Prior to the Eagles winning the Super Bowl this past season in a dominant fashion, many, including myself, questioned Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni. As his opening press conference with the Eagles left many with question marks as he seemed a bit unprofessional in it. Him reverting to corny cliches such as “we have gotten knocked down and were going to get right back up” after a midseason loss. The team at times not being buttoned up, for instance with a sideline altercation where he almost got into a fight with an assistant coach. The biggest reason Sirianni has received criticism was because of the Eagles’ late season collapse to end the 2023 season, where the team started off 10-1 but finished 1-6 losing by three possessions in the first round of the playoffs. Which was as big of a late season collapse a Super Bowl contending team has ever had.
However, if you look at purely the facts, Sirianni perhaps gets too much criticism and is a very good NFL head coach. Having been the head coach of the Eagles for four seasons now and having just delivered a Super Bowl title, he has just received a contract extension from general manager Howie Roseman. Yes, the rosters that general manager Howie Roseman constructs are likely the best in the NFL on a perennial basis, QB Jalen Hurts is very talented, and the coordinators are top notch. However, one could certainly argue that the head coach is the biggest thing that leads to a team succeeding or not. In the Nick Sirianni era, the only team who has been more successful than the Eagles have been the Kansas City Chiefs. The Eagles just dismantled the Chiefs in the Super Bowl and if 1-2 things went differently in the first Philadelphia-Kansas City Super Bowl, the two teams certainly could be even with 2 Super Bowls each. The Eagles under Sirianni have also been the first or second most dominant regular season team in the NFL on a year in year out basis, them or the Ravens. The Chiefs under the reign of Andy Reid have not been quite as dominant in the regular season as the Eagles under Sirianni have been. Yes, the Eagles rosters’ constructed by Howie Roseman are top notch and likely the best in the NFL in the Nick Sirianni era. However, Patrick Mahomes has likely been the best QB in the NFL in the Andy Reid era. One could also certainly argue if not say with a strong level of certainty that QBs are more important than a team’s overall roster outside of the QB spot. Nick Sirianni, with a similar level of support around him in terms of roster and QB has had the Eagles be neck and neck with the Chiefs in terms of being the premier team in the NFL. But yet Andy Reid is heralded as one of the greatest coaches ever and Sirianni consistently gets criticized.
Part of the reason why Andy Reid is almost universally regarded as the best head coach in the NFL today and as one of the greatest coaches ever is because of his track record before the Mahomes era as a head coach. He consistently led the Eagles to conference titles without elite QB play and he consistently had the Chiefs in the playoffs with QB play that was closer to average. Whereas Sirianni’s track record in the NFL before being hired by the Eagles is solid but not spectacular, in particular coordinating a stout Colts offense for three seasons before being hired by the Eagles as head coach. Kyle Shanahan is regarded as one of the premier head coaches in the NFL because he consistently has the 49ers within inches of winning it all despite having ordinary caliber quarterbacks who may just be high end backups. Sean McVay is heralded as an elite caliber coach in large part because of the turnaround he led the Rams offense to in his first season with the team. Where the Rams went from having the league’s worst scoring offense a year before McVay to then having the league’s top scoring offense in the first year with McVay. Sirianni for aforementioned reasons such as his opening press conference and the team’s historic collapse to end the 2023 season is not seen to be an elite NFL head coach. But in terms of winning, he is neck and neck with anyone in the league today as an NFL head coach. He also has not had the opportunity to turn around a team like McVay did nor has he had the opportunity to build a long track record as an NFL head coach in less-than-ideal circumstances like Reid did.
Because of two primary things which were his opening press conference and the Eagles’ historic collapse to end the 2023 season, many find excuses to devalue Sirianni as a head coach. Attributing the success of the team to the roster which the general manager Howie Roseman builds along with Jalen Hurts being highly talented at the QB position. In trying to justify the first of the two points, many point to the Eagles’ Super Bowl triumph in the 2017 season with the roster that Roseman built where Howie Roseman built a Super Bowl winning roster with a different head coach and a different QB. However, regardless of how strong the surrounding circumstances are for a head coach, a head coach deserves arguably the most amount of credit for a team’s success and also the most amount of accountability for the team’s failures. Maybe Sirianni is not quite as strong or proven of a head coach as the likes of Sean McVay, Andy Reid, Kyle Shanahan, or Jim Harbaugh, but he is certainly the next closest thing. Many are of the mindset that Sirianni is just an average caliber head coach but in my estimation, he is top 10 and the next closest thing to the likes of the tier 1 head coaches in the NFL. In the Nick Sirianni era, the Eagles have been the only team who has been nearly as successful as the Chiefs led by Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid. This is without Sirianni having a tier 1 caliber QB such as Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes. As stated previously, perhaps Sirianni is not quite as strong of a coach as Andy Reid or Sean McVay, but in my eyes, he is certainly the next closest thing in that same group of head coaches with John Harbaugh and Mike Tomlin. Coaches who may not be able to be the primary contributor to winning Super Bowls or have the ability to coach a dynasty. But certainly, a coach who one can win a Super Bowl with like all three of those coaches have.
Doubters of Sirianni will continue to exist because of some incidents such as his opening press conference and the late season collapse in 2023. Along with the presence of Howie Roseman as general manager and people pointing to how strong the Eagles’ roster and QB spot is. Doubts that I think are a bit overly critical as even great all-time head coaches such as Bill Belichick and Andy Reid had a ton to work with especially at the QB position. Winning is still the ultimate barometer for a coach and Sirianni wins not just as much but more than any head coach in the NFL today outside of Andy Reid. This is without even having an all-time great quarterback talent or even a quarterback who is viewed as elite in today’s NFL. The current list of head coaches who Sirianni consistently wins more than includes Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, and Jim Harbaugh. As McVay’s teams in the regular season are not nearly as dominant as Sirianni’s teams in the regular season and neither Shanahan nor Jim Harbaugh have won a Super Bowl like Sirianni has. The likes of Mike Tomlin, John Harbaugh, and Sean Payton have not won or reached a Super Bowl in the past decade combined whereas Sirianni has reached two in the last four years including winning one of them.
