Nick Sirianni didn’t just have a disappointing season. It was a disaster. Coming off a Super Bowl championship that saw his Philadelphia Eagles score 96 points in their two biggest games of the year, only to return 10 of 11 starters on that side of the ball and inexplicably be only able to average 22.1 points per game this past season, bad enough for 19th best in the league.
We’re all known for the decisions we make and Sirianni’s decision to hire an offensive coordinator, who was clearly in over his snowboard, was probably one of the worst internal moves the franchise has made since the 44 year old head coach has been here. That’s not necessarily an indictment of Kevin Spatullo’s football acumen, it’s an indictment of a decision to hire someone with zero experience calling plays just because he’s been a valuable member of the coaching staff in a previous capacity as well as being very well liked by seemingly everyone in that building. Sorry coach but this isn’t show friends, it’s show business. When you have an Aston Martin that needs a fine tuning you don’t take it to a first year mechanic fresh out of mechanic school. Sirianni’s decision to promote Patullo to offensive coordinator came just 10 days after the Birds won their second Super Bowl title.
Poor Effort
But the most damning thing about the first round exit was that the Eagles didn’t want it as much as the 49ers did, which is a much bigger indictment of the team’s culture rather than the scheme or the fourth down play call that had no chance of working.
Former Eagle wide receiver Jason Avant on 94.1 WIP this past week laid it out, “I saw Brock Purdy dive head first for a first down. Did I see Jalen do that? No, not one time. I saw him slide…no one had the urgency that there is no tomorrow. You would have thought it was a week five game.”
Hurts Regressed
Despite throwing seven more touchdown passes and one less interception in two less games this year, quarterback Jalen Hurts seemed to regress this year, rushing for six fewer touchdowns (8), a completion percentage that dropped four points (64.8) and a quarterback rating that dipped five points under the century mark from last season (98.5)
Sirianni presided over that regression from his franchise quarterback, and allowed personality management to spiral out of control. The result was an Eagles offense that collapsed at the worst possible times, usually in the second half of games where his team averaged just nine points and couldn’t score more than 19 in a playoff flop that goes down as one the franchise’s worst in more than two decades.
Sacrificial Lamb
Upon the season ending, Sirianni took responsibility, saying the failures ultimately landed with him. That admission was accurate. Tuesday he tried to correct his mistake by firing Kevin Patullo and then issued the following statement:
“I HAVE DECIDED TO MAKE A CHANGE AT OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR. I MET WITH KEVIN TODAY TO DISCUSS THE DIFFICULT DECISION, AS HE IS A GREAT COACH WHO HAS MY UTMOST RESPECT. HE HAS BEEN INTEGRAL TO THIS TEAM’S SUCCESS OVER THE LAST FIVE YEARS, NOT ONLY TO THE ON-FIELD PRODUCT BUT BEHIND THE SCENES AS A VALUED LEADER FOR OUR PLAYERS AND ORGANIZATION. I HAVE NO DOUBT HE WILL CONTINUE TO HAVE A SUCCESSFUL COACHING CAREER.
ULTIMATELY, WHEN WE FALL SHORT OF OUR GOALS THAT RESPONSIBILITY LIES ON MY SHOULDERS.”
HEAD COACH NICK SIRIANNI
Lack of Leadership
For two years now, his star wide receiver, A.J. Brown has openly aired frustration with the passing game, publicly, privately, and online. Instead of confronting it head-on and setting clear boundaries, Sirianni let it fester. The breaking point came in mid-November, when Brown publicly torched the offense in blunt terms in an online podcast calling it “a complete sh*t show.” That week, the situation deteriorated so badly that Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie had to personally intervene at practice to quiet his star receiver which was an indictment on the leadership of the team and the locker room.
Some still label Sirianni a master motivator, even an elite coach. He has taken his team to two Super Bowls in the last three seasons, winning one of them and has the best win/loss record in his first five seasons than any other coach in the history of the NFL not named Lombardi. But he’s not for everyone as he still engages with opposing fan bases, firing back at them after big wins, which is unnecessary as the scoreboard never lies and it should do all the talking you need it to if that’s your thing. Does it show immaturity? Perhaps, but more importantly it sets a tone for his players to follow. If the head coach isn’t totally buttoned up then why should his players be? Therein may lie the origin of the team’s lack of discipline.
Before the first snap of the season his star defensive lineman, Jalen Carter got tossed from the opener for spitting on Cowboys quarterback Dan Prescott. The season ended with the visual of Sirianni jawing on the sideline with Brown who was late getting off the field after he dropped an important third down deep ball, his first of two key drops on the day.
When asked midseason and again after the playoff loss about the team’s biggest issue, Jordan Mailata gave the same answer both times: focus.
An Offensive Ending
Of course the lasting image of the season may be the visual of Sunday’s final drive. During a timeout, before the fourth and 11 play that would most likely decide the game’s trajectory and ultimately the outcome, offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo attempted to explain the play to a quarterback who looked unconvinced. Sirianni stood nearby, largely silent, wearing the unmistakable look of someone no longer in command of the moment. One word that does not describe the look on his face would be confidence. It looked more like uncertainty, and there’s a good reason for that. The play call was an “all go” which basically means the offense is lined four-wide and the receivers basically run nine routes or straight flies. The problem was that the 49ers were in a cover four defense which means they had four defensive backs covering the four quarters of the field vertically. Are you telling me with the triumvirate of Hurts, Sirianni and Patullo all standing there on the sideline during a timeout discussing the do or die play of the season, no one could see why the play call might be a problem?
