Hey Coach, Welcome to Philadelphia – Now Who Are You?
It’s been 11 days since the Eagles fired head coach Doug Pederson. After an extensive and thorough coaching search that saw just under ten candidates interviewed, the Philadelphia Eagles finally made a decision Thursday afternoon.
The hire? Nick Sirianni; former offensive coordinator of the Indianapolis Colts, who at 39 became the second-youngest head coach in franchise history (Dick Vermeil was four months younger).
After emerging as a candidate late in the process, Philadelphia put in a request for an interview with Sirianni and scheduled an interview with him on Tuesday.
There it was reported that the meeting between the two sides extended into Wednesday, as optimism grew about the possible staff Sirianni could put together.
So just exactly is Nick Sirianni? And what makes a guy who wasn’t on anyone’s national radar just a week ago qualified to be the 24th head coach in the history of the Philadelphia Eagles?
While most will mention his recent three-year run under former Eagles offensive coordinator, Frank Reich in Indianapolis. Sirianni could be considered a student of the game, coming from a family of coaches. His father Fran Sirianni spent nine years as the head coach at the family alma mater; Southwestern Central High School, while both of his brothers Jay (also Southwestern Central) and Mike (Washington & Jefferson College) have also gotten into coaching. As a graduate of Southwestern Central in 1999, Nick, the youngest of the three Sirianni sons, decided to attend the Division III powerhouse, Mount Union (upon his mother’s suggestion) located in Alliance, Ohio. It was here where Sirianni majored in ____ and earned PhD in wide receivers; becoming a three-year starter and part of three straight National Championship teams. Sirianni’s most notable season came as a senior, as he earned All-Ohio Athletic Conference honors after posting 998 yards and 13 touchdowns, on 52 receptions.
Photo: NBC Sports
While Sirianni did spend one season playing in the Athletic Indoor Football League after graduating, being selected in the sixth round; 34th overall. Though it wasn’t long before he went into the family business. Traveling back to his old stomping ground, Sirianni joined the coaching staff of his alma mater, Mount Union as a defensive backs coach helping lead the team to a fourth consecutive National Championship. The following year Sirianni took a gig as the wide receivers coach at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he spent the next three seasons until the NFL came calling. Sirianni did a phenomenal job building connections in the business during his collegiate time, both as a coach and player. In fact, it was when Sirianni was a sophomore at Mount Union, home on a break when he ran into Todd Haley (then the wide receiver coach of the Bears who was vacationing near) working in upstate New York, near Sirianni’s hometown.
About ten years later it was the same man that Sirianni met working out at the YMCA, that offered him his first NFL coaching opportunity. Beginning as an Offensive Quality Control coach from 2009-2011, Sirianni was promoted to wide receivers coach for one season prior to not being bought back the following year due to coaching staff changes.
As Sirianni was hired by the Chargers as a quality control coach, it was here where he not only crossed paths with Reich for the first time, but he began showing his versatility as a coach working with a few different positions over the course of five years. Sirianni was promoted to the quarterback coach in 2014 where he served for two seasons. During this time Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers set the franchise records for completions and attempts while falling just short for the franchise record for yards in a single season in 2015.
Following that season Sirianni moved over to the wide receivers coach where he helped produce career seasons for Tyrell Willams (2016) and Keenan Allen (2017). Of course, due to another coaching staff change, Sirianni was left without a job, but not for long as it seemed as if he had made himself a fan in Frank Reich. Of course, it’s known that Reich who was the coordinator here in Philadelphia, took the Indianapolis Colts head coaching job following the Eagles Super Bowl win back in 2017.
Along came Sirianni, who Reich had nothing but good things to say about.
During his three seasons in Indianapolis, Reich and Sirianni’s offense continuously ranked at or near the top of the league in many different statistical categories. Both responsible for fixing a Colts offensive unit that ranked 30th in points and 31st in yards a year prior to their arrival. That’s 16 years of coaching experience, including 11 at the NFL level.
Yet despite the success, Sirianni has seen both throughout his career and during his time in Indianapolis; there are many critics who are skeptical about the hire, especially given the fact Sirianni has limited experience as a play-caller.
When asked about Sirianni and any possible concern surrounding his protégés inexperience, Reich was quick to rebuttal many of the details behind the rumor.
“Nick and I spend hours and hours during the week talking about how the game is going to be called and what’s going to get called where, I’ll tell him what I’m thinking, I’ll bounce every idea off of him. We’ll talk it through, pros and cons, where we can be aggressive, where we shouldn’t be, situations and it goes on throughout the entire week and I think that helps me a lot.”
So now that the coaching search is over and the Eagles have their man, there are many questions to be answered. For starters, what will the rest of the coaching staff look like? With Sirianni being a first-year head coach, it would be wise that he surrounds himself with the veteran coaching staff, similar to how Reich and Schwartz were to Pederson. However the unlike Pederson, who tied himself to Andy Reid since the beginning of his coaching career. Sirianni has connections all around the league; Todd Haley, who as mentioned gave him his first opportunity in the league. Mike McCoy, who’s coaching staff Sirianni served under during his time with the Chargers. Early signals point to Sirianni’s colleague in Indianapolis; Johnathan Gannon being one of the top candidates for the defensive coordinator job. So it will be interesting to see how much/if any input Sirianni has on assembling his coaching staff given his history in the league.
The next question, and arguably the most important question is can Sirianni rejuvenate Carson Wentz. All signals pointed to a Wentz and Eagles divorce following the end of the 2020 season. However, since the Eagles have parted ways with head coach Doug Pederson and reports say the entire coaching search was centered around ‘fixing’ Wentz. There was speculation that the Eagles could send Wentz to Indianapolis given both team’s salary cap situation and Wentz’s relationship with Frank Reich. Well instead of sending Wentz to the Colts, Philadelphia bought the Colts to Wentz. Well, at least the next best possible coach from that staff.
Was the hire controversial? Sure but when was the last time an Eagles head coaching hire wasn’t under Jeffrey Lurie? Each Reid, Pederson, and now Sirianni never had any significant play-calling experience prior to their opportunities as the head coach in Philadelphia.
And Chip Kelly? Even Lurie himself mentioned the risk the team knew it was taking with this hire. Could this be a bad move? Sure. Could the Eagles have themselves the next young bright mind in the league? Highly plausible. But what is known is that after a long and thorough coaching search, Philadelphia made a hire that focusing on both fixing the situation at quarterback and receiver both short and long term. Are the answers to those positions on the roster currently? That answer is unknown, but history shows that Sirianni will get the best out of whoever is on the roster at those two positions, come week one.
Here’s a perfect example of what the Eagles are getting in Nick Sirianni. To many this is just a typical press conference, but when you listen to how open and honest he is with his answers. How you can tell that he has a really good relationship with his players. The amount of work you can tell he takes to game plan around players’ strengths and how they can correlate from week to week based on the different defenses around the league.
If you’re not sold now, maybe you will be after this.
It’s no secret that Sirianni’s siblings teased him about the fact he had never been a head coach before. Now not only is Fran Sirianni’s youngest son a head coach, but he is doing so at the highest level possible.
“Can’t do that anymore, it’s funny. I was just so stinking proud. Just so proud of him. We’ve all been head coaches before but he’s at the top right now. I’m still at a loss of words. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. Just so proud of him.” – Jay Sirianni (Brother)
It is unknown what the future has in store for Nick Sirianni and his newly founded Philadelphia Eagles unit.
But, if Sirianni has it his way, fans and players are in for a new brand of football in Philadelphia.
Featured Image: NBC Sports
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