Early Returns On Eagles’ Coaching Setup Were Predictable

One poorly executed play in the Eagles' Week 2 loss to Atlanta has revealed plenty of cracks in the Eagles' coaching plan this season.

Philadelphia Eagles coach Nick Sirianni during practice. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

PHILADELPHIA - It took all of one dropped pass in Week 2 to highlight just how tenuous the situation in Philadelphia is, something that can be traced to Jeffrey Lurie’s attempt to straddle the fence in the wake of the Eagles’ collapse last season.

Defanging Nick Sirianni is the signal that Lurie was tired of his head coach and creating pocket fiefdoms for Kellen Moore and Vic Fangio was the not-so-subtle approach to detente.

Sirianni ostensibly remained in control with a “30,000-foot view” of everything Eagles and Lurie avoided being labeled as the reactionary owner firing another head coach with a Super Bowl appearance still appearing in the rearview mirror.

At times Sirianni seems to be growing tired of his attempted political ownership of this messy setup.

While the head coach still speaks dutifully as if everything put on the field is his responsibility. At the same time Sirianni will occasionally slip maybe with a roll of the eyes to those who believe motion is some golden ticket to offensive success.

Or perhaps point back to the team’s historic run from 2-5 to 2021 to 10-1 last season producing more consistent offense than any other era in the 91 years of Eagles' football.

When pressed about overriding the Moore play call that turned into the egregious Saquon Barkley drop heard around the Delaware Valley and a disappointing but hardly crippling 22-21 loss to Atlanta that revealed all these warts, Sirianni, who technically hasn’t called a play for the Eagles since Week 9 of the 2021 season, was incredulous. 

“Kellen is the offensive coordinator that makes the calls, yeah. If you're trying to stir that up. I'm the head coach,” Sirianni said. 

The narrative outside the NovaCare Complex is meaningless except in moments like this when the perception that Sirianni didn’t hire his coordinators and couldn't overrule them anyway bubbles up to the surface.

Lost in the ether of a Week 2 collapse is why anyone would want to overrule what turned into a very effective play call poorly executed with a 1-0 team less than two minutes away from 2-0 where said execution would secure the latter.  

Moving forward Sirianni’s somewhat trivial dismissal of Lurie’s perceived loyalty to his analytical department has resulted in some other outside voices believing that the head coach has reached the phase where he’s going to do what he wants on his way out the door in the limited areas he can impact the team.

“There's about 20 websites that you can punch in a number...y'all can see that,” a dismissive Sirianni said earlier this week. “I base [decisions] off of what my studies have been and my conviction of my studies."

Lurie ultimately controls everything that goes on inside his building and instead of showing the courage of any conviction earlier this year, the Eagles’ owner unfurled a tortured compromise so shaky one minor hiccup exposed too many potential flaws.

What does the chart say about that?

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