Is The Sirianni-Hurts Drama Over, Or Will It Re-Emerge?

All off-season, and honestly near the end of the season, we knew there was something wrong between Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts. The Sirianni-Hurts drama overpowered off-season conversations, with little else going on in the Eagles world. We knew some of the story, but not the full story. Well now, thanks to a great ESPN story from Tim McManus and Jeremy Fowler, we know the full story, and it is a doozy.

If you have not checked it out, definitely read the full thing here. It is long, 10 pages long, but it is well worth your time. It is the clearest answer we have gotten yet about why the Eagles fell apart late In the season. It paints a full picture of how a Coach-Qb relationship became so fractured.

The summary is that there was a huge difference of opinion on how the offense should be run between the two men. Sirianni refused to change the offense, and Hurts went off script leading to more problems, like what happened at the end of the Seahawks game. Both men came away looking equally responsible for what was a disastrous 7 weeks.

We know what the problem was? But is it over with? Will the same issues creep up at the first sign of drama this season?

On Hurts' end, he got what he wanted. The offense was changed, and he got a bit more power to change things at the line of scrimmage. So I am sure he is completely fine with things now. He might still hold a slight grudge over his long-time friend and mentor Brian Johnson getting the boot. But as long as he is okay with what Kellen Moore is doing, things on his end should be all good.

The question is about Nick Sirianni. He lost the battle. They stripped him of offensive play design. He is still the head coach, but he no longer has the final say of how the offense is run.

So far he has played the good soldier and handled losing play design powers well. Maybe that is genuine. He took accountability behind the scenes after the season according to the ESPN article. And when he talked to the media after the article dropped, he gave a surprisingly poignant statement.

Saying the right things in training camp is easy. Nothing is going wrong yet. You judge a person by how they act when adversity strikes. Both Hurts and Sirianni handled it horribly last season. But people can grow. Hopefully, they both learned from their mistakes. As of now, it seems like they have.

Hopefully, that remains the case the first time things get tough this season. At some point, things are going to get tough. Every team has their speed bumps. That is when we separate great teams from good teams, and it is when we will learn if Hurts and Sirianni grew from this or not.

They don't need to be friends. Teams have won Super Bowls when their coach and QB did not particularly like each other. They do need to be professionals though. Last year they were not professional. They let their pettiness boil over and impact the entire team. That can't happen again.

Tim McManus did join The Best Show Ever later in the day, and explained how having Kellen Moore in charge of the offense could reduce some friction between Hurts and Sirianni.

The Tim McManus article ended on a positive note, and I will share the same quote they finished their article with here.

"Do I think they will go to dinner together? Hell no," a team source said. "But it can be a good working professional relationship, and I don't think it's hatred."

That is the best news to come out of the article. Hopefully it holds true.

The Eagles schedule is out. From week 1 to week 18, we know who, when, and where they will be playing. it could still change a bit if the NFL flexes games., but for the most part, we know the details about all 17 of their games.

In the past, the schedule makers have not been too kind to them. That took the form of a crazy gauntlet last season where they played the Cowboys twice, the Bills, the Dolphins, the Chiefs, the 49ers, and the Seahawks. Luckily they avoided that this year.

But tough stretches were not the only ways they inconvenienced the Eagles. There were rough road trips, difficult travel, and huge rest disadvantages, just to name a few things. Did they manage to avoid that this season?

Is this Schedule easier than last year? Did they get an advantage when it comes to rest for the first time in years? How much do they have to travel this season?

The Eagles face 0 teams coming off their bye week this season. That is huge. They had a few last year, and had their own bye week nullified by playing the Chiefs coming off the bye. They still won that game, but it robbed them of an advantage most other teams get.

The Eagles will get to sleep in their own beds for the last 6 weeks of the season. There are no road trips after the week 12 game in LA where they leave the East Coast. The furthest they travel is to Washington DC. A short bus ride away.

Being able to avoid plane trips, or time zone changes for the last month and change of the season is a big deal.

In that same vain, 4 of their last 5 games are at home. The downside to that is they travel a lot in the first 3 months of the season. But it pays off when at the end of the year, where they are the most tired, they hardly travel at all. Agan, the one trip they do make, is to DC. 

We talked about some good things with the Eagles Schedule, time to get negative. The Last 14 Super Bowl Winners had their bye week week 7 or later. 9 of the last 14 had it week 10 or later. The Eagles get theirs week 5.

It is not an ideal time to have it. You don’t need the rest as much after 4 weeks. You do want it after 8 or 9 games though. O not only does their bye week come when they don’t need it, but they will now play 13 straight weeks to close out the season. Not ideal.

The Eagles will travel 22,576 miles this season. The Brazil trip, which is nearly 10,000 miles round trip, does a lot of the heavy lifting there. But they also fly cross country to Los Angeles.

Take those out, and they only have about 8000 miles the rest of the season. Thats two rough road trips, but the other 15 games are much easier travel wise. And for the Brazil trip, the Packers travel is just as difficult, so it evens out.

Case in in point, the Eagles change Time Zones 12 times all season. That includes only 4 road trips total where they leave the Eastern Tim Zone. Brazil, New Orleans, Cincy, and LA. They stay on the East Coast in the other 13 games. And every time they do leave the east Coast, it is only for 1 game. So no long road trips out in the West this season.

Only the Chiefs change time Zones fewer times than the Eagles do this season. Per Sharp Football Analysis.

Going off of last year’s win totals is an imperfect method of determining strength of schedule. Teams have changed too much to judge off of last season. Going off off win projections isn’t perfect either, but it is likely more accurate than 2023 records.

11 of the Eagles' 17 opponents have a win total of 8.5 or lower. Only 6 teams, The Packers, Bengals, Ravens, Falcons, and the Cowboys twice, have a win projection that would see them finish over .500.

The Browns, Jags, and Rams over-under is set at 8.5. Their other 8 opponents, are 7.5 or lower.

The last couple of seasons, the Eagles were the victims of a weird schedule quirk. Balancing rest advantage vs rest disadvantage is hard for the NFL to do. Often, teams end up getting screwed over. The Eagles were once of those teams the past two seasons, where they had several games with major rest disadvantages.

This season, pending any games being flexed, they have +279 extra hours of rest vs their opponents.

On the topic of rest advantage, they only have 1 game where they have a rest disadvantage of more than a day. Meanwhile there are 4 games where they have a rest advantage of more than a day. Not playing any teams off the bye helps that. But they also have only 1 Monday Night Game, and they don’t play any teams coming off of a Thursday Night game.