Did Eagles' Jordan Davis Unintentionally Reveal Fletcher Cox's Fate? 'Fletch is Gone'
PHILADELPHIA - Fletcher Cox might not even return to the Philadelphia Eagles next season but still found time to support his embattled head coach Nick Sirianni on Wednesday during cleanout day at the NovaCare Complex.
“Come on man. What is there to talk about?” Cox asked rhetorically when asked about the future of Sirianni, who has a .667 regular-season winning percentage over his three seasons as the top man in Philadelphia. “Man, he’s a winner. He’s a winning coach.”
A 12-year veteran, Cox has seen far worse than 11-6 and a one-and-done playoff performance over his lengthy career.
“Did we have some bumps this year? Yeah, but every team, every organization, everybody goes through it,” said Cox. “But we don’t. We look at firing a man who obviously has won 10-plus games two years in a row, who has taken this organization to three playoff appearances three years in a row.
“That’s the respect?”
The problem is the way the Eagles got to 11-7 overall. They started 10-1 and finished losing six of seven games, including an ugly season-ending 32-9 setback to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the finale to Super Wild Card Weekend on Monday night.
Jordan Davis spoke emotionally about Fletcher Cox's impact on him.
Ed Kracz/SI Eagles Today
Despite that context, you can still count Cox firmly in the camp that believes moving on from Sirianni shouldn’t be up for debate.
“Coach is a good leader for this team, he does a really good job,” Cox insisted. “Did we come up short? Yeah. Did things happen this year? Yeah. But I don’t discuss about firing a man, this man got a family.
“I don’t discuss anything about that.”
Cox is one of the franchise’s all-time best defenders, a six-time Pro Bowl selection who returned for his 12th season with the Eagles on a one-year, $10 million contract. He’s set to become a free against again in March, coming off a season in which he again performed very well, graded by Pro Football Focus as the 20th-best DT in the NFL among the 130 who had enough snaps to be ranked.
Cox returned last spring despite receiving a higher-money offer from the New York Jets, believed to be for $12 million.
There are signs that a hometown discount will not be extended for a second season. On Wednesday the 33-year-old packed up his locker and his teammate Jordan Davis spoke like Cox might not be back, almost getting emotional.
“That’s something me and Jalen [Carter] was talking about earlier. Just how we’re gonna take care of this team and take care of the D-Line since Fletch is gone,” Davis said, “I think Milt [Milton Willliams] would be the oldest player on our [defensive tackle room] so we’re a very young team but at the end of the day we can’t use that as a crutch, can’t use it as an excuse. Can’t use Fletch as our security blanket, as our backup because he’s not there anymore.”
Cox isn’t gone just yet but perhaps he offered some inside information to Davis or it's also possible the veteran is playing hardball with the Eagles’ front office.
“I haven’t thought about anything,” Cox insisted. “Y’all see I’ve cleaned my locker out. I had a bunch of stuff in there. I needed to get it cleaned, so today I had enough time to do the job.”
As for next season, Cox played it close to the vest.
“There’s no thoughts going in my head about it at all," he said. "I love this game. I give this game everything I got week in and week out. I try to be the best teammate, the best leader that I can. And really the best mentor for these young guys. I love being around them. They make me feel young. It’s been exciting.
"Like I said, it’s going to be one of those things that I think about it. I haven’t thought about it yet. But we’ll see.”
