Eagles Coach Explains Difference In His 2024 Role

Nick Sirianni has been a CEO coach since midway through the 2021 season. The Eagles' coach explained what's different this year now that he's given up game planning.

Sep 5, 2024; Sao Paolo, Brazil; Philadelphia Eagles coach Nick Sirianni at press conference at the Neo Quimica Arena. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

PHILADELPHIA - For those who don’t know Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni first became a CEO coach in his inaugural year in the NFL big chair in 2021.

Sirianni stepped back from play-calling in favor of now-Indianapolis coach Shane Steichen before the Eagles’ Week 9 game against the Los Angeles Chargers that season, partially because he felt being bogged down with the play-to-play responsibilities of the call sheet were affecting his game management.  

“The reason I gave up the play calling to Shane a couple years ago was because I wanted to manage the game better,” Sirianni explained Monday coming off a season-opening win over Green Bay in Sao Paulo, Brazil. “I felt like we've already been on this step of, ‘Hey, this is why I gave this up initially,’ is the game management portion of it.

“So I think that's similar from the years past. Because I wasn't calling it the last three years, I was still being able to manage the game. Same thing here. I'm not calling it and I'm here.”

There was a change for Sirianni entering the 2024 season, though. While Sirianni gave up the play-calling to Steichen and that setup continued with Brian Johnson, the head coach kept the game-planning responsibilities resulting in an ecosystem where Steichen and Johnson chose dishes off the menu Sirianni created.

That structure went beautifully with Steichen and went off the rails with Johnson, resulting in the narrative that fresh ideas were needed.

And for the first in the Sirianni era, the head coach is not game-planning the offense for the Eagles. That responsibility and the play-calling were handed off to experienced offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.

“I think one thing it does, though, is instead of having to be in every offensive meeting -- and I've talked about not just going to the offensive meetings but also going to the defensive meetings, to hear what's going on in special teams meetings. But also, when we go to a Tuesday, which is our game plan day … it gives me an opportunity to look around the league and do some game management things while the offense is getting ready.”

It’s a Sirianni-described 30,000-foot view that could give the Eagles coach an advantage over play-calling head coaches like the Packers’ Matt LaFleur.

“I'll pop in and out of the offense to hear the game planning, to give my expertise into that,” said Sirianni.”But, what [stepping back] allows me to do is ‘Okay, I don’t have to be in there at all times.’ I can study fourth-down decisions throughout the league. I can study two-point decisions throughout the league. I can watch all the four-minutes throughout the league and two-minutes and all those different scenarios throughout the league.”

Sirianni portrayed that as extra practice time for the head coach. 

“It's just like practice, right? You're putting yourself in those scenarios so you can think through your process,” he said. “Then you have to go back into the offensive meeting and say ‘Here is what I'm thinking here in these scenarios.’ 

“Not necessarily play-wise, but whether it's run, pass, aggressive, not aggressive. These different things. And so that's where I think it's different. I have a little bit more time to study that on Tuesday as opposed to what's different on game day."

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