PHILADELPHIA -- Nick Sirianni is back for a fourth season as the Philadelphia Eagles' head coach, and pressure for his job is at an all-time high. The Eagles lost six of their final seven games last season after a 10-1 start, marking one of the biggest collapses in NFL history. Just one year removed from a Super Bowl appearance, Sirianni is fighting to prove he should keep his job past 2024.
The Eagles brought in a new offensive coordinator in Kellen Moore and a new defensive coordinator in Vic Fangio, the third consecutive year the franchise had different coordinators on offense and defense. Also, Sirianni doesn't have the same role in the offense as before.
The only head coach in franchise history to take the Eagles to the playoffs in his first three seasons, Sirianni is under pressure to perform, thanks to last season's collapse. Sirianni is still 34-17 as a head coach, as his .667 win percentage is the highest in franchise history. The Eagles are 25-9 in the regular season over the last two seasons despite losing five of six to close the 2023 regular season. There's been success under Sirianni, who is looking to recapture that in 2024.
In a recent session with several Eagles reporters, Sirianni addressed a crucial offseason for the Eagles. The head coach discussed his new role with the team along with several other topics, including:
- Jalen Hurts
- Saquon Barkley
- Vic Fangio
- The 2023 collapse, end of season
- Players brought in for 2024
- What Sirianni learned
- Bill Belichick rumors
- Pressure heading into 2024
- His "CEO" role
Here's the full session with Sirianni, as the Eagles set to embark on the 2024 season with training camp on the horizon.
Sirianni on what training camp will look like going forward in terms of increased number of practices as well as length and physicality of practices:
"I think it's really important that ... we don't overcorrect. There is a danger in overcorrecting in my eyes. You have to adapt. You have to evolve. To overcorrect is a little -- I don't knock on wood because I don't believe in all that shit, but knock on wood -- [but] we're 3-0 to start the season. I put a lot of work to figuring out what it takes to win in the first game. What is necessary to win the first game? Last year we started off 5-0, the year before that we started off 8-0.
"The problem of where we stalled out last year had nothing to do with how training camp was. I do think that our practices, we're probably on the low end of time out there. There's people on the high-end extreme. We need to come up to [higher end], but I think we're closer to where we want to be than the high extreme people.
"I just think it's really important we don't overcorrect. Will there be changes? Yeah, there will be changes like we do with our defense. There'll be changes like we do with ball security. They'll be changes like we do with offense. I think we have to be very careful not to overcorrect. I mean, we have started the season well.
"Now 2021, we didn't. I think that was under different circumstances; 2022 and 2023, we have. And so, I think we all would take our first five games. 'You wanna start 5-0? Yeah, where do we sign up?' We have to be careful about that. Maybe the changes come a little bit more in practice as far as in the season -- a little bit differently. There have been more discussions on that. But one thing that we get when we practice the way we practice is, we get high, high intensity. We get more game-like reps because of that.
"When we have full pads on, the difference between not being live and being live is people getting tackled to the ground. Offensive line is live up front. So when the pads are on, those are full-go practices. Except that we're not tackling, and so guys aren't going to the ground and trying to alleviate some injuries that way."
Sirianni on the way last season ended and whether the Eagles are focusing more on it this offseason versus a normal offseason:
"A lot. A lot. There's segments of the year that what we did well and what we didn't do well. Then it turns into getting prepared for the draft and players coming in here. Then it becomes getting the players ready to go to practice during OTAs and your offseason workouts and then it's the practices. Just like anything, you can't stay stuck in the past. And you can't look too far into the future of it.
"So it's like, maybe we spent a little bit more time because of the way things fell. And we had more time. While everybody was playing in the playoffs and being where we wanted to be, we had more time to evaluate -- the appropriate amount of time in my opinion. You want to improve from it. It's really an awesome opportunity.
"I look at mistakes at practice and I'm like, 'Oh my God, we have an unbelievable opportunity to get better from this.' It's the same thing here. We have this unbelievable opportunity to get better at that. It's not an easy mindset to kind of establish -- it's actually a hard mindset, especially when you're going through it. I think that's very valuable.
"We definitely spent the appropriate amount of time doing that and going through that. Because at some point it's gotta be, 'All right. We're going through her. Here we go. Now we gotta get ready for these players to come in and teach ourselves the system of what we're doing to get going.' And i'm talking about offense and defense.
