Nick Sirianni Dives Deeper Into Exit Of Eagles O-Line Coach Jeff Stoutland

PHILADELPHA – Neither Nick Sirianni nor Howie Roseman had a single disparaging thing to say about the abrupt exit of longtime offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland.

“I don’t think it’s a secret how close I am to Stout, not was, but am,” said Roseman, the Eagles’ general manager. “How much I appreciate the relationship, the process that we go through. I could probably have 50 stories on our draft process and how we went through them. I miss him. I care about him. But obviously, there’s a change there, and we’ll continue to move on. …He’s a Hall of Fame assistant coach in my opinion. He’ll be my friend for the rest of my life.”

Added Sirianni, the head coach: “Obviously, he had been such a huge important piece of the puzzle of what we’ve done here, not just in my time, but obviously prior to me being here. Obviously, we wanted him to stay and be involved in this, I don’t want to say rebuild, but reclassification, however you want to say it. …I wish him the best and we’ll deeply miss him because he’s done so many things that have helped us throughout his time here.”

The two men, scheduled to speak Tuesday afternoon at the NFL Scouting Combine, spoke to Eagles beat writers last Friday.

So, how did it get to this point that Stoutland felt the need to leave an organization he had been a part of since Chip Kelly hired him all the way back in 2013?

Nick Sirianni Gives His Side Of Jeff Stoutland's Exit

Sirianni denied reports that he had been demoted and wasn't informed of decisions being made about the inconsistent run game. The coach said he stepped into a lot of areas of the offense, not just the game, and nobody was left on the outside of what was going on internally.

“We were struggling, so I was like what do I need to be able to do as the head coach to go in and help where we’re struggling here,” he said. “That was in every phase. That was with third down, that was with red zone, that was with short yardage, that was with run game, that was with play action game, that was with drop-back game.

“We still went about our process the same. … There were obviously different things that we did and a different process in a sense (but) we were all together doing it in there. Not to get too much into this with exactly what it is, but there were change of what we did, but Stout did a lot of the stuff where he brought the ideas of what he was thinking and then he’d be like, ‘Heym I want to run this particular run on our terms.’ It’s always been collaborative in everything we’ve done here.”

What’s done is done, and the Eagles, as Roseman said, are moving on, hiring Chris Kuper, who spent eight years playing guard in the NFL.

“Just like you always want good players around, you always want good coaches around,” said Sirianni. “With that being said, I’m really excited about the guys we brought in. It’s a different…some of the things we think we’re leaning toward doing is a different way of going about it. I’m excited about that opportunity.”

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