All signs point to Nick Sirianni staying on as Eagles head coach

All signs point to Nick Sirianni staying on as Eagles head coach.

After meeting with Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie on Friday to lay out his plan for the 2024 season, Sirianni is likely to remain at the helm while reconfiguring his coaching staff.

There have been indications of Sirianni‘s return following the meeting in the last few days, and the team’s announcement that the coach will hold a news conference Wednesday alongside general manager Howie Roseman overwhelmingly suggests as much.

Sirianni also was the one to fire defensive coordinator Sean Desai on Sunday, according to a league source. Senior defensive assistant Matt Patricia, who wasn’t under contract beyond this season, is also “exploring other opportunities,” according to an NFL source. Sirianni’s staff shake-up is also expected to include offensive coordinator Brian Johnson.

Sirianni’s staffing changes follow an unprecedented late-season collapse. The team lost six of its last seven games, including a 32-9 drubbing at the hands of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the wild-card round of the playoffs last Monday.

» READ MORE: Eagles fire defensive coordinator Sean Desai

Sirianni has led the Eagles to three consecutive playoff berths and took them to the Super Bowl last year, but the free fall the last few months left his job security subject to rampant speculation in the aftermath of the loss in Tampa.

The 42-year-old coach’s meeting with Lurie was to lay out his plans to fix the issues that faced the team during the losing stretch and seemingly satisfied lingering concerns enough to keep his job.

After losing offensive coordinator Shane Steichen, hired as the Colts’ head coach following the 2022 season, Sirianni and Johnson’s offensive philosophy struggled to evolve as opposing defenses caught up to a scheme centered on run-pass option plays and quarterback runs. A year after finishing second in total yards and third in defense-adjusted value over average, which measures efficiency considering opponent strength, the Eagles ranked eighth and 10th this season.

Teams blitzed quarterback Jalen Hurts more than they did previously and put a bigger emphasis on taking away deep shots on the perimeter, two changes for which Sirianni and Johnson never found consistent counterpunches.

Hurts threw a career-high 15 interceptions in the regular season and lost five fumbles, giving him the highest turnover total of his career as well.

More predictably, the Eagles are due for a significant overhaul to the defensive side of the ball. Sirianni stripped Desai of play-calling duties going into the Eagles’ Week 15 matchup with the Seattle Seahawks, a move that turned out to be an inflection point for the already-foundering defense. The swap backfired, with the defense giving up 400-plus yards to mediocre offenses in each of its last three games.

Sirianni said he made the decision to appoint Patricia as de facto defensive coordinator on his own accord, but it’s worth mentioning that Roseman had an existing relationship with the longtime New England Patriots assistant and helped put him on Sirianni’s radar.

“I made the decision,” Sirianni said after the Eagles’ 20-17 loss to Seattle. “I did what I thought I needed to do in the best interest of the football team. We made some adjustments there. Didn’t feel like we were playing and coaching well enough on defense, so I made an adjustment. It was my decision.”

When Lurie hired Sirianni before the 2021 season, he noted his potential to improve over time as a selling point. Sirianni is 34-17 in the regular season and 2-3 in the postseason after three years, giving him the highest winning percentage in franchise history and making him the NFL’s most successful coach hired in the last three seasons.

Sirianni received impassioned votes of confidence from two key veterans following last Wednesday’s player exit interviews, with both Jason Kelce and Fletcher Cox going to bat for their coach.

“There ain’t even no [bleeping] discussion about that,” Cox said, later adding: “Come on, man. What is it to talk about? He’s a winner. He’s a winning head coach. Did we have some bumps this year? Yeah. But every team, every organization, everybody goes through it. But we don’t look at firing a man who obviously has won 10-plus games two years in a row and that’s took this organization to three playoff appearances three years in a row. ... Did things happen this year? Yeah. But I don’t discuss about firing a man — this man’s got a family — I don’t discuss anything about that.”

Kelce added: “Of course, I love Nick. I think Nick’s a great coach, I really do. ... Obviously, nobody was good enough this year. I wasn’t. None of the players. None of the coaches were good down the stretch. That’s the reality of this business. It’s a collective thing. I’ll always have faith in Nick Sirianni.”

» READ MORE: Jason Kelce mostly mum on his future while trying to assess what went wrong with the Eagles

Hurts offered slightly less conviction when asked about Sirianni, both in his postgame news conference last Monday and again last Wednesday after most players had finished cleaning out their lockers for the offseason.

The 25-year-old quarterback eventually did say he was planning on turning things around with Sirianni and Johnson, though.

“Owners own, coaches coach, and players play,” Hurts said after originally offering a seemingly evasive answer two days earlier. “I answered that question the other day. ... I didn’t even know that was a thing. I had no idea that was a thing.”

“I don’t see why that wouldn’t be the case. We’re planning on fixing everything that we’ve done and growing together, Coach Sirianni, Brian, everyone.”