Philadelphia Eagles' Jeffrey Lurie Reveals Decision On Coach Nick Sirianni Job Security

Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffery Lurie said it was business as usual after the team's late-season collapse.

Kansas City Chiefs v Philadelphia Eagles / Mitchell Leff/GettyImages

The one man who can speak freely without repercussion about all things Philadelphia Eagles finally gave his side of the organization's collapse at the end of the 2023-24 season and the reaction to it that resulted in Year 4 of the Nick Sirianni era, albeit one that was bolstered by the import of two highly-regarded coordinators in Kellen Moore and Vic Fangio.

Jeffrey Lurie toed the line between Sirianni's early success as a head coach in Philadelphia, and the historic collapse last season in which 10-1 turned to 11-6 ending with an ugly blowout loss in Tampa to end the season, a setback which one of the Eagles owner's top executives called "F@#$%^& embarrassing."

A self-coined listener who likes to asks questions, Lurie claimed it was business as usual with any emotion or bias removed from the equation when pondering the future.

"We go through a very, very intensive process after every single season," said Lurie at the NFL's owners' meetings. "This season was no different. An extremely disappointing ending, the last 5-6 games. Extremely disappointing to me, very frustrating to all of us. But what we do – and I insist on this – there is no recency bias, there’s no latency bias. There’s no bias.

Kansas City Chiefs v Philadelphia Eagles / Mitchell Leff/GettyImages

"We take a very hard look at exactly what the entire season looked (like), what the entire history has been over the last few years for our organization, for our team."

The conclusion was that the bulk of Sirianni's Philadelphia resume outweighed last season's collapse, although not without the obvious scapegoating of defensive play callers Sean Desai and Matt Patricia and the somewhat less clear sacrifice of former OC Brian Johnson.

"I do a lot of listening. I ask a lot of questions," Lurie said. "It doesn’t matter how the season ends. It’s the exact same very rigid … analytic process where you try to assess your strengths, your weaknesses, and what can we do a lot better? What do we have to look forward to the following year? '

"What is the plan?"

The plan from Sirianni and GM Howie Roseman was acceptable, according to Lurie.

"It was easy to be very encouraged of where we’re at and where we’re going forward," said Lurie. "It was extremely impressive meeting with Nick and Howie on our plans for both roster development and player development, execution, every aspect of coaching."

Lurie insisted there was no demand for Sirianni to switch out coordinators although the owner admitted he agreed with the sentiment which points to spin or Sirianni being savvy enough to read the room correctly before any spin was needed.

While the shift was a fait accompli on the defensive side had Sirianni tried to die on the Johnson hill, Lurie may have walked a differnt path.

"In the analysis of where we're at Nick was really adamant about having excellent coordinators," Lurie said. "It was something that literally came from Nick. I completely ratified it. I felt the same way but it didn't matter.

"I trust the people. I trust Nick and I trust Howie and if Howie says to me we've got to make a change in the way we look at certain things. I listen to Howie. Nick says we have to a more dynamic offense or we need to have defense in a different direction I listen because I have trust."

Is that trust built on the consensus or conformity?

With Roseman, we know the answer but the coach Sirianni replaced, Doug Pederson, lost his trust when his vision was no longer aligned with Lurie's.

In the case of Sirianni, those outside the building believe he's a potential lame duck coaching for his job come September. The betting markets have the fourth-year coach as one of the favorites for the first to be fired and Lurie was hardly throwing water on that sentiment, instead defaulting to the reality of every NFL coach, one perhaps best explained by legendary Houston Oilers mentor Bum Phillips.

"There are two kinds of coaches, them that's fired and them that's gonna be fired," the always entertaining Phillips once said.

“Every coach is in a high-pressure situation,” Lurie said when asked about others questioning Sirianni's job security. “Nick has had a spectacular three seasons. He’s shown all the ingredients to have outstanding success. I’m just looking forward to it. No coach is not feeling pressure to perform. That’s the way it is in the National Football League."

Sirianni's mulligan was built on his political talent. His football future is now tied to Moore, Fangio and Roseman's personnel evaluations.

"Nick’s conscious desire to have top-notch coordinators under him really drove a lot of the strategy, and he was hell-bent on making sure that we had the best," said Lurie.

And "the best" has produced massive expectations in Lurie's mind.

"No excuses, basically a fundamental understanding of what needs to be better than the last 5-6 weeks of the season," Lurie said. "Not only a return to our championship-caliber performance and execution but improve on that, too. Not just go back to where we were, but be better than what we were in the really recent past."

If that sounds unrealistic, consider the owner's own contradictory words.

"I do know that until we were hitting that streak of not playing well at the end of the year, we were 31-7 in the previous 38 regular-season games," said Lurie. "To say the least, that’s exceptional. That’s starting with taking a team that had a four-win season in our final year with Doug and taking it to a playoff team right away, and into the Super Bowl, and into a 10-1 beginning this past season. ... I don’t take lightly a 31-7 record in the National Football League.

"That’s extraordinary."

Evidently, not extraordinary enough to temper the expectations in a win-or-else year for Sirianni.