Getty Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni wants his team to keep pushing forward after a strong start to the season.
Exhaustive head-coaching searches are underway across the NFL and two names ranking high on every franchise’s wish list are Shane Steichen and Jonathan Gannon. The offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles are the NFL’s “it couple” for 2023.
Head coach Nick Sirianni has deep ties to Steichen and Gannon from their overlapping careers. He respects their football genius immensely, knowing in the back of his mind that he was, and perhaps reluctantly, grooming them for their eventual departures. Now, as teams start banging down their doors for interviews, Sirianni is supporting Steichen and Gannon as a flexible sounding board.
“You hire guys like Shane and Jonathan that are committed to the team,” Sirianni told reporters. “Obviously, they want to be able to do what’s best for them and their families, but I know first and foremost that those guys are committed to this team. And, you know, you have some time off here later in the week as far as we’re not grinding until like 10 o’clock every night. There is some time later in the week for them to be able to do that.”
The “do that” refers to reports about them interviewing with other teams. Steichen has received requests from three teams (Carolina Panthers, Houston Texas, Indianapolis Colts), while Gannon might already be the front-runner in Houston. The Eagles are on bye for the wild-card round, meaning there is built-in time for the Eagles coordinators to take interviews.
Nick Sirianni said he has “a lot of good options” if Gannon/Steichen get head coaching jobs — both internally and externally.
Put another way: This won’t catch Sirianni off guard. He’s been preparing for this. (He had to think hard about the DC possibilities last year.)
Not to worry, says Sirianni. The Eagles have a contingency plan in place should either assistant leave the nest. If they want to chase their head-coaching dreams, Sirianni has no intention of blocking interviews or hindering them in any way. They will have his full backing.
“As far as anything with just helping them get ready for it, you know, I really made a conscious effort of doing that all during the offseason,” Sirianni said. “Very similar to what Frank Reich did for me when he had nuggets to give me.
“I made a very deliberate point once a week to get them together and talk to them about things that I felt would help them when they had time to think about them a little bit more. I always thought that was my responsibility as the head coach, to help them with those things. And, again, I’ll be a sounding board for them to bounce some things off of me.”
Nick Sirianni says he’ll remain a supportive “sounding board” for Jonathan Gannon and Shane Steichen as they pursue head-coaching jobs: “I’ll let them tell you when those interviews are going to happen … I imagine Gannon will wear a pretty nice suit.” #Eagles #FlyEaglesFly
Nick Sirianni Delivers Update on Jalen Hurts
Jalen Hurts was listed as questionable on the final injury report last week. Obviously, he suited up and started at quarterback. The Eagles claimed the NFC East and the No. 1 seed in the NFC, but at what cost? Sirianni revealed that Hurts’ right shoulder was feeling sore after beating the Giants. The head coach provided a new update on Hurts during his media availability on Tuesday, admitting that the injury could hamper him throughout the postseason.
“We are fortunate that we have two weeks until the next time we play, depending on if it’s Saturday or Sunday,” Sirianni said. “Again, he’s going to be a little more healthy than when he was obviously the other day.”
“We wanted to be careful. We wanted to be careful with him. He did everything he could do to play this week. Was he still sore as hell & tight & hurting? Yeah. That’s the kind of warrior he is.”
-Nick Sirianni to Mike Quick on Jalen Hurts still being sore from sprained shoulder
Following a funny exchange between Sirianni and his PR team — they got wide-eyed, laughed in astonishment, and then muted the video stream — the 41-year-old went into a little more detail on how Hurts’ million-dollar arm was feeling.
“He came out of that [Giants] game sore because it’s still sore and we didn’t feel like we were putting him at any more risk of getting more injured,” Sirianni said. “But we knew it was going to hurt him like hell and he knew it was going to hurt him like hell. But, that’s the kind of player he is, that’s the kind of teammate he is. He fought through it because he knew it was important for him to be out there and he knew how important it was for his teammates to see him out there.”
Josh Sweat ‘Trending in the Right Direction’
The last time anyone saw Josh Sweat on a football field he was being escorted off it in a cart. The Pro Bowl pass rusher crumpled to the turf with a scary neck injury in Week 17 before being hospitalized. He has been rehabbing hard and optimism remains high in the building that Sweat will return for the playoffs. No timetable, of course.
“I don’t want to say yes that he’s going to play,” Sirianni said. “We’re really hopeful and we really feel good that he will [be back], but anything can happen. But we know he’s trending in the right direction of getting healthy and that’s a good thing because he brings so much to this defense.”
Coach Sirianni gives an update on Josh Sweat.