At one point during the 2023 season, the Philadelphia Eagles were on top of the world. Fresh off a crushing defeat in Super Bowl 57, the Eagles were on the hunt for vengeance. Philly was 10-1, which was good for the top seed in the NFC, and they appeared to be the favorite to do what they couldn't do last season, which was win the Super Bowl.

Just a few weeks later, a season that was once filled with so much promise has come to a crushing end. Philly would win just one more game the rest of the way out, falling from the top seed to the fifth seed in the NFC in the process. They still drew a favorable Wild Card matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but they completed their stunning collapse with a horrendous 32-9 defeat on Monday night.

A team that once appeared destined for a championship is suddenly in shambles, and all arrows are pointing back to Nick Sirianni. Under Sirianni's reign, the Eagles completely fell apart from out of nowhere, and it's tough to remember that less than a year ago, he was a few plays away from winning a Super Bowl. Now, with this stunning turn of events, it's clear that the Eagles have no choice but to move on from Sirianni this offseason.

The Eagles must move on from Nick Sirianni

Sirianni was hired after the 2020 season, and while the immediate returns weren't great, the Eagles went 9-8 in 2021 and showed quite a bit of promise. That promise was realized in 2022 when they went 14-3 and made it all the way to the Super Bowl. While they appeared destined to make a deep run again this season, they just completed one of the most stunning collapses in recent NFL memory.

The Eagles were decimated by injuries down the stretch of the season, particularly on defense, but you cannot use that as an excuse for only winning one of their final seven games. They picked up losses to teams that didn't even make the playoffs in the Arizona Cardinals, New York Giants, and Seattle Seahawks. Even with the injuries, they still had one of the deepest rosters in the league.

Rumors of tension within Philly's locker room have been floating around for awhile, and that once again loops back to Sirianni. There have been some not-so-hidden signs, with A.J. Brown being visibly upset on the sidelines several times throughout the season, and Dallas Goedert pulling a similar stunt in the loss to the Buccaneers.

Sirianni's game plans progressively got worse and worse as the season went on, which didn't exactly help matters. He leaned less on Jalen Hurts' legs, which was arguably the best part of their offense. Top weapons, such as Brown, DeVonta Smith, and D'Andre Swift, would go through long stints without getting the ball, and defensively, the Eagles went from being elite to being unable to slow down the Giants' Tyrod Taylor-led offense in Week 18.

The bigger issue with the defense, though, came on the coaching staff, where Sirianni made the strange decision to demote defensive coordinator Sean Desai and promote Matt Patricia midway through the season. The move didn't exactly lead to much, and further strained a team that was already wobbling. It's telling how sideways things went after this decision.

Would firing Sirianni just one season after he led the Eagles to the Super Bowl be premature? In most cases, yes, but this case is far from normal. Philadelphia went from being one of the best teams in the league to getting throttled by a Buccaneers squad that only scored nine points in Week 18 against the Carolina Panthers. This isn't something you can simply write off and forget about.

The issues within the Eagles run deep, as the results on the field are hard to ignore. Sirianni's message did not get through to his players, and the finger-pointing that spread like wildfire throughout the organization quickly resulted in a team that didn't want to play for each other. Who else can be blamed for that other than Sirianni at this point?

The duo of Sirianni and Jalen Hurts is solid, but the cracks are simply too big to ignore after this defeat to the Bucs. Bringing Sirianni back would only allow for these issues to become worse, and while he could make things right, there's virtually nothing over the final two months of the season to indicate that's the case. There are plenty of talented head coaches available to replace Sirianni with, and with their collapse having been completed, it's obvious that sort of big move is a necessary one that Philadelphia has to make this offseason.