Expect a Familiar Tint to Nick Sirianni's Offense
PHILADELPHIA - What will a Nick Sirianni offense look like?
Well, a lot like you're used because Sirianni is a Frank Reich-guy, who happens to have completed his football doctorate under Doug Pederson, the man Sirianni will be replacing as the Eagles head coach.
That's not even a challenging game of six degrees of separation and honestly a very incestual approach to the next era of Philadelphia football but is also makes some sense if you understand Pederson would still be here if he accepted some limitations on his coaching staff and promised to rekindle his marriage to Carson Wentz.
In other words, the next best thing to Pederson or Reich, at least in the mind of Jeffery Lurie, in Sirianni when compared to New England gamble Josh McDaniels or in-house favorite Duce Staley.
Many had centered on the Colts as a possible landing spot for Wentz in a trade because of the presence of Reich so Lurie instead brought Indianapolis to Wentz with the plan to avoid $34 million in sunk costs, although there is no guarantee that the presence of Sirianni will change the thinking of Wentz, who still wants out of Philadelphia.
The narrative locally is Wentz is never been the same since Reich (and John DeFilippo) left after Super Bowl LII, a somewhat overreaching take in that Wentz played very well at times during both the 2018 and 2019 seasons before falling off a table from a production standpoint in 2020.
Still, the reports of a fractured relationship with Pederson seem to be on target especially if the former and likely soon-to-be QB1 was truly killing plays out of spite as the Philadelphia Inquirer has alleged.
Coaches are like snowflakes in that they are all at least a little bit different but the Indy offense is very similar to Pederson's offense as you might expect right down to the terminology.
In a film session with the Colts’ team website back in 2018, Sirianni offered a glimpse into the offense he helped build with Reich and mentioned three things that were valued by the Colts: 12 personnel (two-tight end sets), getting the running backs involved in the passing game, and scheming the playmakers into space mismatches.
All were also staples of the Pederson/Reich offense in Philadelphia.
The tweaks come from the differences in personnel or lack thereof.
In Philadelphia, Sirianni will lean heavily on 12 if the Eagles can work things out with Zach Ertz, who would also like a trade.
From there they will try to get Miles Sanders back on track as a pass-receiving threat after a lost season in which Staley even admitted Sanders needed to tighten up his hands. Perhaps more angle routes out of the backfield and slot work if Sanders begins to show some improvement with route running.
Finally, the Eagles must start to get the speed they have, notably second-year receivers Jalen Reagor, John Hightower, and Quez Watkins, and perhaps even a potential first-round pick like Devonta Smith into positions to stress the opposing defense.
Plans are great, however. The real trick is executing them.
John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John every Tuesday and Thursday on "The Middle" with Eytan Shander, Harry Mayes, and Barrett Brooks on SportsMap Radio and PhillyVoice.com. He’s also the host of Extending the Play on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
Ed Kracz is the publisher of EagleMaven. Check out anything you may have missed pertaining to the Eagles by going to www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
