Eagles 2025-2026 Season

[Philsmania]

Firing a HC a year removed from a SB title would definitely be unprecedented. The closest was the Colts firing Don McCafferty five games into the second after winning the Super Bowl (and after he took the Colts to the AFC Championship Game the season after winning the Super Bowl). But, though I doubt the Eagles will move on from him, the Eagles under Lurie haven't been afraid to be bold and do bold things. Firing a SB-winning coach only eleven months and a handful of days after he won that SB would definitely be bold.

To be honest, I've never been impressed with Siriani. He's always struck me as something of a clown who has succeeded because of the talent Roseman gives him--teams that are impossible to not take to the playoffs or to not win a somewhat weak NFC East--and when he has good assistants who could provide brains for the on-the-field operation. And, I'm not sure how much the locker room really respects him.

[LegoDoom]

He will always be remember for "the dagger" and it wasn't even his play.

[flyers19rw]

Here is a post written from another site but sums up a lot of my read on the Birds' situation:
"The offense was uncreative and completely unable to adapt all year. They failed to make in-game adjustments, didn’t game plan for opponent weaknesses, and played like their primary goal was to not turn the ball over rather than to move it down the field.
It was maddening, but even worse was the fact that some of these things were warts in prior years, especially things that related to passing. What did they do before the season? Elevated the passing game coordinator. He was also bumped up to a position where he had full-ish control of the offense.
It’s hard to tell what a coach is good or bad at when they’re part of a staff and you don’t really know who has what responsibilities. But it’s also hard to look at offenses that had trouble being creative and adaptive in the passing game year over year and think it was a good idea to hand the keys over to the guy whose title is passing game coordinator.
I think Nick’s biggest failure there wasn’t just giving the guy the job though. My biggest issue is that he didn’t have a safety net in place. I don’t get how you don’t bring in a guy like Frank Reich to help design the offense, who has run and designed offenses and called plays in the past, that could help your new OC along. You’ve gotta give this guy the infrastructure to help him develop.
Once the wheels started really coming off, they were too far down the road to find a solution. In 2023, they had a good record and neutered the DC in favor of someone else. The result was the defense totally cratering. In true Nick fashion, he seemed to take the wrong lesson from that. Instead of giving the coordinator extra assistance from the outset, he decided to give him unfettered control.
Firing Nick would be a huge, bold move. I don’t think it should really be off the table though. He has bad judgment and an insane decision-making process. He’s great at building a culture and motivating his guys, but what advantage do we have if we no longer have a super team?"

[LegoDoom]

I agree that Nick is great at being a player coach and motivating people. But all of that goes out the window when you can't execute on offense. AJB is a child and should probably own up to how bad he played yesterday. But he won't. And that doesn't really matter. The Eagles definitely should have won even with all the mistakes.

[BostonRoss]

I don't understand why people would think that firing a successful coach would lead to better results on the field. While every situation is unique, I can't think of many cases where a successful coach was let go and the team improved. It certainly didn't happen when Andy Reid was let go (though his last couple of teams weren't good). Pederson really had only one (really) good season; so calling him a successful coach is questionable. Someone mentioned Don McCafferty and the Colts back in the day; the Colts after McCafferty were not good. In baseball, many were clamoring for Charlie Manuel to be replaced by Ryne Sandberg. Of course, the 2012-2013 Phillies were already mediocre and further over the hill than the current Eagles team.

It isn't reasonable to expect a season where almost everything goes right, as it did for last season's Eagles, to be repeated. Several key players just weren't as good this season (Barkley, Brown, etc.). The offensive line wasn't as good, partly because of the Lane Johnson injury, but I didn't see the rest of them playing better than last season.

Even so, the Eagles almost advanced. It isn't logical to think they would be better next year with a different head coach.

[zambonir]

Right let's hire Harbaugh who has missed the playoffs almost as many times as he's made them 6/7) since his only Super Bowl appearance/win.

I also don't understand how people think Sirianni doesn't have anything to do with it. He obviously runs a good team and a good staff. Does that mean he made a poor choice, and also isn't great at supervising the offense himself? Of course not. But Roseman and Lurie still chose to sign off on it. and also gave him a huge extension.

History will obviously repeat here, they will bring in a new OC, maybe it's even Reich or Steichen which would make everyone happy - take all the power away from Nick, but give it to someone he already loves. Versus hiring someone like Kliff Kingsbury (who will surely be a candidate, but is that grass really greener after the season that got him fired in DC?).

And Howie will be making a lot of moves.

[LegoDoom]

I think there is a big difference between coaches and the talent that Howie has brought on the field. There is a non-zero chance that AJB won't play for the Eagles next year. If that is the case, do you think the coaches will offset that loss? That answer is likely a no.

The Eagles have a very talented roster and the coaches failed them.

