The 10-1 Eagles are home underdogs vs. Niners. ‘Good,’ says Nick Sirianni.

The 10-1 Eagles may not seem like an obvious underdog.

They haven’t filled that role much in the last two seasons. The Birds went 14-3 in 2022 and are off to a similarly successful start in 2023.

But on Sunday, the Birds will take the field at the Linc for the first time this season as home underdogs when they host the San Francisco 49ers.

“Good, we like being the underdog,” head coach Nick Sirianni said Tuesday on the 94WIP Morning Show. “I think the first thing I ever knew about the city when I was a little kid was Rocky — he’s always the underdog. We like being the underdog. No one thought much of us going into last season and we played the underdog role well and here we are. Good. We like to be the underdog again.”

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The last time the Eagles were an underdog at Lincoln Financial Field was on Jan. 8, 2022, when the Dallas Cowboys came into Philadelphia as 6.5-point favorites and won the game 51-26. Of course, that was a regular-season finale, and only one of the teams (the Eagles) rested their starters.

This year’s Eagles aren’t too far removed from the 2017 team that went on an improbable Super Bowl run with backup quarterback Nick Foles under center. Some of the emotional leaders of that roster — like Brandon Graham, Lane Johnson, and Jason Kelce — are still with the Birds in 2023.

Johnson sported a dog mask on the field after an Eagles playoff win in 2018 and Kelce released a T-shirt honoring the city’s underdog mentality in 2022 after the Phillies’ World Series run.

“We were a bunch of underdogs. And you know what an underdog is? It’s a hungry dog,” Kelce memorably said at the Eagles’ Super Bowl parade. “... Any of you know who the biggest underdog is? It’s y’all, Philadelphia.”

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These Birds have also proven they have what it takes to be successful. They lost the Super Bowl in February and came back in 2023 looking even better. They’re also battle-tested, beating the Chiefs on the road as an underdog on Nov. 20 and pulling off a comeback win over the Bills on Nov. 26. The Eagles aren’t always the underdog anymore, but Sirianni still welcomes players using it as motivation, just as they’ve done in the past.

“If guys want to use [being an underdog] as motivation, use it,” Sirianni added. “If it’s a distraction, don’t use it. We say that all the time. There’s so many different things that can get you up for a game. We’ve got to make sure we’re up for every single game. If this adds some extra motivation for some of our guys, fantastic. If not, if it’s a distraction, block it out.”