Nick Sirianni and Staff Set to Start Heavy Lifting

PHILADELPHIA - Nick Sirianni's been on the job for less than a week and hasn't even delved into what he's inherited in Philadelphia from a personnel standpoint so it's no surprise that the Eagles offensive-minded rookie head coach played defense when asked about becoming contenders again.

The Eagles, of course, are fresh off the five-year Doug Pederson era, which included three postseason berths and a Super Bowl LII championship.

Rewind to 1999 when Andy Reid helped turn the organization into one of the NFL's best and Philadelphia has 13 playoff appearances, six NFC Championship Games, two Super Bowls appearances, and the one Lombardi Trophy on its resume.

In other words, this is not a team used to irrelevancy.

That said Jeffrey Lurie acknowledged that the Eagles are entering a transition period after a dismal 4-11-1 2020 season.

Sirianni, 39, and his young coaching staff which includes first-time coordinators in Jonathan Gannon, 37. on defense and Michael Clay, 29, on special teams, as well as an OC in Shane Steichen, 35, with minimal experience, will get some dispensation.

Make no mistake, though, the impatience is not far behind.

“We have to go through the process here,” Sirianni said during his introductory press conference. “We’re still in the first part of this phase of getting the right coaches in place to come in and coach the guys, right? That their core values line up with mine and they’re good teachers of fundamentals.

"We’re in that phase right now.”

The coaching staff is nearly complete with the latest addition being new secondary coach Dennard Wilson, late of the New York Jets, who has some history with the leader of the team's defensive backfield, safety Rodney McLeod.

Once the staff is completed the heavy-lifting begins, starting with in-house evaluation.

“I’m confident there’s a talented group (here),” Sirianni said. “(General manager) Howie (Roseman) and his staff have put together a talented group. Just super excited to work with all the guys here because I know there’s a lot of talent in this building.”

Mission No. 1 for the Eagles is figuring out the quarterback position as Sirianni spent the majority of his first presser explaining that no decision about the future of Carson Wentz has been made.

From there are plenty of other roster issues that have to be addressed as well and it will be interesting to see how a new coaching staff views some of the players Pederson and his staff didn't have success with.

"Every position is going to be evaluated and every position is going to be open," said Sirianni. "... we can’t wait to start watching tape and see what our players can do.”

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 the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.