rocky start to 2024, including yet another loss at Tampa Bay, followed by a humiliating incident in Game 5 when, after a deflating home win against a putrid Cleveland Browns team, Sirianni openly taunted Eagles fans … which, again, called into question his fitness to coach the team.

Even last week, entering the playoffs as the No. 2 seed, Sirianni’s future came into question. Despite his historically productive first four seasons and a Super Bowl appearance, and with only a lame-duck year left on his contract, would a third first-round playoff exit make Lurie ponder replacing Sirianni? Was Sunday’s wild-card game, in terms of Sirianni’s future, the most important of his career?

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Sirianni answered all of those questions with unimpeachable results. He’s won 13 of 14 games. That includes a franchise-record 10-game winning streak. It also includes the wild-card playoff win over the visiting Green Bay Packers last Sunday. The Eagleswill host the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday at 3 p.m. for the right to play in the NFC championship game.

Pity the Rams if Sirianni delivers a team like the one that handled the Packers. It was a professional win from a stunningly well-coached team.

No turnovers. No dumb penalties. No amateurish trick plays. No time-management issues. They leaned on running back Saquon Barkley, their best player. They got big plays from their best unit, the defense. Special teams cost them one point but delivered them seven.

It was sound football.

Mature football.

The kind of football that results in owners giving coaches contract extensions.

Sirianni is in the fourth season of a five-year deal. He can’t enter Year 5 without Years 6 through 8 guaranteed.

It’s hard to command a locker room as a lame-duck coach; just look at what happened with Mike McCarthy in Dallas this season. If Lurie considers Sirianni the coach of the future, then Lurie should guarantee that future.

Clearly, he likes Sirianni. As with Andy Reid in 1999, then a quarterbacks coach in Green Bay, and again in 2016 with Doug Pederson, who was Reid’s offensive coordinator in Kansas City, only Lurie considered Sirianni a head coaching candidate in 2021. Sirianni was the Indianapolis Colts’ offensive coordinator, but no other teams offered him an interview.

It was a gamble for Lurie. During Sirianni’s clumsy first season, Sirianni’s hiring was even mocked. But Lurie considers himself something of a savant when it comes to hiring head coaches without pedigree, and he hates to admit he was wrong. Of course, he seldom is.

» READ MORE: Kellen Moore back to Cowboys?; Dallas Goedert’s TD was all-Philly; Josh Harris’ big Sunday: NFL wild-card weekend

Back in March, Lurie defended his decision to retain Sirianni:

“He’s exhibited a lot of growth as a young coach. I think he’ll exhibit even more because he is so self-critical, and I look forward to seeing that development.”

What’s left to see?

Franchise quarterback Jalen Hurts returned after missing 2 ¾ games with the first concussion of his football life and executed a stripped-down game plan. Hurts threw some wonky passes and missed a few open receivers, but he threw no interceptions. He took two sacks, but for only 10 yards, and he protected the ball when he got sacked. He threw the ball away three times to avoid sacks. He wasn’t flashy, but he played smart football. Winning football.

Hurts also recorded a career-best 103.7 passer rating this season, which was fifth in the NFL, a career-best 68.7 completion rate, which ranked eighth, and 8.0 yards per attempt, which ranked fourth. Hurts also threw just five interceptions, third-fewest among quarterbacks with at least 13 starts. These are indicators of a quarterback who plays smart football and makes big plays. In a word, these are indicators of a well-coached quarterback, even if Hurts did throw more than 150 fewer times for almost 1,000 fewer yards this season.

“Any time you have won 14 or 15 [games], your quarterback’s been playing well,” Sirianni said Wednesday.

It goes far beyond Hurts.

Backup tight end Grant Calcaterra, a third-year sixth-round pick, filled in splendidly for twice-injured Dallas Goedert; Calcaterra had nine career catches entering this season. He caught 24 passes for 15 first downs and a touchdown in 2024. Three offensive linemen missed time due to injury and the Eagles still had the best line in football. Third-year lineman Cam Jurgens, in his first season playing center, made the Pro Bowl.

Defensive end Brandon Graham was lost for the season in Game 11, and the defense got better. Reserve linebacker Oren Burks replaced starter Nakobe Dean on Sunday and recorded four solo tackles and an assist. He was ready, and he produced. Sirianni doesn’t coach defense, but rest assured, if Burks had replaced Dean and played badly, or if the defense collapsed in Graham’s absence, then Sirianni would have borne the blame.

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Sunday’s performance was what didn’t happen.

Volcanic receiver A.J. Brown, who has a history of in-game histrionics and locker-room lawyering when he feels underused, caught just one pass for 10 yards. But Brown didn’t throw a tantrum. In fact, Brown famously read highlighted passages from a self-help book to keep himself calm and focused.

Combustible safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson, who was ejected from Game 15 for twice taunting the Washington Commanders, didn’t taunt anybody.

Pugnacious defensive tackle Jalen Carter, whose three unnecessary roughness penalties tied for the league lead, didn’t get into one single fight, scuffle, argument, or confrontation.

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Sirianni isn’t a babysitter, but if Brown, Carter, or Gardner-Johnson had cost the team yardage with bad penalties or had upset the sideline energy, Sirianni would have been blamed for not controlling his players.

But Sirianni did control his players. And he did control himself. And he did control the game, and he won, and that’s worth something.

Of course, winning again Sunday would be worth even more.