Nick Sirianni Is The 1 Problem Remaining for the Eagles Offense
The addition of Saquon Barkley to the Eagles’ offense should take them to the next level. They already had two elite WRs. Even with Jason Kelce retiring, they should still have an elite offensive line. Jalen Hurts is a year removed from being the MVP runner-up. Dallas Goedert when healthy has been among the best Tight Ends. Now you add a top 5 RB to the mix? On paper, this offense should be as good as anyone. but there is still one dark cloud hanging over the heads. Nick Sirianni.
Brian Johnson took a lot of the blame for the Eagles’ offense underperforming last season. The logic is that this same offense worked in 2022 with Shane Steichen calling the plays, and Brian Johnson was the only major difference. Clearly it is his fault they took a step back. Right?
Brian Johnson Was The Scapegoat For Nick Sirianni
All Johnson did was call plays. You can say he didn’t call the right plays. That may be partially true. But at its core, their playbook was flawed. They had no response to the blitz, no motion, and very few plays over the middle of the field. That’s not play calling, it is play design. Play design is on Nick Sirianni.
Nick made it clear all season long, that was his offense. He designs the plays, he develops the game plan. All Brian Johnson did was call plays out of Nick’s playbook
Tim McManus joined The Best Show Ever near the end of the season and talked about how what the Eagles ran last season is not the Brian Johnson offense:
“All Lurie has to do is pick up the phone and call people who know Brian Johnson. The response from those people will be that is not Brian Johnson’s offense. You can see the confliction play out on the field because you can tell it is not what he would be calling in that situation. That is not Brian Johnson’s offense.”
All the things that drove us crazy last year about the design of the offense, was Nick Sirianni. He is the one who had no hot routes. Nick is the one who didn’t design plays over the middle of the field. Nick is the one who had 500 WR bubble screens that never worked. Brian Johnson may deserve some blame, but the bulk of it belongs on Nick. Nick is still here.
Will They Give Kellen Moore The Keys To The Eagles Offense?
That is the question. We have been told Moore will come in and run the offense. Not just call plays, but have a hand in designing it. But there has also been mixed messaging. When Sirianni has spoken, he has suggested he will still have a part in it. That is terrifying.
A Frankenstein’s monster combination of Nick Sirianni’s offense, and Kellen Moore’s offense, does not sound like a winning strategy. We tried something like that at the end of the Doug Pederson era. In 2020 the Eagles brought in Rich Scangarello to try and mesh his concepts with Doug Pederson’s. It did not work. It blew up even worse and the Doug Pederson era came to a screeching halt.
The Eagles were already exceptionally talented on offense last season. It still didn’t work as well as it should have, because of Nick Sirianni. The key to them winning, is him being the “CEO” type coach, and not the maestro of the offense. Let Kellen Moore take the reigns.
Can Nick Sirianni put his ego aside, and do what is best for the team? Or will he try to push his way into running the offense again? The Eagles season may depend on the answer to that question.