With the preseason already under way and the start of the 2024 regular season only 22 days away, all of the typical talking points are being beat like a drum on each and every sports debate program you can find. That includes ESPN's Get Up, which featured a segment on the show today where Mike Greenberg revealed his list of the five coaches on the hot seat heading into the season. Predictably, this list included Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni.
Greeny's list of five possibly compromised head coaches was made up of Robert Saleh, Sirianni, Mike McCarthy, Matt Eberflus and Brian Daboll, in that particular order. While all five of these coaches could very easily end up jobless by the end of the 2024 season, former NFL wide receiver and ESPN analyst Andrew Hawkins believes strongly that the Philadelphia Eagles head coach should be alone at the top of the list.
Given Sirianni's track record of success in Philadelphia, his status as one of the most at-risk coaches could be considered a bit surprising, particularly if you're a fan of a team that doesn't routinely win 34 games over a three-season span. After all, the Eagles have made the Playoffs in all three year under the watch of Sirianni, and that includes the franchise's fourth trip to the Super Bowl just two seasons ago.
But things deteriorated publicly and abruptly last season. The Eagles went from 10-1 and atop the NFC to 11-7 and out of the Playoffs as fast as you could say “Fly Eagles, Fly!” The collapse cost first year coordinators Brian Johnson and Sean Desai their jobs, and resulted in Sirianni bringing in Kellen Moore and Vic Fangio to lead the offense and the defense, respectively.
Johnson and Desai were the fall guys last year, but Nick Sirianni may not be so lucky if the Eagles disappoint again in 2024. Unless he and starting quarterback Jalen Hurts can get on the same page, Sirianni better get comfortable sitting on a toasty seat.
Nick Sirianni, Jalen Hurts look to put 2023 season behind them
The tension between Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts peaked as the Eagles season was collapsing in 2023, when the coach and quarterback's relationship reached a point that has since been described as “fractured and unhealthy,” according to a team source (h/t Tim McManus and Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com). However, the Eagles, Sirianni and Hurts included, are working hard to put the drama and trauma of 2023 behind them.
That process started with Nick Sirianni publicly and passionately taking responsibility for his wrongdoings last season, in a speech that “was a breath of fresh air” in what had been a very stuffy Eagles locker room ever since they lost Super Bowl 57 to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Jalen Hurts too has put work in on repairing his relationship with his head coach, and thus far, the process has yielded promising results.
“I think we're in a great place,” Hurts said when Eagles training camp began. “I think any time you have any frustration, any time you have any adversity that you have to overcome, it's supposed to test you. It's a matter of being on the same page. If we were on the same page, we maybe would have accomplished the things we would have [last season], and we didn't, and that's a learning experience.”
If the Eagles can effectively use last year's shortcomings as a learning experience, then 2024 should go much more smoothly than 2023. But if they can't, then it may be the final year that Sirianni and Hurts have the chance to work together in Philadelphia.
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