"But after every season, if you ask every player. You have an end-of-year meeting with everybody. You ask everybody's opinion. You have to do what's best for the 90 [-man roster] as a whole, but you also have to gather information of what did you think went wrong and what did you think went right? What did you like? What didn't you like. And you take all that information and you look for common themes and then you try to be honest with yourself and say 'OK, we gotta do a better job at that.'
"That's what that time frame is for. I think a lot of things that I really worked on are our core values and our culture of what that needed to look like. I spent a lot of time studying that. Now, that took a little bit longer for me. Not always do you have the opportunity to talk to the people you want to talk to right away.
"I talked to [South Carolina women's basketball coach] Dawn Staley and she talked to our leadership council. Her being a Philly native. So that was really valuable. I got an opportunity to talk to [former college basketball coach] Jay Wright, [St. John's basketball coach] Rick Pitino when we were in Indianapolis. There were so many things like that and some of those things don't always hit. Larry Kehres [former Mount Union coach] was here. I was just sitting in my office with him and asking him questions. I think I have everything spelled out the way Larry Kehres taught me back 20 years ago, but obviously there's things I forgot. There's things I don't remember that way and I was able to sit with him and talk to him about culture or whatever it was, but it was great.
"That same thing happens as you watch guys through the draft. You're going to see things you like offensively and defensively and say 'Hey, can we study that?' There's other opportunities for what you're asking, too, but we did a really good job of evaluating that and hopefully that shows up next year."
Sirianni on whether he knows what went wrong last season:
"Yeah, I mean, I have some thoughts. We know. I don't think that's something for everyone to know. So, I definitely have some thoughts and I know that at the end of the day -- whatever product is out there on that field is my responsibility.
"We didn't coach well enough. We didn't play well enough."
Sirianni on the moves the Eagles have made since then and if they're enough to rectify the problems Philly faced down the stretch in 2023:
"There are some things you might not see that are internal that we're working on as well. They might not be as visible on the field."
Sirianni on how much of the team issues falls on him:
"Ninety-seven percent. No [laughing]. I always think that whatever I'm responsible for, I want these guys to have accountability. I have to take accountability. As the head football coach, you're responsible for every product that is on that field. Everything.
"Well I don't have my hand in the defense, but I hired the defensive coordinator. I don't have my hand in special teams. But I hired the special teams coordinator. I don't have my hands on the offense. You teach the details and fundamentals that go with that. Not only do you teach that, you tell the assistant coaches what you expect. You tell the players what you expect. You lead the expectations based off what you said.
"One hundred percent on me."
Sirianni on what he's learned from the late-season swoon and if it will make him a better head coach:
"I firmly believe if you have a mindset that you're -- and if you can really truly believe that mindset of -- I'm going to get better. I promise you I get excited, I get excited at the moment. I was not happy at the plus-50 punt drill (during mandatory minicamp). We don't punt a lot there, it better be really good. Usually, I'm gonna go for that.
"I really truly get excited when mistakes happen because I know there's gonna be growth there. My injury in 2001 is such a good example in my eyes. Had I not went through something that I deemed the worst thing that I ever had to go through, maybe in my life, then I wouldn't be where I am today.
"It's hard to be in that mindset. But now that I'm older and went through those things, it's easier to share that experience with other people. I was good, I starred on that [2001] Mount Union team when I got this injury, but that injury made me realize that I loved football. I missed football.
"I would be in those games and my teammates would be going out and playing and I'd sob. I knew how much I loved it. I knew how much I needed it. I knew how important it was and it made me work so much harder that I'm not sure I was capable of prior to (that). Then I separated my shoulder one game, sprained my ankle another game and I was able to fight through that because of how much I needed it.
"What that did was drive me so much to become a better player because of how much I needed it. I loved it so much. I worked really hard at it. Because of that, I had success when I came back from this injury. Had I not had that success, I don't think Coach Kehres would have given me an opportunity to coach.
"I got an opportunity to coach from the best and learn from him. That doesn't happen without this experience. I'm sorry to get over the top, but I can see that in myself and I can see it in this.
"We failed our expectations of what we wanted to do, but it's going to make us better. There's steps to becoming great. If we win -- I'm not going to say this year because I don't like to think that way -- but let's just say it for this aspect. If we win, I guarantee we look back at that and say 'it's because of this (year).' At some point, it's gonna be looked at that in my eyes."
