Nick Sirianni fired Eagles DB coach Dennard Wilson, sources say. Here’s why that’s a big deal.

Nationally, the veteran assistant’s exit is being painted as a mutual parting of ways. Sources tell The Inquirer that wasn’t the case.

Former Eagles defensive passing game coordinator and defensive backs coach Dennard Wilson meets with the media during training camp.Read moreYONG KIM / Staff Photographer

by Marcus Hayes and Matt Mullin

Published Mar. 6, 2023, 12:17 p.m. ET

Less than a month after falling to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII, there appears to be trouble brewing down at the NovaCare Complex.

The reports coming out nationally suggested that Dennard Wilson, the Eagles’ now-former passing game coordinator and defensive backs coach, had left the teams in a mutual parting of ways. But sources told The Inquirer’s Marcus Hayes something very different.

Following a meeting this weekend between Wilson and Nick Sirianni, sources say it was the Birds head coach who made the call to fire the popular assistant, despite Wilson’s assurances that he would work well with new defensive coordinator Sean Desai — even after he was passed over for a promotion to the same position.

You can read Hayes’ full column here, but we’ve broken out some revealing nuggets to help highlight the key points.

How did Dennard Wilson’s firing play out?

As we mentioned above, it depends who you ask. Nationally, it’s not even being considered a firing at all. Instead, it was being reported that the two sides were “mutually parting ways.”

According to Hayes’ sources, however, that appears to not be the case:

After an acrimonious meeting this weekend, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni fired popular and productive defensive backs coach Dennard Wilson on Saturday, two league sources confirmed. Sirianni passed over Wilson in his exhaustive search to replace Gannon and hired Seattle Seahawks defensive assistant Sean Desai instead.

Wilson was, understandably, disappointed that he did not get the DC job. Sirianni knew this.

Sources said Sirianni met with Wilson over the weekend looking for — and receiving — assurances that Wilson would cooperate with Desai. Yet Sirianni nevertheless was convinced that Wilson would not work well with Desai. This, despite Wilson working well with Gannon, even though they never were kindred spirits before Gannon got the head coach job in Arizona.

The Eagles are trying to paint this as an amicable split. Untrue, according to sources. Wilson wanted to stay.

Marcus Hayes

Who made the decision to fire Dennard Wilson?

Given the tension over staffing decisions and personnel control at the end of Doug Pederson’s time at the helm, it wouldn’t be surprising to think that this decision came from above and that Sirianni was just doing the bidding of owner Jeffrey Lurie or general manager Howie Roseman. That’s not the case, according to Hayes.

Both owner Jeffrey Lurie and general manager Howie Roseman adored Wilson, league sources said. This matters because, after meddling in former coach Doug Pederson’s staffing decisions to the degree that Lurie fired Pederson in part over control issues, Lurie and Roseman have not interfered much with Sirianni’s staffing. Like Pederson, Sirianni took the Eagles to the Super Bowl in his second season. Unlike Sirianni, Pederson won it.

This was entirely Sirianni’s call, sources say. Attempts to reach the Eagles for comment were not returned.

Marcus Hayes

Why is his exit a big deal?

In short, the Eagles are now undergoing massive changes at what was one of their best position groups on the team: the secondary, where the team could also lose the likes of James Bradberry and C.J. Gardner-Johnson this offseason — not to mention Darius Slay is entering a contract year.

And that’s where this all gets a bit more worrisome. Some of those players just mentioned are big fans of Wilson, and publicly went to bat for their position coach earlier this season.

“Man with all these new coaches getting jobs.. I kno my guy Dennard Wilson should be a DC in the NFL!!” Slay tweeted.

Gardner-Johnson quoted that tweet and added his own endorsement of the now-former Eagles assistant.

Aside from his players having his back, Wilson is also a heck of a coach.

What did Dennard Wilson bring to the Eagles?

A veteran NFL coach, Wilson’s success on the field spoke for itself, especially this past season.

Wilson, an 11-year NFL assistant who, like Gannon, was part of Sirianni’s first Eagles staff in 2021, was the DB coach and the defensive passing game coordinator of the No. 1 pass defense in the NFL. The Eagles’ 70 sacks set a franchise record, but many of those sacks developed because receivers simply were not open. The Eagles tied for fourth in the NFL with 17 interceptions.

Marcus Hayes

But Wilson wasn’t just a good coach on the field, but he was also a big factor off the field as well.

Wilson’s influence went far beyond the field; he handled the team’s most volatile group of players like a demolition expert handles nitroglycerine.

For instance, Wilson defused a potentially explosive situation after the Eagles’ Christmas Eve loss at Dallas. After the game, Slay pointed a finger at backup slot corner Josiah Scott, who blew a coverage that allowed the Cowboys to convert a third-and-30 en route to a key loss. In fact, Wilson turned a potentially disastrous situation into a team-building moment. [...]

Wilson often had to chasten Slay, a disruptive diva in Detroit who became a foundational leader in Philly.

“All the time,” Wilson told me last month. “It only lasts about 10 seconds, but, like every day. He knows when I get real serious, and he gets quiet. If I get on him about something, he’ll come back with a sly comment to ease the tension.”

Marcus Hayes

In conclusion, according to Hayes, “after losing offensive coordinator and play caller Shane Steichen to the Colts, and with wholesale changes coming on the defensive roster, this move could well be Sirianni’s Waterloo.”

Already?