Nick Sirianni: An Evolving Coach Ahead of the Curve
Nick Sirianni loves his offense and is incredibly passionate about it.
So much so that on a sleepy spring day in South Philadelphia, long before the pads will come on for the 2022 season, a fly on the wall might have seen the Eagles’ second-year head coach use his finger to air diagram a Florida play on the wall at the NovaCare Complex for reporters.
And that’s why it’s so counterintuitive to believe someone as passionate as Sirianni could give up something he dreamt about in his rise from quality control coach to the big chair in the NFL.
Forget any conspiracy theories, though.
Jeffrey Lurie didn’t issue a decree from above after a 2-5 start that Sirianni had to give up play-calling and Howie Roseman never advised that maybe the then-rookie head coach should take something off his plate.
It took half of a season for Sirianni himself to figure out he loved something even more than his offense – the entire team he was tasked with stewarding.
“I just didn’t feel like I was doing a good enough job communicating,” Sirianni admitted this spring when talking about handing the play-calling duties off to offensive coordinator Shane Steichen, something that happened on Nov. 7 against the Los Angeles Chargers, according to a team source. “It wasn’t any particular ‘ah ha moment’ or anything like that. I trusted Shane.”
It’s antithetical to many fans but game-day play-calling is one of the most overrated things in the NFL when it comes to evaluating coaches.
“It’s more of an ego thing, to be honest,” one former play-calling head coach told Eagles Today. “Do you really think we are coming up with something in 40 seconds on the fly? Everything is meticulously planned and practiced. Of course, there is a feel in big spots but [critics] are really evaluating play results, not play-calling and that’s usually about execution and the players performing.
"It’s all about the preparation.”
Sirianni expressed a similar sentiment when talking about handing the baton to his close friend Steichen.
“All the work’s done Monday through Saturday to get ready for it and [the offensive staff] knew how I wanted to run plays,” the Eagles coach said.
It’s Sirianni’s goal during the six days of the week he’s behind the curtain to make sure that if it’s Steichen, passing game coordinator Kevin Patullo. or quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson, everything will run the same way.
“When we're installing a play or when we're talking about how a play is run in the offense, it's here's exactly how I want this play run,” Sirianni explained to Eagles Today.
Everything from quarterback drops to crossing concepts and landmarks for the receivers, check downs, and protection schemes are built into the offense, along with adjustments tailored to how the defense is playing.
And all of it is non-negotiable for Sirianni.
“As Frank Reich would say I'm a very big of a bulldog in how I believe that things should be run and the techniques that should be used to run that play,” Sirianni said.
Rewind back to that Florida play
“So when we say the play Florida, everybody in their mind knows exactly what I want against each individual look versus all these different things and endless amount of things,” Sirianni said. “And so that play will be the run exactly [the way I want].”
And that attention to detail is extrapolated to the entire offensive playbook.
“[That] is just one play and we're talking about hundreds of plays that will be run that way,” said Sirianni. “The way I just said it, no matter if Kevin Patullo is calling it, Shane Steichen's calling it, Brian Johnson is calling it, [offensive line coach] Jeff Stouland's calling it, [tight ends coach] Jason Michael is calling it, [defensive coordinator] Jonathan Gannon comes over and calls it.
“Howie calls it from up there, Mr. Lurie, [chief security officer] Dom DiSandro, Julian [Lurie].”
Point made with a few chuckles thrown in.
Steichen is the play-caller so Sirianni can focus on other things but it remains the head coach’s offense.
“I just think that people don't understand that sometimes like 'well, the guy that called the play well, he must have done all that work to do that,'” Sirianni said. “ And again, I don't want to take anything away from Shane, it's just that -- I don't like saying it this way -- but I'm very particular and I know what I believe in [with] the passing and the running game and offensive football.”
The finished product on game days remains distinctly Sirianni.
“It's the first 15 [scripted plays] you put out, we've done that together,” Sirianni said. “We've done the order of the third downs, we've done the order of the red zone, the two-minute, four-minute because nothing's changed in your mind. ... As far as the first 15, you change that as far as, 'hey, here's what they're doing now. Let's adjust this.' And so, so much of that work is done [pre-game]. And so, the play-caller is just a portion, it's just a little portion of the offense."
Sirianni has already shown he’s savvy enough to adjust on the fly to get a transitioning Eagles team to the playoffs in his first year as a coach, along with an egoless mindset to delegate to coaches he trusts.
Those are clear indicators that the young mentor is ahead of the curve when it comes to understanding just how big the job of an NFL coach is.
“All eyes are on you,” said Sirianni. “How you react after wins. How you react after losses. How you react with the team. You’re setting the tone there. Your energy at all times is [reflecting on] the team. Until you’re in that seat, you don’t understand it.
“... Because I knew all the criticism [would be there]. And I’ll get more praise than I deserve, too, in the sense of when we win. Or the criticism, I’m always going to accept that. But you don’t know that completely until you’re there. I knew it was going to happen, but maybe not to that extent until you live it.”
-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Sports. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talker Jody McDonald, every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube.com and JAKIBSports.com. You can reach John at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
