Nick Sirianni The Play Caller? What's Going On With The Eagles

PHILADELPHIA - Could the Eagles be raising the white flag on their circuitous offensive coordinator search?

From a literal sense, that answer to that is no, of course. Still, there is a growing sentiment that a young OC with upside, like Green Bay Packers quarterbacks coach Sean Mannion, could be the final answer with the idea that head coach Nick Sirianni would return to the play-calling role.

Much of that speculation is rooted in the NFL’s top insider, ESPN’s Adam Schefter, floating that trial balloon on Wednesday.

“They have Nick Sirianni, who always could call the offense if they can’t find somebody worthy of doing the job,” Schefter said. “But they’re being diligent looking for the right match. …They think there are enough good candidates out there that they’re going to come out of this with a good, strong offensive coordinator.”

The Eagles fired offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo on January 13th, so who’s taking over the offense now?@AdamSchefter shares the latest ✍️ pic.twitter.com/yZMhVe5HjB
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) January 28, 2026

That’s counterintuitive on several levels, starting with the most obvious in that Sirianni has expressed on multiple occasions that he’s a better head coach when not bogged down with the play-calling duties.

“I felt like I needed to make a change in the sense of how to free me up to be a better head coach,” Sirianni said in 2022. “... So yeah, no hesitation there at all, no ego thing there at all.”

A year later, Sirianni delved deeper into his mindset of delegating the play-calling aspect of the game.

“It does help me manage the game better, in my opinion,” he said. “It helps me interact with the players more on the sideline. And it helps me be able to discuss something that, with somebody upstairs, to get on the defensive headset when the offense is up, vice versa.”

That’s a very small sample of Sirianni’s beliefs that he’s shared publicly. Behind the scenes, the coach has been consistently adamant that the so-called CEO approach is the best one for him.

Has Something Changed?

Oct 9, 2025; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie looks on before the game against the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium. | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

It’s hard to imagine that changing without prodding.

That said, if the organization can’t uncover someone it's comfortable with, Sirianni might have to grab the controls.

The Eagles’ coach is very proud of the offenses he and his mentor, Frank Reich, had to build in Indianapolis around three distinct quarterbacks (Andrew Luck, Jacoby Brissett and Philip Rivers) due to circumstance.

in Philadelphia, Sirianni called plays as a rookie head coach through a 3-5 start before delegating it to his good friend and now Colts head coach Shane Steichen in a Week 9 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.

The Eagles went on to make an unlikely run to the playoffs that season and were in the Super Bowl by the next as Steichen excelled with the job.

The painting of Sirianni as a failure, however, fails to add it in the context of the growing pains with a young, first-time starter at quarterback in Jalen Hurts, coupled with a pre-A.J. Brown receiving corps led by a then-rookie in DeVonta Smith.

If Sirianni were to take over now, he now has a voluminous dossier on Hurts’ strengths in an offense that he has kept his fingerprints on through Steichen, Brian Johnson, Kellen Moore, and Kevin Patullo calling plays.

At no time has Sirianni ceded complete control of game-planning and the major strategy initiatives of what has been his offense, save for the first four games of the 2024 season when Moore was trying to evolve things into his strengths as a coordinator.

Last season, Sirianni amped up his involvement after sensing that Patullo needed some help, a similar framework from 2023 when Johnson was struggling.

So, the question isn’t whether Sirianni can go back to play-calling; it would be how the Eagles got into that position.

Without a complete 180 from Sirianni’s personal mindset over the past four-plus years, the only avenues forcing the organization to pull this lever aren’t exactly tinted with positivity.

It’s either a completely bungled OC search, or the rebooting of Jeffrey Lurie’s worst decision as an owner: the Chip Kelly-inspired idea of giving an employee teetering on the brink enough rope to hang himself.

Maybe just hire Matt Nagy and call it a day.

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