With New Eagles Coordinators incoming, What is Nick Sirianni’s Job
Yesterday Eagles GM Howie Roseman and Head Coach Nick Sirianni held their end of season press conference. After an historic collapse to end the season, people have been questioning Sirianni’s job status since mid-December. Owner Jeffery Lurie ultimately decided to keep the head coach, but stories were that the coordinators needed to be fired. Thank you Captain.
During the press conference it was reported that the Dolphins and defensive coordinator Vic Fangio had mutually agreed to part ways. Vic wanted to be closer to family in Scranton. What do you know, Philadelphia is much closer to Scranton than Miami! Reports are that Vic is on his way to Philly this morning to sign a deal to be the Eagles new Defensive Coordinator. That’s a really good start to this offseason. Next step is to add more talent for Fangio to work with. Say goodbye to seeing Haason Reddick dropping into coverage.
Plenty of questions were asked regarding the offensive coordinator position, and what the offense would look like next year. Nick Sirianni said that the new offensive coordinator will be bringing in a scheme when hired, and would be in charge of the offense. Vic Fangio will be in charge of the defense. The OC ‘to be named later’ is in charge of the offense. What is Sirianni’s job?
That question was asked almost verbatim, by (it sounds like) ESPN’s Tim McManus, to what I just wrote above. Nick’s answer was the he’s the head coach. Saying it’s similar to current role, but may be more involved in meetings outside of the offense. In charge of building the culture of the franchise, and their values. Overseeing everything.
It seems like people are going back to the, he’s a puppet story line. To be honest with you I’m fine with him ceding responsibilities to these coordinators. He’s going to be in meeting with the offensive coaches forming a game plan each week. It’s not as though he will be there to oversee practices and game day stuff. He’s still going to be planning with this new awesome DC and hopefully awesome OC, but he’ll put it more on their plates. That sounds fine to me. If the correct people are hired you let them do what they do best. You put in your two cents and let them incorporate that into the game plan. You keep everyone happy, take the bullets for the players when you need to.
Next season he is still going to have an inferno burning under his seat. If the team starts out 0-3 or 1-4… see ya. That’s on the old ball coach. That 34-17 regular season record Sirianni has is teetering on the edge. It’s probably the reason Lurie even brought him back. It’s crazy, but the Sunday after Thanksgiving that loss column only had 7 losses in it. His ability to oversee the righting of the Eagles’ ship quickly will determine how much time he has left with this team.
Analyzing the Regression of Jalen Hurts in 2023
Regression As A Runner
Nick Sirianni pushed back against the idea that the offense wouldn’t utilize Hurts as a runner in 2023 because of concerns about his long-term health on a lucrative contract.
“We didn’t pay him more to do less.” -Nick Sirianni
The offense didn’t demonstrate Sirianni’s words well. The RPO game didn’t keep defenses guessing the same way it did in 2022. Hurts lacked the same agility as a runner that previously made him a dangerous weapon on the ground. He also showed a tendency to slide in front of opposing defenders with less hesitation in 2023.
An early-season knee injury affected Hurts in the running game. Even medical professionals and individuals with inside knowledge will struggle to pinpoint the subjective extent of how much that type of injury limits an offense.
Is it possible that he returns healthy in 2024 and solves a lot of the issues? Yes, but it’s tough to absolve Hurts or the Eagles just based on that explanation.
The Eagles looked out of sync in the RPO game when Hurts needed to make quick decisions with the option to hand off to his running backs.
They finished fifth in the NFL in third down conversion rate in 2023. However, the success of the “Tush Push” skews the statistics significantly. Success rate statistics don’t paint an accurate picture of Hurts on the ground because the notorious short yardage play moved the chains so often.
Hurts deserves his fair share of credit for his power style in the trenches. The Tush Push isn’t an offensive formula that will lead the Eagles to a Super Bowl though. The success of the play also skewed his average yards per carry (YPC), which dropped from 4.6 in 2022 to 3.9 in 2023.
The declining performance on third down conversion rates late in the season represented the offensive problems well. The issue bottomed out when the Eagles failed to convert on a single third down in the postseason.
The Effect of Coaching
The lack of creativity in Nick Sirianni’s offense became a major talking point locally and nationally by the end of the season. The Eagles showed an overreliance on vertical routes without enough effective ways to disguise their plays before the snap. The simplicity was most obvious during the playoff loss in Tampa Bay.
The struggles make it more difficult to identify the extent of Hurts’ regression and the coaching factor. While coaching unquestionably played a part, Ben Solak pointed out that offensive flow comes from a marriage of offensive system, offensive design, and player execution.
The offensive system worked in 2022 with a similarly simple approach that relied on pure talent. The success of the offense in 2022 and the struggles in 2023 with a similar approach indicate that the lack of execution from the starting signal-caller played a major part, regardless of whether it was the root cause.
Jalen Hurts couldn’t handle the blitz with poise in the pocket, especially late in the season. Too often, he let problems in blitz protection push him out of the pocket too quickly and throw the ball out of bounds.
Tim McManus reported that Hurts, Brian Johnson, and Nick Sirianni never fully aligned on their idea of what the Philadelphia offense could be.
