Why Eagles Won’t Fire Nick Sirianni Despite Disastrous Ending To Season

The Philadelphia Eagles are going home early after losing in blowout fashion, 32-9, to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the wild card round of the NFL playoffs.

In a game where many expected the Eagles to finally right the ship after losing five of their past six games following a 10-1 start, Philadelphia showed much of the same — a lackluster offense without an identity and a defense lacking consistency and basic execution.

The secondary missed multiple tackles while allowing backup receivers such as Trey Palmer and David Moore to carve them up for long touchdowns in the most pivotal game of the season.

“Obviously we were in a big slide,” said head coach Nick Sirianni during the postgame press conference. “Any time that’s the case, I always look at myself first. And I didn’t do a good enough job. Obviously we lost five in the last six and lost today. And it was almost like you couldn’t get out of the rut. …And that’s all of us. Will have to look ourselves in the mirror and accept that and find and find answers, find solutions.”

And while there were rumors entering the game that the Eagles could move on from Sirianni with an early playoff exit considering the team’s endless slide, Philadelphia isn’t moving on from him this offseason.

There may be multiple changes to the offensive and defensive coaching staffs — offensive coordinator Brian Johnson is due to interview with multiple teams and it’s hard to envision Sean Desai or Matt Patricia returning as defensive coordinator — but Sirianni will return.

The resounding sentiment in postgame interviews with multiple Eagles players was that Sirianni still has the pulse of the team.

“I didn’t know he was going anywhere,” said Jalen Hurts when asked regarding Sirianni’s future with the team.

While the final score looks bad, it’s worth noting the game was within striking distance until an ill-advised safety taken by Hurts pushed the deficit to 18-9 at the end of the third quarter.

Furthermore, despite another off night from the defense, they actually held the Buccaneers’ offense in check after allowing four scoring drives to open the game. They forced three consecutive punts to keep the Eagles in the game. The problem is, the offense couldn’t execute in the absence of A.J. Brown — who missed the game due to a knee injury — and Julio Jones, who suffered a concussion during the first half.

“We didn’t play well enough (this year),” said Hurts. “The identity, the consistency, the execution, turnovers, everything comes into play when it comes to the opportunity to win championships. It’s something we have to be able to learn from.”

The Eagles’ top rival, the Dallas Cowboys, also face a similar dilemma when it comes to their head coach being on the hot seat.

However, this isn’t one of those situations that the Cowboys currently face. Dallas has repeatedly come up short in the playoffs under Mike McCarthy’s lead and were never competitive during their 48-32 shellacking at the hands of the Green Bay Packers. In fact, they trailed 27-0 before scoring their first points and made the score look a lot closer than it actually was with garbage points at the end of the game.

Dallas’ loss to Green Bay was no fluke — they’re a great regular season that consistently comes up short in the playoffs. Philadelphia’s loss to Tampa Bay was a result of a late-season swoon following a 10-1 start, the best record in the NFL through 11 games.

The Eagles were in the Super Bowl just last year and while they failed to find an answer to their glaring woes on both offense and defense before the end of this season, that doesn’t mean Sirianni should be shown the exit door.

This could merely be a one-season mirage. Remember, prior to the Eagles’ recent downfall, Philadelphia had gone 26-5 — including the postseason — over the past two seasons. They also made a surprise playoff appearance in 2021 with Hurts starting his first full season at quarterback and while racking up wins in six of their last eight regular season games.

As much heat as Sirianni has faced and will face in the coming days, there’s not enough history of struggles — or any sign the locker room wants him out — to make that change now.

“The effort wasn’t the problem,” said tackle Lane Johnson in the locker room after the game. “We all had great relationships. It’s just, we have a slide going and you can’t stop it.”

There’s no doubt the shift at defensive coordinator from Desai to Patricia didn’t do the trick. It was a mistake by Sirianni in an attempt to give the team a quick jolt. The 42-year-old, third-year head coach will learn from that mistake moving forward.

But while the Philadelphia media and fans will quickly call for Sirianni’s job following this humbling defeat in the wild card round of the playoffs, owner Jeffrey Lurie will realize it’s too soon to make that call.

Whether the decision will be popular or not amongst the media and fans isn’t important. What is important is that the players in the locker room clearly want Sirianni back.

“When things start going bad, you can’t start calling for people’s jobs,” said Haason Reddick after the game. “This was a collective effort. “He’s the type of person that’s going to try to do what’s best for the team.”

We’ll see if the Eagles find a way to solve the issues that plagued them at the end of the 2023 season. But they should have the opportunity to do so as Sirianni gets another chance to right the ship for the 2024 season.

Considering this is the first time under his lead that the Eagles have faced a rough patch, he deserves that chance.