Sirianni on what he's learned about this Eagles team this offseason and how eager he is to see things come together without locker-room leaders Jason Kelce and Fletcher Cox no longer there:
"First and foremost, I'll miss them greatly and I love those guys. It's hard to think you become so close with guys over a three-year span. And they've been in the NFL so long, so I'll miss those guys greatly.
"I just see how much this team is working. Day in and day out. Taking it one day at a time. Making their habits special each and every day, knowing that 'if my habit is not special today, we're gonna pay for it later.'
"I'm just looking forward to seeing them all come back. That's the next step. Seeing them all come back in great shape. You can't play in great detail if you're not in great shape. Seeing them run through the conditioning test and going through that first practice, I'm just excited for that. I'm excited just for the journey. I'm excited to enjoy the journey and just -- I think that's it. Enjoying the journey is a really critical point of this."
Sirianni on the addition of Saquon Barkley:
"I love his ability, obviously. That's why he's here. I love his competitiveness, his energy. He's got this seriousness of 'I'm going to work and get better today.' Any time you add special, special guys to a group of other special guys, it's gonna be a cool thing."
Sirianni on dealing with a Super Bowl hangover and the pressure that came with that, and then having to deal with the opposite after how last year ended:
"This is a new team. All we're worried about, concerned about is the 2024 Eagles. We went through our stuff and we learned from last year. And then, you implement those things her and you're gonna continue to implement them.
"Saquon Barkley doesn't care. In fact, he was really happy we lost the last game last year against the Giants. Same thing with Oren Burks. Same thing with Zack Baun, Devin White. This is the 2024 Eagles and our expectations is to enjoy the journey and get better daily.
"There's nothing we can do about the past except learn from it. 'Dawg mentality' is not just moving on from the next play, but learning from what you screwed up and getting better from that. That shouldn't be on our mind (last year).
"I'm not even in the headspace to think about what happened coming off of last year. That's too far in the past. We'll learn from what we did last year and we'll get better."
Sirianni on controlling only what he can control in regards to the Bill Belichick hiring rumors:
"All I really took at this was I had Mr. Lurie's [Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie] trust and they said, 'Hey, let's go back and let's do it again.' That's all I thought about. I haven't really thought about anything else. I think it's really tricky to think about things that you can't control.
"Control what you can control. That's what I've tried to do and trying to lead this team like I've always tried to lead this team. Trying to lead the culture because I know that's what they're looking at me, and they're looking at our leaders to lead that culture. That's what I tried to do since the end of last year. I'm really pleased with our offseason and let's see where we go from there."
Sirianni on making changes to the offense he loves:
"I think things are always difficult. Yeah I do, I love it, but at the end of the day you always have to do what you feel is best for the team. I think that's selflessness. Regardless of how much I love something, it's what's best for the team.
"In this case, what was best for the team is that I brought [new OC] Kellen [Moore] in the offense. We share some thoughts and he goes with it. That's what I felt was best for the team.
"I thought [former Eagles OC] Shane [Steichen] calling plays in 2021 was best for the team. I felt that switching [defensive] coordinators last year was best for the team. And I felt there's a lot of decisions that I have to make, and that I have to listen to a lot of different input. I have to listen to a lot of different people. I want it to be collaborative because I don't have all the answers and I have a lot of really good people around me, and I got great players around me that want to listen.
"At the end of the day, I gotta do what's best for the team. Sometimes it is hard. I won't lie to you, that was hard last year (switching coordinators) -- but I knew in my gut what was best for the team. And I see a lot of positives from it. I'm able to see things from a 30,000-foot view. That doesn't mean I don't have opinions on what should that look like.
"That stuff doesn't happen, but I truly believe me going in that defensive end room is critical. Me going in that offensive line room is critical. Me being able to step out of all rooms together and have a conversation with a player who needs me, that certain time to be his head coach, is critical.
"What you need to do is do what's best for the team because you love the team. Not because you love your selfish reasons of what you want. I really feel good about that. I feel good about the direction we're going and I feel we've had a good offseason."
Sirianni on dealing with any added pressure on his shoulders in terms of what's expected of the head coach after a shaky finish to last season:
"It's the NFL. At the end of the day, if we don't win enough, it will be hard for me to continue to work here. And I get that.
