Eagles’ Nick Sirianni Needs To Recapture His Joy

PHILADELPHIA - As his resume grows, Eagles coach Nick Sirianni continues to recede.

It seems counterintuitive that one of the most successful NFL coaches of the Super Bowl era pulls back a little further after every win, the latest being a 38-20 drubbing of the New York Giants on Sunday.

Sirianni’s Eagles enter the Week 9 bye at 6-2 and in full control of the NFC East and on the short list of legitimate Super Bowl contenders.

Yet, his thrice-weekly press conferences have turned into the best version of Dean Smith’s four corners offense since Phil Ford was running it.

For those who aren’t old-school basketball fans, that means draining the clock.

Sirianni has turned a wordier Marshawn Lynch (“I’m here so I don’t get fined.”)

At his weekly post-game-day videoconference on Monday, Sirianni looked exhausted and fended off queries of the team’s bye-week process, its pin-and-pull gap scheme blocking success against the Giants, and the inadvertent whistle that could have affected Jake Elliott on his 58-yard missed field goal.

Competitive Advantage

Oct 26, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni looks on in the second quarter against the New York Giants at Lincoln Financial Field. | Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

Competitive advantage is usually the all-encompassing, get-out-of-jail-free card for Sirianni with anything that even touches the realm of scheme.

However, the coach even deflected an innocuous query on his handing out of cow bells in the locker room to 100-yard rushers Saquon Barkley and Tank Bigsby after the game.

You can be comfortable in assuming Mississippi State gimmick infringement isn’t going to dampen any potential competitive advantages against the Green Bay Packers on Nov. 10.

And mind you, the Monday press conference crowd is limited to the reporters that cover the Eagles and Sirianni on a daily basis and have built up solid working relationships with the head coach.

It’s the meat-and-potatoes troop simply only seeking information to better inform the fans on their favorite team.

To me, the Eagles’ head coach is showing the strains of perhaps the NFL’s most difficult coaching job.

The more Sirianni wins, the greater the expectations become, which not only demand championships but also style points while doing it.

Sirianni, who was once questioned about his role as a “CEO coach,” ironically is becoming the Red Panda of professional football, and the figurative plates the coach is balancing are making him susceptible for a fall.

Over the last week, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie called Sirianni “one of the best connectors in sports” at the league’s annual fall meetings, a tip to the coach’s ability to manage a locker room filled with stars.

Yet the same “connector” is retreating from those who tell the team’s story from outside the walls of the NovaCare Complex, the kind of bridges that should be built and maintained.

With his players, Sirianni has tapped into four-time NBA championship coach Steve Kerr, whose core leadership principles begin with the word “joy.”

“It’s meant to be fun,” Kerr espouses.

Sirianni needs to recapture his own joy and get back to being the guy who built the Eagles into what they are.

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