Why Jeffrey Lurie didn’t fire Eagles coach Nick Sirianni
I've known the Eagles' owner for 30 years. I spoke to a couple of people who know him even better. Here's what we think.
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Two weeks ago, I wrote that I didn’t think Nick Sirianni would be fired. I also wrote that I didn’t think Nick Sirianni should be fired. Apparently, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie agrees with me. Sirianni will hold a news conference Wednesday, and he’s reportedly interviewing Ron Rivera among others to be his new defensive coordinator.
No surprise, that. I’ve known Jeffrey for 30 years, and I’ve grown to learn how he thinks. I don’t necessarily agree with all of his decisions, and I don’t necessarily agree with the ones I listed here as considerations he likely weighed. But as half the fan base continues to scream for Sirianni’s head, and since we won’t hear from Jeffrey until the owners’ meetings in the spring, it’s worth reviewing the likely reasons why Lurie retained Sirianni.
I also spoke to two people who have experience working with Lurie in the past. This is what we came up with.
1. Sirianni is entering the fourth year of his five-year contract having won twice as many regular-season games as he has lost (34-17), plus a 2-3 playoff record. Sirianni’s message has never changed, and it resonated for more than 2½ years; he was 33-12 through 11 games this season. Lurie understands that a 42-year-old, first-time head coach might have a setback or two. He appreciates Sirianni’s willingness to regroup, like he did in 2021, when he surrendered play-calling duties seven games into the job. He also adores Sirianni’s emotional intelligence.
2. Lurie hired Sirianni. Nick was his pick. Lurie hates to be wrong.
3. Linebacker was the Eagles’ worst position this season, and they let a good one get away. Howie Roseman didn’t re-sign middle linebacker T.J. Edwards, who led the Eagles in tackles as he blossomed into a Pro Bowl-level talent in 2022, then did the same for the Bears in 2023 (he was snubbed both seasons). For a guaranteed $7.9 million over three years of a $19 million contract, Roseman could have brought Edwards back. Instead, the job fell to an undersized, second-year, third-round pick, Nakobe Dean, who was foundering before a season-ending foot injury.
4. Lurie adored the hiring of Brian Johnson as quarterbacks coach in 2021, not Sirianni. When Shane Steichen left for Indianapolis, Johnson’s promotion was inevitable; he and Jalen Hurts had a preexisting relationship that guaranteed Johnson the job. Johnson’s struggles were inevitable as a first-time NFL offensive coordinator. Sirianni cannot be solely blamed for Johnson, who reportedly will be fired.
5. Hurts regressed because he was physically compromised. He had offseason ankle surgery in February, then injured his left knee early in the season. All year, he lacked the burst and top-end speed that made him so effective in 2021 and 2022. Perhaps Sirianni should have accommodated Hurts better, or helped him evolve more quickly, but Sirianni is a wide receivers coach. He wasn’t hired to develop a quarterback.
6. Hurts regressed because he went off-script. A.J. Brown inadvertently revealed that he and Hurts went rogue in Seattle on the play that ended in a game-sealing interception. Sirianni then inadvertently revealed that Hurts often ignored the options that Johnson gave him and called his own shots. Of course, theoretically, the head coach should be able to manage that situation … but quarterbacks tend to usurp power when they’re suddenly under contract for $51 million a year for the next five years.
7. In the second half of the season, defensive tackle Fletcher Cox, center Jason Kelce, right tackle Lane Johnson, and cornerbacks Darius Slay and James Bradberry all played like the old men that they are. Sirianni cannot be blamed for old guys wearing down; he gives his guys more time off than Swedish workers.
8. The veterans lost the locker room, not Sirianni. He never had it to lose. Consider: The demonstrative Brown had to apologize for creating distractions after a two-week media boycott he staged to avoid discussing his disruptive and disreputable on-field and sideline antics that teammates told me were rooted in his displeasure at the play-calling. Kelce, Cox, Slay, Brandon Graham, and Lane Johnson are responsible for handling this; that’s been the case since Doug Pederson ceded locker-room policing to them in 2016. This season, they failed.
» READ MORE: Jason Kelce told me that Wednesdays were wearing on him. There’s more to his impending retirement than that.
9. Sirianni took the team to the Super Bowl in the 2022 season, which only three other Eagles coaches managed to do, and he took the Eagles to the playoffs in each of his first three seasons as a head coach, which no other coach has managed to do. Of course, the franchise’s history is tainted by a legion of lousy head coaches, so the bar is low.
10. Hurts’ development requires some measure of continuity. He has had seven offensive coordinators in the past eight seasons, counting college. I thought this also might save Brian Johnson’s job, but I guess not.