With Playoffs On The Horizon Eagles Coach Is 'Four Years Better'

Nick Sirianni has learned from his past playoff experiences.

Dec 29, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni looks on during the fourth quarter against the Dallas Cowboys at Lincoln Financial Field. / Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

PHILADELPHIA - Nick Sirianni is batting 1.000 when it comes to the playoffs and the Eagles coach has faced all kinds of avenues entering Week 18 of the regular season.

“Every year is a little different and every team is different,” Sirianni said while reminiscing on Monday, a day after Philadelphia clinched the NFC East with a 41-7 beatdown of the Dallas Cowboys.

As a rookie mentor in 2021, Sirianni's Eagles made an unlikely postseason run and entered the final regular-season week locked into the No. 7 seed with nothing to play for. 

The coach rested his troops and got blown out by a battle-tested and more talented Tom Brady-led Tampa Bay team.

“I believe that first year, we were locked into the 7 seed. So we decided to do what we did in that game,” Sirianni said.

A year later the Eagles took off until a late-season shoulder injury forced Jalen Hurts to miss two games. Philadelphia was forced to play its starters in Week 18 to secure the No. 1 seed in the NFC against a New York Giants team settled at No. 6 and resting their key players.

The Eagles weren’t impressive in a Week 18 win against a backup-tinted Giants team. New York then upset Minnesota in the wild-card round before getting routed by Philadelphia, 38-7, in the divisional round of the playoffs.

In '22, if I remember right, we were playing still to win the division and the 1 seed at that particular time,” said Sirianni. “I think we had won 13 games at that point and Dallas had won 12. And I think Dallas lost at the end of the year and we won. But we had to win that game to get the 1 seed and get the division. So a little different scenario there. The Giants rested players in that game, if I remember correctly.”

Last season the Eagles had an opportunity to win the NFC East with a win over the Giants coupled with a Dallas loss to Washington. 

Things went wrong in multiple ways for Philadelphia. The scoreboard watching quickly turned negative as the Cowboys boat-raced the Commanders 38-10 and before the Eagles could pull the plug, receiver A.J. Brown, and safeties Reed Blankenship and Sydney Brown were lost to injury in a 27-10 setback to the Giants. 

Without Brown the next week the fifth-seeded Eagles were dismantled by Tampa Bay 32-9 in the first round to finish an ugly 1-6 collapse after a 10-1 start.

“Last year, there was still a chance that we could have won the division. In that, it was kind of a little bit like '22 because we still could have won the division there had the Cowboys lost and had we won,” said Sirianni. “So it was kind of the flip there.”

This season Philadelphia has rebounded to go 13-3 entering Week 18 and is locked in as the No. 2 seed with nothing to play for against the New York Giants team that has collapsed again.

The options for the Eagles on WC Weekend – depending on what happens elsewhere in Week 18 are the Commanders or the Green Bay Packers. 

“This year, we're locked into the 2 seed,” said Sirianni. “Every year has been a little different. I would say it's still not handbook of, ‘Hey, if we're in this, I'm going to do that,’ and ‘If we're in this, we'll do that.’ Every team is a little bit different. Every year is a little bit different.

“The situation may be similar. You use those past experiences to help you. But you've got to feel where your team is and those different things to make the best decision for the 2024 Eagles and the individuals on that team.”

The smart money is on the Eagles resting most of their key starters, including running back Saquon Barkley, who is only 101 yards away from breaking Eric Dickerson’s all-time NFL rushing record against his old team, something that would energize his teammates and the fan base.

Sirianni is almost assuredly going to lean team first and learn a lesson from Week 18 of 2023 when Brown's injury doomed Philadelphia.

“You try to grow each year and each day that you go through this thing,” Sirianni said. “Try to get better from the mistakes that you've made and try to even get better from the good things you felt like you've done.

“My message to the guys is constantly grow every single day. I'm not just saying that to those guys; I'm saying that to myself, I'm saying that to our staff – players, coaches, and myself. You think that you go through this enough and you go through these things – you're never going to have it all figured out, that's for darn sure. You're learning something new every day on this job.

“But it's just a matter of, can you get better from all those things each and every day? Every day I'm on this job, I feel like I've gotten a little better each day. So I guess to answer that, I'm four years better, I guess is what I'm saying.”

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