After watching the Philadelphia Eagles season fall apart in a spectacular way back in January, with the team going from the best record in the NFL to an ugly Super Wild Card weekend loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, there were genuine questions about the future of Nick Sirianni with the Birds.
Some questioned if he'd lost the team, others worried about his decision-making process, from elevating Brian Johnson to OC to demoting Sean Desai mid-season, and others still openly wondered if the Birds would be better off with Bill Belichick as their head coach, despite having completely lost his team in New England after borderline unprecedented success with the Patriots.
Asked by reporters on Wednesday about his conversation with Jeffrey Lurie back in March about toning down his visible passion on the sidelines, Sirianni noted that it's been a learning process, and he is trying to improve with each passing day.
“Yeah, all of us, the moment we stop growing and trying to grow in our profession and grow as people, as players, as coaches is the moment you might as well not be doing it anymore. So we're constantly trying to evolve everything that we do to — you go through adversity, and you think about “what can I do better in adversity.” You go through good times, and you think about ‘what can I do better.' Everything is always in a constant evaluation of yourself. That's accountability,” Sirianni told reporters.
“To point out a specific thing, I mean, I've worked a lot on a lot of different things just to make sure that I'm being the best head coach that I possibly can be. I wouldn't say -”
Interesting stuff, right? Well wait, it gets even better, as Sirianni had plenty more to say on the subject that will have Eagles fans hyped about the future of the franchise.
For the 2024 Eagles, accountability starts with Nick Sirianni
Turning his attention to in-game discipline, where the Eagles head coach has earned something of a reputation for getting into petty squabbles with referees over calls justified or not, Sirianni explained how he plans to improve his command of the team from the sidelines, with accountability starting with him.
“You know, one thing that I read when I was reading a leadership book this offseason was if you want everyone around you to have accountability and you want yourself to have accountability, then you fussing at the refs is not — it's almost like, ‘hey, this happened, so I'm going to blame that.' When I read that, I was like, yeah, that hit me some sort of way. When I think about me with a referee potentially on the sideline and I complain about a call, is that really sending the right message to the rest of the team as far as our accountability goes,” Sirianni told reporters.
“Again, when something goes wrong, the answer should be how do we fix this and what are the solutions, as opposed to looking for a scapegoat, I guess to say, is how I read it in the book. That hit me a certain way because with our core values being what they are — our connect, our accountability, our toughness, our detail — with our core values being that and accountability being such a big one, I looked at that as — that doesn't mean I'm going to be perfect. I already know that. But that's definitely on my mind. You brought up the sideline stuff. I'm going to still be super energetic when we score and when we have good plays because that's one of the things that you love about football is the camaraderie of I'm telling our guys, hey, when you make a play, I can't wait to see what you guys do to celebrate with each other within the rules of the game. Be yourself, have fun, do it within the rules of the game.
“So that's going to still be there, but I think the one thing that I really thought a lot about, that hit me some certain way when I read that book, was the accountability piece. We're always a work in progress. I'll be a work in progress until I'm done coaching, until I die, I feel like, just because that's just what I've always been taught, and you're always striving to get better at everything that you do.”
In 2023, Sirianni's tendencies, which were celebrated when the team was winning, started to grind folks' gears as the Eagles struggled exponentially down the stretch. If he can simply handle things more professionally this fall – when coupled with improved coaching from both Kellen Moore and Vic Fangio – it should help to set Philly up for success long-term.
