Many Philadelphia Eagles fans are losing patience with the head coach Nick Sirianni. It’s not just fans of the game wondering what a different coach would look like for Jalen Hurts and the rest of the team, though.
Following Sunday’s devastating last-second loss against the Jacksonville Jaguars, the NFL Hall of Famer Cris Carter went from praising Nick Sirianni for having his team prepared for a tough matchup after a stressful week to suddenly wondering what they would look like with Mike Tomlin running the show.
“The Eagles played a phenomenal football game, and as a head coach, to get them in that right headspace in London, given the retirement trade this week, all the injuries, lack of firepower, okay, that takes a good coach to do that,” Carter said on ‘Up and Adams’ on Monday, October 12.
The Eagles entered the game as underdogs with a loaded injury report, lost a franchise great to a sudden retirement, and a traded starting offensive lineman. They were winning the game with eight seconds left. After some poor clock management and a special teams blunder, the Eagles lost on a field goal with one second left.
Sirianni took accountability for the loss, which is obviously a positive. At the same time, that’s now the third week in a row he has placed blame on himself for a loss–and the second straight week the Eagles choked in the fourth quarter.
Cris Carter Wonders About A Change
“It takes a bad coach to be able do what he did at the end of the game, and that was take victory away from NFL players, like good people who are the least responsible on the roster, the lowest paid, to make a play that they weren’t even supposed to make,” Carter said.
“They weren’t supposed to have to make a tackle on that play. People say, ‘Oh man, everybody’s got a job to do.’ Yes, but the head coach’s job is to put those guys in a situation where they can be successful, and he didn’t do that.”
The former NFL receiver then asked himself: “Man, what would Mike Tomlin look like in Philadelphia? What would Mike Tomlin have done in that situation?” I listened to him on TV, and I’m pretty certain that he would not have had the Eagles in that situation.”
Mike Tomlin’s Coaching Career
The 54-year-old head coach earned his first head coaching gig in 2007 with the Steelers. He maintained that position up until the end of the Steelers’ 2025 campaign.
Like Sirianni, Tomlin is a Super Bowl-winning coach. He might not be a playcaller, but is well-respected as a leader, and has an impressive 62.8% winning percentage as a head coach.
If the Eagles were to decide to cut ties with Sirianni in the future, Tomlin shouldn’t be a candidate that gets overlooked.
However, it’s probably too early to be thinking about all of that. Despite the heavy criticism getting thrown at Sirianni, his resume is still hard to overlook. The Eagles have been one of the most successful teams in the NFL during the Sirianni era. But if the season continues to crumble the way it has over the past three weeks, some uncomfortable narratives will continue to form.