"That goes back to the things you can control. I can control our daily process. I can control the message of, 'Hey this is what's important.' And everybody else has to continue to do that, too. That's what I can control. I can't control everything else. I can't think about 'What if we start this way? What if we do this or what if we do that?' All I can control is daily, but that's so much easier said than done, but I do believe it.
"If I don't practice what I believe, than I'm full of shit. Right? I have to practice what I believe in connection. I have to practice what I believe in accountability. I have to practice what I believe in detail. I have to practice what I believe in toughness. Part of mental toughness is controlling the things that you can control.
"So not only am I full of shit to the players I'm trying to lead, but I would be full of shit to the three kids at home I'm trying to lead. As I really try to think about the core values and our habits, my mind really embraces that and is able to be like, 'All right. The core values are so important and I'm going to dive into them today.' How am I going to navigate this today?
"And if that's going to be the way my mind works in football, than that's going to be the way my mind works at home, too. I started thinking about the core values and how important that is.
"Connect, love, accountability, tough. Those are the Sirianni core values. It's the one day at a time. It's the one day being intentional about the core values. At the end of the day, I gotta control those core values. It's all those things.
"There is a ton of pressure, right? Control what you can control and that's your daily process. Whether that's with your family, whether that's with our team, or whatever it is. That's easier said than done, but little victories like that -- they happen with the team as well."
Sirianni on Jalen Hurts and how he's dealing with a new OC and a very new offense, and what's impressed him most about the veteran quarterback's approach this entire offseason:
"He's putting a ton of time in. Sometimes that's different words. That's a tricky thing, too. We might have the same concept, but that's a change, too. I admire how much time he's put into that. Not only is he working his butt off in the weight room, he's working his butt off on the practice field and his leadership. He's also learning new words and learning new ways to do things -- and learning all new concepts.
"That's hard, right? That's hard. I really respect how he has done that. He's done some nice things during camp. You can't do that unless you -- we always say you can't play with great detail unless you're in great shape -- but having great detail is knowing what to do and how to do it. Knowing what my assignment is, but also knowing what my drop is. Knowing how to finish, how to follow through, all those different things."
Sirianni on the dynamic so far with Vic Fangio as the defensive coordinator following the reported issues that came out of Miami and apparent relationships that got strained between the old-school coach and his defensive players:
"I haven't seen any of that stuff from Coach [Fangio]. I see him working at the relationships with me, the other coaches, working at the relationships with the players. I think the beginning stages of, I always say this: 'Players don't need any more friends, and coaches don't need any more friends.' We coach a lot and we spend a lot of our time doing that, so we don't need any more friends.
"The beginning part of the relationship is, yes, we have to let them know we care about them. You get that through time. That doesn't happen right away. It happens gradually. How do you really get to be tight with a player? How do you get to be close with them? You have to know you're gonna get them better. That starts there. Then, when they know you can get them better -- the relationship can build.
"Then you can start asking a little bit about their personal lives. And some of it happens beforehand, too, but you get to know the player gradually. But when they know you can get them better, that's when you truly can build relationships. Otherwise, you're just buddies. I don't want coaches and players being just buddies. I want there to be a real relationship where you're both making each other better. And then we can learn even more about each other and our relationship can grow.
"I say all that to say, I know the players are seeing the coaches helping them get better though different things that he's doing with them. The ways he's putting them in positions. They haven't even gotten to that point of 'Oh my gosh, that was brilliant that he went from this to this.'
"Listen, I don't know what happens at different places. All I can see is the way our organization runs, lead the way through our core values, and I've been so pleased with Coach Fangio and the way he's led the defense thus far.
"I've been able to sit in a bunch of those meetings and there's not a lot of fluff there. You did your job or you didn't do your job. There's a beauty to that."
Sirianni on the grind that comes with being an NFL head coach, and what he's learned about the job after three years in Philly:
"I think at the end of the day you have to have joy for what you do. That's what I felt this offseason. I had joy in knowing that we're not only helping these players get better. I really relished in the sense in that we help them get better.
"It's not natural to connect here in this world. You have to teach guys to have connecting, right? Put the phones down, get to know each other. It's not natural. Accountability is not natural, generally speaking. And so, those are things -- they're so important in this life. To me, there's joy in that.
"Not only are you helping them become better football players and trying to make them the best they possibly can be. So they can reach all their dreams and we can reach all our dreams together. There's joy in that. You lose focus of that.
