Stop Discrediting Nick Sirianni And His Outstanding Record
Is Nick Sirianni as good as his record suggests? The Philadelphia Eagles own the best mark in the NFL at 8-1. They certainly haven’t played the cleanest games, but it’s time to give credit to their third-year head coach.
An Incredible Record Under Nick Sirianni
Sirianni’s 31-12 regular-season record as a head coach is no fluke. Yet, media and fan narratives consistently discredit him.
He took an underwhelming roster in 2021 and pushed them into the postseason at 9-8. He took an excellent roster to Super Bowl LVII. He’s in the driver’s seat to earn the top seed in the NFC once again in 2023.
Sirianni is the 11th coach in the Super Bowl era to lead his team to an 8-1 record in consecutive seasons. He joins legends like Bill Parcells, Don Shula, John Madden, and Tom Landry.
Slight alteration of the numbers makes the success look even more profound. The Eagles are in the midst of a 28-4 stretch in regular-season games started by Jalen Hurts.
Criticism of the Eagles
You heard about how their schedule fell into place perfectly in 2021. The Eagles feasted on some weak opposing quarterbacks, but they ultimately outperformed their season expectations under a rookie head coach drastically.
The perception of the 2022 Eagles was more about Howie Roseman than about Nick Sirianni. The constant praise of coaches like Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay didn’t transfer to the young offensive-minded head coach of the Eagles.
Both Philadelphia fans and national pundits have discredited the 2023 Eagles for a lack of impressive style points. However, the criticism doesn’t acknowledge the inability of the entire rest of the NFL to avoid stumbling into losses like the Eagles can.
Sirianni Deserves Credit
Kevin Clark spoke on ESPN’s This Is Football about the tendency of media members to “overrate Sundays at the cost of Wednesdays and Thursdays and Fridays.”
His guest Zach Berman spoke about his experience around Sirianni.
“What he does exceedingly well is knowing the temperature of his team, knowing how to keep his team motivated, knowing to pull off when he needs to, structuring practice a certain way, dealing with players a certain way, coaching the coaches, preparing for situations, understanding situational football…It’s not necessarily the play call on third-and-four. It’s more what to do overall and having your team ready.” -Berman
The consistent lack of credit discounts the cumulative effect that Sirianni’s strengths have on the overall approach of the Philadelphia Eagles.
They haven’t even played their best football. Sirianni has stressed execution in areas of the game that require no talent throughout his tenure as head coach. His team fumbled the ball three times and committed 10 penalties in Week 9.
However, Hurts appropriately brought out the old “game of inches” cliche in his postgame availability. Reed Blankenship held Luke Schoonmaker just shy of the goal line on a fourth-down stop late in the fourth quarter. Dak Prescott couldn’t manage the inches that make the difference in the game. Instead, his toes tapped the sideline on a failed two-point conversion.
A team led by a coach who stresses attention to detail and situational football as much as Sirianni makes those plays.
Sirianni isn’t above the cliche either.
“What did Bill Parcells say? You are what your record says you are.” –Nick Sirianni
The 2023 Eagles
The Eagles have a commanding lead in the NFC East headed into their bye week after a Week 9 victory against the Dallas Cowboys. Jalen Hurts has blossomed into one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL.
Eagles fans should have confidence that Sirianni will maximize the talent of his personnel and push his team to correct these mistakes.
He’s never given them any reason to think otherwise, and it’s time to acknowledge that.
Woke up and the Eagles are still 8-1.
— 97.5 The Fanatic (@975TheFanatic) November 6, 2023
1st place in the NFC East.
1-seed in the NFC.
Best record in the NFL.
Go Birds.
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