Philadelphia Eagles Coach Nick Sirianni's Offense Becoming Stale & Predictable? ‘Starts with Me’

Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said he has run the same offense since he was hired two years ago, and maybe that's a problem against good teams with enough talent and football IQ to figure it out.

Problems exist on both sides of the ball for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Sean Desai paid the price for those that exist on defense, replaced as the play-caller last week.

Brian Johnson wasn't replaced on offense because it is Nick Sirianni’s offense. If the head coach were to relieve somebody of their duties on that side of the ball, the way he emasculated Desai, Sirianni would have to fire himself.

Nick Sirianni greets Dallas Goedert and Jalen Hurts coming off the field / USA Today

That’s not going to happen, obviously, but how the Eagles do in these final three games and what happens in the playoffs will certainly be evaluated by his bosses, owner Jeffrey Lurie and general manager Howie Roseman, at the end of the season.

Sirianni knows that and sounded like a protective father when asked about his offense on Wednesday.

“The criticism should come at me and I think it unfairly goes at Brian a lot of the times because he’s calling the plays,” he said. “But make no mistake about it this offense has been consistently similar throughout the three years. Yes, there are different things you do based off your personnel and different things you do based off the teams you’re playing and what’s working for you, but it all starts with me.

“I’m not thinking a change needs to be made there for multiple reasons and that’s one big one.”

Sirianni said that, statistically, the offense is the same as it has been for the past two years, except for two things – turnovers and explosive plays.

Maybe therein lies the problem – predictability.

Sirianni said he has run the same thing for the last three years and the good teams have plenty of players with both talent and high football IQ to be able to diagnose what’s coming at them and execute a better outcome for themselves.

In other words, teams have adjusted and now is the time to adjust back.

San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey told the nation on Monday night’s ManningCast exactly what was coming, and NFL analyst Brian Baldinger had a social media clip showing how when Jack Stoll is on the field, it is invariably a run and he always seems to go in the same direction when he lines up in a sort of H-back formation.

Sirianni credited McCaffrey for having a high football IQ to be able to see what was coming and insisted that it was the only time they had ever given that look and ran what they did out of it.

The coach added that every team has plays they can lean on because they do them well.

"The thing good offenses have very similar to the 49ers is they have plays that they run as staples," he said.

"Staples are a play that you have that you lean on. Every good football team, every good offense I've ever been on has staples, including the 2022 Philadelphia Eagles, the 2023 Philadelphia Eagles have staples because, again, it's about what you do well and repeating those things with different looks."

Now, the schedule supposedly softens, with the New York Giants twice with the Arizona Cardinals sandwiched between them - to the point where the Eagles should be able to still run the same stuff and get back on the winning track.

Sirianni and the Eagles are intent on finding ways to hit explosive plays even when defenses try to take them away like the Seattle Seahawks did in their 20-17 win on Monday night.

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The Seahawks presented a two-high safety look but Jalen Hurts kept trying to go deep and was intercepted twice in the final quarter against that look. He missed seeing DeVonta Smith more than once on underneath routes.

Is that Hurts not seeing the open man or the coaches harping on increasing explosive plays? And is the assistance on bombing away leading to more turnovers?

They are legitimate questions.

“Jalen and myself and Brian are always going to be looked at first,” said Sirianni. “...I know we’re zeroing in (on the three-game losing streak), but before that, Jalen Hurts is in consideration for MVP, a top candidate. 

"It’s the body of work for the year and we know and we’re confident we can all get back to that body of work we put in prior to this three-game stretch. ...We’re working like crazy and we’re determined to get back to where we were prior to this.”