Nick Sirianni addresses potential staff changes, says he didn’t flip off Eagles fans
Sirianni enters the team's bye week still searching for answers amid the franchise's worst stretch in 14 years.
As Nick Sirianni walked off the field after losing to the Giants on Sunday — the Eagles’ seventh loss in a row — he appeared to some observers to extend his middle finger toward fans in a video that has since gone viral on social media.
Asked about this on Monday, the sixth-year head coach strongly denied it.
“When [Eagles senior vice president of communications] Bob [Lange] told me that, absolutely not,” Sirianni said. “That was a surprise to me. But absolutely not.”
» READ MORE: Who’s likely out, who’s untouchable, the Eagles’ 2027 plans, and more highlights from our NFL trade deadline AMA
This is how things have gone for the Eagles this season. Instead of Sirianni’s Monday news conferences being about Xs and Os, he’s spending time answering whether or not he flipped the bird toward fans, the bulk of whom are frustrated with him right now.
Their frustrations are unsurprising. The Eagles are 2-7 for the first time since 1999. They’re riding a seven-game losing streak for the first time since they dropped eight straight games in Andy Reid’s final year of 2012.
This skid has come with embarrassing headlines, like how the NFL flexed the team’s Week 11 matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers (6-2) — the “Battle of Pennsylvania” — on Nov. 22 from a 4:25 p.m. national broadcast to 1 p.m. on CBS.
The biggest reason for the Eagles’ cold stretch is the offense, which entered the year with high hopes under new coordinator Sean Mannion. He was supposed to implement an offense similar to that of Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay.
Instead the attack is scoring just 16.4 points per game, averaging 260 yards and has coughed up 3.5 sacks per game.
Regardless, Sirianni said he hasn’t made any staff changes after their latest loss to the Giants.
» READ MORE: As Sean Mannion’s offense struggles, other Eagles OC candidates aren’t faring much better elsewhere
“No,” Sirianni said. “Right now we’re just going through. We went through the [Giants] game this morning… We’re going through our self-scout process. Guys are working on studies right now and we’re determined to figure things out and get on the right track and that’s what we’re worried about right at this particular time.”
Sirianni also addressed the trade deadline, which is Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET. Do the Eagles — whose playoff odds shrunk to less than 1% on Sunday, according to The Athletic — plan on being sellers? Sirianni wouldn’t give a straight answer.
“What I’m considering is how we get better and how we get out of this funk that we’re in,” he said. “That is my job — is to write the ship. And that’s all I’m focused on right now.”
A crucial crossroads is here. The Eagles have reached the bye and, as timing would also have it, the NFL trade deadline, mired in their worst stretch of the Nick Sirianni era. There’s no doubt the franchise needs to course correct, but how? With who? Will players be on the move? Could coaches’ jobs be on the line? The Inquirer’s Jeff McLane and Olivia Reiner conduct an autopsy of the Eagles after their seventh straight loss — a 19-11 defeat to the New York Giants — and look at the big picture of an organization that has swiftly fallen far from its Super Bowl glory two years ago. Listen here.
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