Yet, the teflon head coach has largely avoided sustained criticism. He’s also avoided the unemployment line. That’s what winning will do. But this may be Sirianni’s last mulligan, unless he keeps sandwiching these collapses around Super Bowl titles.
Another Collapse
Yes, you read that right, collapses. The off-season is just a few days old but the bad taste left on the field is very similar to the one that lingered after the 2023 season. That season was an epic collapse that began in game 12 whereas this past season was a somewhat less demonstrative collapse, but a collapse nonetheless that began in game 11 when Sirianni’s team, coming off a four game winning streak, three of those wins coming against three playoff teams from last year, blew a 21 point lead to the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington. Things pretty much went down hill from there.
The eagles dropped five of their last eight games and were just a 500 team (7-7) since October 5 when they blew a 14 point fourth quarter lead to the Denver Broncos at home. Make no mistake about it, this past season was a collosal flop.
Yes, Patullo struggled in his first year calling plays. But after a late-season loss, Sirianni inserted himself directly into the offensive planning but against three playoff opponents down the stretch, the Eagles averaged just 17 points. Ownership didn’t improve results.
Jalen Hurts ran less, scored less, and seemed to prioritize self-preservation. Patullo called the plays, but the head coach sets the direction.
And what direction was that?
A Poor Sense of Direction
Protecting the football seems to be priority number one for Sirianni’s team and I’m on board with that mentality but you can’t make your offense so conservative that it completely stops, which it did several times this year. In the five years that Sirianni has been in Philly and overseer of all things offense, here were the results with four different offensive coordinators:
Year NFL ranks Points per game Offensive Coordinator
2021 #12 25.5 Shane Steichen
2022 #2 29.1 Shane Steichen
2023 #7 24.6 Brian Johnson
2024 #5 29 Kellen Moore
2025 #19 22.1 Kevin Patullo
A Pattern Forming
There may be an actual pattern forming here. Sirianni took the Eagles to the Super Bowl in 2022 but his team tanked the following year losing six of their last seven games in that epic collapse down the stretch but he bounced back in 2024 and coached his team to a Super Bowl championship. But this past season was a painful reminder of how tough it is to repeat. The Eagles have played in five Super Bowls. They were bounced in the Wildcard round the next season three times, 1981, 2023 and 2025 and in 2005 they didn’t qualify for the playoffs as they posted a dismal 6-10 record. The only season following a Super Bowl appearance that they won a playoff game was in 2018, the Double-Doink game in Chicago.
The Eagles had a press conference Thursday and Birds’ general manager Howie Roseman was asked about the new offensive coordinator search. Apparently part of the job requirements for the Eagles’ new guy won’t be someone who will stay longer than one year. It’s also unclear whether whoever the new OC is will be given the freedom to bring in his own staff of assistant coaches.
“It’s a great compliment when guys get head coaching jobs from here because it means we’re having tremendous success,” said general manager Howie Roseman. “As much as you’d like to have continuity and would like to have guys here for a long period of time, we want to win. We have an urgency to win right now. If that comes with the ramifications that we lose good people because they’ve earned head coaching jobs, we’ll live with that.”
Looking to Score
Well here’s the thing with that. The new offensive coordinator will be the fifth OC in the six years that Hurts has been the starting quarterback. Will Sirianni have any say in who the Eagles hire? At this point it’s not clear but since stability is something Hurts has never had much of since he’s been the Eagles franchise quarterback, the thought is out there that if the next OC is highly successful next season then instead of letting him get poached by another team as has been the case in recent years, the possibility exists that he may get elevated to the head coaching spot, thus bumping Sirianni to the curb. I’m not in favor of that as Sirianni’s record speaks for itself and coordinators don’t always make great head coaches. Sirianni is 60-30-0 including playoffs and his quarterback is 63-29 including playoffs. Hurts is a big game hunter who happened to come up small this season. He’s also second among all NCAA quarterbacks against AP top 25 teams (17-3, .850), only behind Joe Burrow (12-2, .857). He’s pretty good at football and so is his head coach for the most part.
Last February Sirianni could do no wrong and came off of a parade smelling fresh and purdy, this off-season he will carry the stench of Brock Purdy, Mr. Irrelevant, who was anything but last Sunday, overcoming a couple horrendous interceptions to run his offense right down the incumbent champ’s throats, in their own back yard. It’s a bad look for the polarizing fifth year head coach – a talented team that lost its discipline, lost its edge, and lost its way.
Of course none of this is permanent. Sirianni is still relatively young in the job and he got a hard vote of confidence from his boss on Thursday. But his future will no doubt be predicated on how his team responds to their latest dysfunctional collapse as well as the quality of offensive coordinator that he may or may not have a say in hiring. Stay tuned.
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