From Flowers to the Super Bowl — The Journey of Nick Sirianni

After firing Super Bowl winning coach Doug Pederson there were huge shoes to fill for the next Eagles Head Coach. Coming off a 4-11-1 season, and the benching of their starting QB, the Eagles job wasn’t viewed as very “attractive”. Some of the top candidates like Brian Daboll declined to interview for the job. Daboll of course is the now head coach of the Giants who the Eagles beat three times this season. After a few weeks of searching, the Eagles hired Colts Offensive Coordinator Nick Sirianni.

Life Before the NFL

Nick Sirianni was born on June 15th, 1981 in Jamestown, New York. His father Fran was the Head Coach of the Southwestern Central High School football team. Sirianni played under his father before graduating in 1999. He then contained his football career as a Receiver at Mount Union. While at Mount Union, his teams won three Divison III National Championships in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Sirianni graduated in 2003 with a degree in Education.

While Nick never played in the NFL, he was drafted to the Canton Legends in the 7th round of the 2005 American Indoor Football Association draft.

Pre Eagles NFL Career

Sirianni finally cracked into the NFL in 2009 as he was hired as the Offensive Quality Control Coach for the Kansas City Chiefs. He was then promoted to Wide Receivers Coach by Romeo Crennel. After the 2012 season, the Chiefs hired former Eagles Head Coach Andy Reid. Reid decided to not retain Sirianni.

After being let go by the Chiefs, Sirianni found a job as the Offensive Quality Control Coach of the San Diego Chargers. During his time in San Diego, and Los Angeles, Sirianni had multiple different positions including Quarterbacks Coach and Wide Receivers Coach.

After winning the Super Bowl as the Eagles’ Offensive Coordinator, the Colts hired Frank Reich as their Head Coach. After working together with the Chargers, Reich hired Sirianni to be his Offensive Coordinator. While Reich called the plays, Siranni was given a ton of credit for creating an offense around their QB Phillip Rivers.

Eagles

After firing Doug Pederson, the Eagles named Nick Sirianni as the next Head Coach of the team. Sirianni was not very well known by many Eagles fans, and he was not even the Eagles’ top choice. When the Eagles contacted Sirianni for an interview he was on vacation with his family. Jeff Lurie and Howie Roseman flew to where he was vacationing and were blown away with Nick.

Sirianni’s tenure as Head Coach got off to an extremely rough start. During his opening press conference he talked about his core values, how he will run his system, and how being smart is knowing what to do. It was clear that he was nervous, as he stuttered through some of his responses, but people did not hold back. He was ripped both locally and nationally with some calling him a “high school coach”. Before even playing a game many people ranked him as a “D” hire.

Sirianni’s first season did not start too well either. The team started 2-5 and many people were calling for him to be fired. After a “soft” training camp and a bad start, he had a huge hole to dig out of. Then came the flower speech.

During a press conference, Sirianni talked about how he showed the team a slideshow of flowers. He talked to them about how even if you are watering and fertilizing the plant, it won’t grow right away. He talked to them about how while they are not seeing the results yet, they are laying the groundwork for success. This set the media world on fire. People claimed that football players will be turned off by talks of flowers. Former players ripped him and said he was way over his head. But this turned into the turning point of the season. Before their next game, Jason Kelce broke down the huddle with “flowers on three”. The players saw their coach getting ripped nationally and decided they would have his back, and that’s when the season flipped.

The Eagles ended up going 9-8 and making the playoffs. Even though they eventually lost to the Buccaneers in the playoffs, the season has still been deemed a success. One of the biggest reasons the season turned around was because the team became a run-first offense. It was leaked after the season that Sirianni handed play-calling duties over to Shane Steichen mid-season. Again, Sirianni was ripped. While some respected that he saw a weakness and delegated, most said it is a bad sign that he wasn’t calling plays.

Coming into the 2022 season, Sirianni was again heavily criticized for his “soft” training camp approach. Many said the team will be weak, start slow, and will not be prepared for the season. After starting the season 8-0, making the Super Bowl, and having 22 of 22 starters start in the Super Bowl, it is safe to say his approach worked.

Even after making the Super Bowl, Sirianni is still getting disrespected across the NFL. He was left off the finalist for Coach of the Year despite being the NFC’s number one seed. And recently Giants Safety Julian Love said that Sirianni has a “free ride” to the Super Bowl. For whatever reason Sirianni can’t seem to shake the first impression he put out to the NFL world.

Sirianni now faces his toughest test as he takes on Andy Reid and the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. Maybe if Nick wins the Super Bowl, he will finally get the respect he deserves.