PHILADELPHIA – Success in the NFL comes with a hefty price tag.
For the Eagles, the cost of a 16-4 season, an NFC Championship, and coming up just short in Super Bowl LVII, was losing the coordinators of the No. 3 offense and the second-ranked defense to head-coaching opportunities, the first time that’s happened to a big-game participant in nearly two decades.
A confident Nick Sirianni, however, showed up to his season-ending press conference at the NovaCare Complex on Thursday confident that he will be able to survive the attrition.
[New Indianapolis Colts Head Coach] Shane [Steichen] and [Cardinals Head Coach] Jonathan [Gannon] were successful, not only because Shane and Jonathan are good football coaches, but also because they have good assistants,” Sirianni said. “And they have good people working with them.”
Sirianni believes the grind of building his initial staff will pay dividends now that others must step.
Quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson is expected to be the next OC while Gannon’s successor is a little more uncertain. The organization is interested in talking with former Denver head coach Vance Joseph, according to an NFL source, and may request interviews with others as well. The top in-house candidate to replace Gannon is Dennard Wilson, the defensive backs coach who Gannon described as his right-hand man.
“We’re obsessed with developing our football players, and we do many different things throughout the year to develop our players,” Sirianni said. “And I’m obsessed personally because of the stock that people have put in me of how we develop our football coaches as well.”
Sirianni has as much interest in grooming a quality control coach as starting his own tree with Steichen and Gannon.
“So constantly want, from our position coaches to our coordinators, all the way to our quality control coaches and assistant position coaches, I want them involved in everything,” the coach said. “And I try to give them things that helped me throughout my career.
“That’s my job as the head coach.”
If it were up to Sirianni alone you can almost guarantee that the next coordinators will be in-house promotions but GM Howie Roseman and even owner Jeffrey Lurie need to be satisfied with the staff as evidenced by the fallout with Doug Pederson.
“I feel like we have a lot of good in-house options, which is always going to be where I start because that’s just always kind of been how I’ve learned of grooming the people that you have in attempts for when this day happens that you’re ready to go,” Sirianni said. “But we won’t stop just there. I mean, we’ll look at every option to make sure we’re getting the best people in here to help our team.
“We’re going to do what’s best for the Philadelphia Eagles.”
Johnson will ultimately be rubber-stamped but the organization wants to flesh out things at DC, something that could lead back to Wilson anyway.
Sirianni’s confidence comes from that grind of putting together the guts of a staff that has become the envy of the league. He also reminded people that the Eagles had already decided on his first coordinators before he got his job.
“I do believe we have great options in-house because when you’re grinding to put together a staff, you’re not just grinding to put together the offensive and defensive coordinators,” he explained. “As a matter of fact, really the offensive and defensive coordinator, when you [Howie Roseman] hired me, we knew who we were hiring at those spots.
“The grind was getting the soldiers, getting those other guys in place that we felt really good with. A lot of good options.”
Sirianni often recites the example of assistant head coach/running backs Jemal Singleton.
“Two years ago, I remember Shane and I, we interviewed about nine running back coaches, and Coach Singleton was the ninth,” said Sirianni. “I was, like, this is the guy right here. There was a lot of work that went into that. So, again feel really good about in-house but we will also do what’s best for the Philadelphia Eagles of replacing these guys.”