"I think you just naturally do ... I feel lighter in the sense of finding why I got into this in the first place. I think at the end of the day, I got into this because of the relationships. I remember my first couple years coaching, I remember reading at Mount Union the John Wooden book on the pyramid of success.
"The last one was competitive greatness. Why is competitive greatness important in reading though that? I'm hoping to be a better football player, but also hoping to be a better man. It's kinda cool.
"We know the job's hard. We know it's not easy and nobody in the NFL has it easy. We want to go win, and that's the main goal. You don't get to have the joy of being a coach if you don't win. But I'm finding that joy in [coaching], and that makes it lighter on your burden.
"I really appreciated that this offseason of being able to lead and lead men and have the relationships."
Sirianni on dealing with the rough finish to the Eagles' season in Tampa:
"I just knew that my three kids loved me. I still knew that my wife loved me. I still had some joy in my heart."
Sirianni on if he had any thoughts that his time in Philly would be ending:
"Not really. I don't know, I didn't think that. Because at the end of the day, that's something that's not in my control. We always had us winning games and the product on the field, that was in my control. At the end of the year for seven games, I failed at that. Sometimes, you have to play the cards as they lie after that. I got another opportunity to coach the team and I'm grateful for that.
"My plan is to make Mr. Lurie know he made the right decision by bringing me back. But at the end of the day, that's not something I can control. And so, I think more than anything I hurt for the people in that room.
"I really hurt for Jason Kelce, Fletcher Cox. I probably had the sense they weren't gonna play anymore. That always hurts. You always want the let the guys that probably aren't gonna play football anymore go out on top. You do that for their goals, but obviously you have goals as well.
"I don't think my mindset was on that. It was on the hurt. You're pissed. As a competitor, you're angry that you lost and you're hurting for the other guys on your team. To be quite honest with you, that wasn't on my mind."
Sirianni on being more of a CEO-type coach:
"Being a CEO-type coach, not all my time is ... I talked to Rick Pitino, I talked to Dawn Staley. I think for the last three years, I've been heavily involved in the offense as I am heavily involved. I'm still the CEO of the culture of the football team, right? All the things that the head coach has to do.
"I was doing both jobs. I'm just able to take some time away from the offensive job. That doesn't mean it's not the details, because that's part of the culture. All those different things and put it more into this. I had experience with this, I'm just taking some of this team away from offense and putting it more into this.
"And again, I think that's where some joy comes from. We're headed in a good direction and all those different things. So I didn't necessarily say 'Hey talk to be what it's like being a CEO (coach).' I would ask those coaches different things about different culture, but I don't think I asked them about -- generally speaking -- what did you do there?"
Sirianni on if he's still in charge of the offense:
"I've taken a step back from the offense, but if what I'm saying is 100% say over something here, or defense or special teams, generally speaking. Am I going to every offensive meaning? I'm not. So there's things that I can't say, 'Hey we're doing this,' because that would be ridiculous.
"And so, you're still going to have general philosophies over this. But what's important for this team and I think this is the easiest way to see this. My job is to be the head football coach and oversee everything that comes of that. That's our culture, that's our game management, that's everything that's involved in it.
"That's what I'm gonna strive to do. My best is to be the head coach of all those different things. Detail lies under that. Detail in how we tackle, detail in how we know the playbook, detail in the plus-50 punts. Accountability, connect, and toughness."
Sirianni on communicating to people under his new role:
"I think when you're in every offensive meeting. You go to every game plan meeting, naturally you're not gonna have time to have a meeting with a player that needs you to be able to talk to them. I noticed that with myself a lot last year.
"'I can't do this right now. I gotta go do this.' I didn't call plays last year, but I wanted to help with that and it was my expertise of helping that. Just like it was in 2021 and 2022. Everything I had to do was because I felt like I had to go to the next thing and the next thing on offense. When you have that feeling and when you have that what you're doing there. I felt a mistake that I made was that.
"What's best for the team and what's needed for the team is me to be the head coach, not the offensive coordinator. For multiple reasons."
Sirianni on whose decision that was:
"Mine. Just like it was my idea to let Shane [Steichen] call the plays. Just like it was my idea to hire Vic Fangio, Sean Desai or Jonathan Gannon. Just like it was my idea to switch from Sean Desai to Matt Patricia.
"That doesn't mean you don't collaborate with everybody, because you do. It would be crazy not to. At the end of the day, my job is to gather the information and try to make the best decision for 90 (players)."