Could Commanders Hire Eagles Coach Nick Sirianni?

Would the Washington Commanders be wise to look within the NFC East for their next coach?

The Washington Commanders have hired former San Francisco 49ers executive Adam Peters to be their next general manager, and will now pivot to hiring a coach to succeed Ron Rivera. Could that coach come from the division-rival Philadelphia Eagles? 

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From here, the feeling is that's unlikely, whether it's Philadelphia's current coach Nick Sirianni, or offensive coordinator Brian Johnson. 

In some senses, it's crazy to think that Sirianni could be on the hot seat if the Eagles lose to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Monday's Wild Card Round playoff game. Sirianni is 34-17 in three seasons as Eagles coach, and the team has been to the postseason in each of those years. The Eagles narrowly lost to the Kansas City Chiefs a year ago in the Super Bowl. 

At the same time, the Eagles have absolutely collapsed since starting 10-1 this season. Philadelphia lost five of their final six games, including embarrassing losses to the Arizona Cardinals and New York Giants to finish the season. The Eagles had a -59 point differential over that stretch. If there's a feeling that the train has gone off the tracks and the Eagles have an ugly playoff exit, it will at least be fair to evaluate Sirianni's future in his current post. 

It wouldn't make sense for the Commanders to wait around to potentially hire Sirianni, though. If Sirianni is fired after this collapse, it's going to take a while to get the stink of this off of him. That's not to say he won't ever get a second coaching job, but he'll probably have to go back to being an offensive coordinator for a period. 

The biggest issue for Sirianni right now is he doesn't really have answers on either side of the ball. Sirianni doesn't have a defensive background, which is how you end up with Matt Patricia replacing Sean Desai in December. For whatever flaws Jonathan Gannon had, the Eagles haven't been able to replace him. 

But being unable to produce answers offensively post-Shane Steichen is more of an indictment on Sirianni. However, he doesn't really have a history of being an effective play caller. When he was the offensive coordinator for the Indianapolis Colts from 2018-2020, he didn't call plays, Frank Reich did. The Eagles struggled offensively early in 2021 with Sirianni calling plays, before he wisely handed things off to Steichen. But the problem with your coach not being your offensive play caller is you need to have a constant pipeline of replacements ready for when your coordinators are poached by other teams. 

And that brings us to Johnson. He seemingly earned an opportunity to be promoted to offensive coordinator after Steichen departed, having been the Eagles quarterbacks coach the two prior seasons. But the transition has been anything but seamless, as Philadelphia's offense has been far too reliant on quarterback draws and uncreative screen passes. 

Perhaps Sirianni should shoulder more blame than Johnson for how the offensive has -- or hasn't, as the case may be -- performed. But there's a real possibility that unless the Eagles make a deep playoff run, Johnson will be fired by the Eagles after this season. He has already drawn some coaching interest from the Carolina Panthers and Tennessee Titans, but the Commanders should be aiming higher. 

Lions' Johnson: Commanders Coach Favorite?

It appears that aiming higher under Peters may mean that the Commanders target Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson. If not, there's a slew of accomplished veteran coaches available, including Mike Vrabel and Jim Harbaugh. Under new ownership, Washington should no longer be settling for the scraps, and that starts with this coaching search.