The Eagles have officially hired former Colts offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni to be their next head football coach.
Eagles are hiring Colts' OC Nick Sirianni as their head coach, sources tell ESPN. Sirianni spent three seasons as a Chiefs' assistant coach, five seasons with the Chargers, and the past three with the Colts. Now the 39-year-old Sirianni becomes the lead man in Philadelphia.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 21, 2021
Two weeks after the decision to move on from Doug Pederson, Jeffrey Lurie and Howie Roseman pegged the man they believe is best-suited to fix Carson Wentz and revive the culture in Philadelphia.
Sirianni, 39, is a relatively unknown commodity who wasn’t even on the Eagles radar at the start of the hiring process. Nonetheless, the organization hopes a diligent week-plus of interviews helped them uncover a diamond in the rough to help turn around what can only be described as an undesirable situation.
Prior to the past three seasons as OC in Indianapolis, Sirianni spent a total of five season as an offensive assistant with the Chargers under former HC Mike McCoy and then OC Frank Reich (2014-15), coaching QBs from 2014-15, and WRs from 2016-17. Prior to that he spent a few seasons in Kansas City, holding various titles between quality control (2009 & 11), assistant QBs coach (2010), and WRs coach (2012).
Having worked directly under Frank Reich for a total of five seasons (six if you include 2013 w/ Reich as QB coach and Sirianni as quality control) it’s hard to imagine this wasn’t part of the appeal to Lurie and Howie. In fact, it’s likely this connection that got him in the interview room in the first place.
On one hand you can view this as the organization chasing the ghost of Frank Reich—the man widely credited with the original success of Wentz, and whose departure can be traced to the downfall of the offense—but that wouldn’t be totally fair. While it’s a suspiciously obvious hire given the Reich connection, it’s possible this a situation where the obvious answer is the right answer.
If losing Reich was the problem, then maybe hiring the next best thing to Reich is the solution (in terms of fixing Wentz)—that’s obviously the thinking behind the hire. You could read that as sound decision making, or you could read it as a foolish organization chasing their losses.
While I haven’t fully developed an opinion on the hiring, I do have faith in the interview process that led to Lurie and Howie picking his name thorough the jumble of perceivably more-qualified, better-known candidates.
At the end of the day, only time will tell what sort of coach Nick Sirianni will be—all I know is it won’t be easy following the only coach to deliver a Super Bowl to this city, and I hope to god he knows that.