Nick Sirianni Deserves More Credit Than What He Is Given
Photo by Kara Durrette/Getty Images
As the 2024 NFL regular season is nearing its end, the Philadelphia Eagles are on the verge of beginning their run to try to win their second Super Bowl in franchise history. They’re the No. 2 seed in the NFC, and arguably, some consider the Eagles to be the best team in the entire conference.
The team is in a phenomenal state. Running back Saquon Barkley is the runaway favorite for Offensive Player of the Year and a candidate for MVP. A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith are healthy and playing some of their best football. Jalen Hurts, currently injured with a concussion, has been solid for the Eagles this year, and the defense has looked outstanding all year under new defensive coordinator Vic Fangio.
And despite all that, week after week talking heads in the media and the people of Philadelphia continue to call for head coach Nick Sirianni to be fired. Now I’d like to prefice this by saying I understand where the frustrations come from when it comes to Sirianni. He is a loud coach who likes to get in people’s faces. Argue with fans after barely beating teams. Give obscure quotes to the media and just be an overall showoff.
While all of those things are true, in four years on the job, Sirianni has led the Eagles to a 47-20 record, with two division titles and a trip to the Super Bowl in 2022. Sirianni’s teams have made the playoffs in all four seasons he’s been the head coach, which makes him only the third head coach in Eagles history to lead a team to playoffs in four consecutive seasons or more.
The 47 wins in four years are the second most wins in their first four seasons as a head coach in NFL history, only behind George Seifert. The Eagles also rank third in most wins since 2021 only behind the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills. He’s also the fourth Eagles coach to have three straight 10+ win teams, joining Andy Reid, Buddy Ryan and Dick Vermeil.
No matter what he has done, people have called for him to get fired. It started back in 2021, during Sirianni’s first season. Fresh off firing the only coach to win the team a Super Bowl in Doug Pederson, Sirianni was hired from former Eagles’ offensive coordinator Frank Reich‘s staff in Indianapolis. People wondered why they fired Pederson just to bring in someone who was under his former coordinator.
When that season began, people found even more reason not to like Sirianni. The team was coming off a 4-11-1 season and started 2-5 with embarrassing losses to the Cowboys, Chiefs, and 49ers. On top of that, in a media session, Sirianni compared the team to a “blooming flower” and said that the team was “fertilizing every day.” Many people thought that he was crazy and that he was possibly going to be a one-and-done coach.
However, the flowers began blooming for the Eagles. They went on to win seven of their final 10 games of the season and were able to sneak into the playoffs as the seventh seed, but would lose to the Tom Brady-led Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The following year the Eagles retooled their roster even more, bringing in huge players on both offense and defense in A.J. Brown and Hasson Reddick. They were poised to make a big jump in the NFC, and they did just that, securing the number one seed in the conference and going all the way to the Super Bowl in a matchup with a Kansas City Chiefs. The Eagles ended up losing the game, and while it wasn’t solely his fault, Sirianni to this day receives the majority of the blame for losing this Super Bowl.
They moved on to 2023, and after losing the Super Bowl the year prior, fans and the media expected the Eagles to get right back there the following year. Early on, things looked like they were trending in that direction. The Eagles started the season 11-1 with multiple wins against playoff teams from that season. And then things went downhill. They went on to lose six of their last seven, including being embarrassed in the playoffs by the Buccaneers once again.
After the collapse of 2023, rumors swirled all offseason that Sirianni should be fired and that Bill Bellicheck or Mike Vrabel should be brought in. The team decided not to fire him and went into 2024 with the confidence that Sirianni could be the head coach that brings the city its second championship.
The year kicked off similar to the prior, struggling to win and not looking as dominant as they felt they were. People thought Sirianni could be fired midseason and Belichek or someone could be brought in to salvage the season. Eventually, the Eagles got rolling winning 10 games in a row, and are now the second seed in the NFC heading into the playoffs.
It’s been a phenomenal job by Sirianni and company who have become arguably the best overall team in the NFL. Despite all of that happening, more and more reports come out each week like this.
People continue to report that the man has to win or else the Eagles will move on. Now I am not the biggest Nick Sirianni fan in the world. The constant badgering with fans and reactions on the sideline makes me so mad from time to time. Although, you can’t deny that Sirianni wins, and he does it often. He wins during times when you think his teams won’t and he wins when it’s expected.
While I’d be disappointed if the Eagles lost round one of the playoffs, firing Sirianni isn’t the answer. People forget how hard it is sometimes to run a football team, and while Sirianni does things that frustrate you, he gets the most out of his players and finds ways to continue to win.
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Matt Brown
Matt has been a Philadelphia sports fan all his life and spent four years at Penn State University majoring in Broadcast Journalism and minoring in Sports Studies. He previously covered Penn State’s field hockey, men’s and women’s basketball, and baseball teams while writing for a Penn State blog called Onward State. He has now covered the Phillies, Eagles, and Sixers for Philly Sports Reports since October 2024 and wants to pursue a career in Sports Journalism.
