The Eagles have to get more daring on offense this season. Nick Sirianni has to let them.
"That ball is still the most important thing," Sirianni said Wednesday. Can the Eagles get where they need to go without putting it at greater risk?
OK, here’s a hypothetical scenario.
It’s Week 5 of the Eagles’ season. They’re 2-2, but their record is not the concerning thing, not really. They have lost their most recent game, at home to the Los Angeles Rams, but that loss, in and of itself, is not the concerning thing, not really. The Rams are favored to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl, after all, and any team would struggle to hold Myles Garrett at bay, and the Eagles could not.
No, here’s what’s concerning: Jalen Hurts is doing the one thing that he generally does not do. He’s turning the ball over. He’s throwing interceptions, and it’s clear that those interceptions are born of his acclimation to the Eagles’ new offensive system under their new offensive coordinator, Sean Mannion. The Eagles would be at least 3-1, perhaps 4-0, if not for Hurts tossing the ball to their opponents too many times.
» READ MORE: It looks — and sounds — like the Eagles knew what they were doing with Sean Mannion, Jeff Stoutland, and A.J. Brown
So … what does Nick Sirianni do in this scenario?
The question cuts to the core not only of the Eagles’ fortunes this season but their long-term future. And Hurts’ future. And Sirianni’s. Spend just a few minutes watching one of the Eagles’ recent minicamp workouts or listening to Hurts and Lane Johnson speak about Mannion’s offense, and you understand how big a change this will be and how committed the Eagles are to making it. Hurts will be under center more. The offensive line’s blocking techniques and schemes will be different. Oh, and A.J. Brown isn’t here anymore.
Mike Sielski alerts
Put simply, this transition may take some time, and it may be rough at the start. If it is, it promises to force Sirianni to choose between riding out Hurts’ rite of passage in Mannion’s system and falling back on one of his primary coaching principles: Above all else, protect the football.
“As long as I’m the head coach here, we’re going to be very diligent about winning that turnover battle and winning the explosive-play battle,” Sirianni said Wednesday. “I know it’s like, ‘OK, that sounds simple,’ but there’s an art to it because you’ve got to be able to create explosives in different ways and sometimes that puts the ball at risk. But at the end of the day, that ball is still the most important thing.
“We’ll know how to create explosives in that time, but taking care of the ball is the most important thing, and we talk about this all the time: Can we come out of a game with every drive ending in a kick? Whether that’s an extra point, hopefully, whether that’s a field goal, or whether that’s a punt.”
A quick review of the last two seasons provides plenty of evidence that Sirianni is pastor of The Church of Do No Harm. In 2024, Hurts threw the ball at least 30 times in each of the Eagles’ first four games and was intercepted four times as the Eagles went 2-2. Over the remaining 13 regular-season games, he surpassed 30 pass attempts in a game once, and he threw just one interception, and the Eagles rode Saquon Barkley, their O-line, and their defense to a Super Bowl victory.
In 2025, Hurts’ most daring passing performance — and, in Sirianni’s eyes, his most destructive — came in Week 14 against the Los Angeles Chargers. Hurts made some dazzling downfield throws that night … and tossed four picks, including one in overtime that ended the Eagles’ hopes of winning. His subsequent four games were a case study in cautiousness. He attempted just 15 passes in a rout of the (awful) Las Vegas Raiders. He had 185 passing yards on 30 attempts against the Washington Commanders, then threw for a piddling 110 yards (in freezing and windy weather, granted) against the Buffalo Bills, then managed just 168 yards on 35 attempts in that maddening wild-card loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
» READ MORE: Riq Woolen was a standout during OTAs and minicamp. Can he help the Eagles have the ‘best secondary?’
The Eagles wouldn’t have hired Mannion if they believed such an approach were sustainable. The combined greatness of Barkley and their offensive line was responsible for the offense’s quick-strike and big-play capabilities in 2024, and it had the added bonus of cutting down the occasions when Hurts or anyone else had to put possession of the football at risk. But those circumstances and conditions were ideal and difficult, if not impossible, to replicate, and the Eagles couldn’t and didn’t in 2025.
Now they have Mannion, who is regarded as a sharp, up-and-coming mind in the NFL. And they have Hurts, who for the sake of his own improvement and his team’s fate has to master a system unlike any he has played in before. And they have Sirianni, whose instinct has been to minimize any possibility of a big mistake. Something might have to give, and the season just might come down to the head coach and his ability to resolve a fundamental conflict within himself.
There was closure. There were opportunities to set records straight and start fresh. There was a chance for the Eagles to take the new philosophies and personnel acquired during the offseason, and give it all a test run on the field. What did the team find out about itself? How well prepared are the Eagles to hit the ground running in training camp once they return from their offseason hiatus later in the summer? The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff McLane and Jeff Neiburg watched this week’s mandatory minicamp practices at Eagles headquarters, and analyze what they saw. Listen here.
Listen to all episodes here or wherever you get your podcasts.
