Nick Sirianni has survived for another season.
That’s not really a huge surprise barely a full year since he took the Philadelphia Eagles to the Super Bowl. Still, after closing out the season with one win in the team’s final seven games, including a demoralizing playoff loss at Tampa Bay, Sirianni came as close as a coach can get to seeing his tenure end.
The Eagles took nine full days to hold their post-season news conference, not coincidentally on the same day when the NFL held its conference championship game news conferences. With the bulk of the NFL world distracted by the ongoing playoffs, the Eagles, specifically general manager and executive vice president Howie Roseman and Sirianni, attempted to explain away their disastrous late-season swoon.
The team’s disastrous end did come with consequences. The Eagles will have new coordinators on both sides of the ball.
Defensive coordinator Sean Desai and his in-season replacement, Matt Patricia, were both let go. Brian Johnson saw his tenure end as offensive coordinator.
For the second year in a row, the Eagles were faced with replacing coordinators on both sides of the ball.
The Eagles acted quickly.
Midway through the post-season news conference, the national media broke the news that the Eagles had signed Vic Fangio as defensive coordinator. By Saturday night, just hours before the conference championship games, the team came to terms with Kellen Moore to take over as offensive coordinator.
Both signings signal a change in the Eagles’ philosophy, specifically, Sirianni’s role on guiding that philosophy. Both Fangio and Moore will be given autonomy to run their shops as they see fit.
Sirianni will have his say but he’ll be leaning harder into his role as a motivator and tone-setter for the team’s culture. That’s less play-caller, more dog mentality.
Fangio returns to the Eagles after being a defensive consultant during the Super Bowl season. Fangio could have been the defensive coordinator last year, but complications during the departure of former defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon opened the door for Fangio to take the DC job in Miami.
Fangio will be charged with rebuilding a defense in the mold of his teams in Chicago, Denver, Miami and elsewhere. Fangio is an old-school coach who will have full control of his unit.
Moore earned his stripes as the offensive coordinator in Dallas for four seasons. A six-year NFL veteran as a backup quarterback, Moore was the offensive coordinator in Los Angeles this season. Moore became available when the Chargers hired Jim Harbaugh away from the University of Michigan.
Moore, who will be the Eagles’ third offensive coordinator and fourth offensive play-caller in the last four seasons, will be charged with designing an offense that can make the most of quarterback Jalen Hurts’ unique skill set.
Roseman and Sirianni spoke, repeatedly, about bringing fresh ideas to the Eagles on both offense and defense. The freshest possible idea is recapturing the magic that brought the Eagles to a Super Bowl, then a 10-1 record after 12 weeks this season.
The Eagles stuck with Sirianni to guide the team through yet another complete reboot. Anything less than success next year will send the Eagles right back to the drawing board, with another coaching search.