I sort of know someone who is working for the Eagles. He actually likes Sirianni as he's played for him before. I'm trying to get what he thinks went wrong, but he's not telling just yet.

[zambonir]

They will have to replace AJB by trade or draft. Non-Zero? I'd say at least 50%.

For all the talent they had, there was also some missing. Better/healthier o-line and they might have not even played this weekend, or at least would have made it to the Conference championship.

Better kicking might have swung a few games too. It's awful they didn't do more against what had been a bad defense, but the Eagles defense also didn't deliver quite like it had in some of those close wins against good teams where the offense was still lousy.

[LegoDoom]

I tend to think the defense in the 2nd half was a reflection of the offense, but haven't looked to see if that is the case. Still, if Q gets two INTs while the offense has ~4 drops, then I tend to not blame them.

[Docs]

I think the head coach is getting too much credit for the team’s success. I have said before that i believe the successful years coincided with competent head coordinators and the disaster years coincided with bad coordinators which shows me the success was not due to head coaching. He is getting credit for Kellen Moore, Shane Steichen and Vic Fangio’s success. I have seen nothing in the down years to suggest that Shane Nick is a good head coach because a good head coach earns their pay when things need to be fixed. That’s my belief, hope that clarifies why some people believe moving on from Shane wouldn’t be a disaster.

I also don’t think the eagles can afford the cap hit of cuttting or trading AJ brown, so unless he renegotiates his contract to make it more amendable to a trade he’s coming back, hence lower odds of them moving on from each other. Agree with greater than zero, disagree with 50% odds. JM said AJ was playing hurt this year for what it’s worth.

[zambonir]

You mean Nick.

I think you are giving far too much credit to the coordinators. Running a football team is about so much more than just calling plays or one side of the ball. It's a 100-man organization. Any coordinator that has succeeded with Nick has also succeeded because of him. And vice-versa. Including Fangio.

I'm still not even sure Kellen Moore is that good. He succeeded because of the Eagles and Howie, if not Nick, more than them succeeding because of him. He didn't actually make his offenses or QB in Dallas or San Diego noticeably better versus before or after him.

Would still rather be the Eagles right now than the Chiefs, Ravens, Lions or Vikings.

As for AJB Howie always seems to find a way, and while they publicly like to claim otherwise, his relationship with both Hurts and Nick seems unsustainable.

[LegoDoom]

YTTV won't let me screenshot it, but Sirianni was not in the conversation for the last play. He literally overheard what was going on and walked away. So, that is on the OC or Hurts... or Sirianni for not giving his opinion or final word.

So saying the OC is given too much credit seems definitely wrong.

43s left in the game, if you're interested in watching.

[zambonir]

I'm not saying the OC doesn't call the plays I'm just saying play calling is only one aspect of running a team. Not sure it matter whether Nick said nothing because he agreed or just wasn't involved, isn't that what everyone wants from him anyway? We went through all of this with Pederson too, even if he was a better play caller personally (both as an assistant and HC) there were several other guys involved in that success, and Patullo is basically Press Taylor (except I don't think Nick will die on that sword).

And what was called/happened on that play also involved several other things before that (including clock management which very much is on the HC and/or whomever is responsible for executing it, but still not the only relevant skill set for a great head coach, as we already know from Reid).

[LegoDoom]

It was 4th and 11 from the 21 with 43 seconds left. If clock management is a consideration, then that goes on Sirianni as he called a timeout before that play and the Eagles could have gotten the ball back if they didn't use that timeout.

[LegoDoom]

Fans defending Sirianni and still crapping on Reid is very interesting to me.

[Docs]

I think you are giving far too much credit to the coordinators.

I don't and the fact that some of these guys who left were able to run their own teams after could suggest that they covered some of those gaps. The Saints are raving about Kellen Moore by the way & I would take Shane over Nick without hesitation (which is why the Freudian slip earlier lol).

I'm aware what is required to run a football team, its not much different from any other organization. If the top leader hires the right people, they have an easy job. They earn their paycheck when things go wrong and how they resolve those issues. I have been consistently saying this for a long time, not just today. It is clear to me that when the going gets rough, Nick is not up to the task. This does not mean that he does not have good qualities, it means he is a deer in the headlights when something needs to be fixed - meaning he is not the right leader for this team. The post that flyers19rw shared above was a great summary of the short comings. The Eagles offense was going off the cliff from the very beginning and we saw absolutely nothing except "trust us".

The playbook & play calling was atrocious. There are 100s of examples, but look no further than 4th down and long, niners running a cover 4, and the eagles call 2 wide both sides (which is a package they roll out all the time) and send them all directly into coverage all running the same basic route without trying to work any space underneath or anyone running posts or corners or anything other than a GD hitch which is what they call all the time. The niners are probably still laughing at that play call with the game on the line.

I don't believe winning the super bowl last year means Nick was the best NFL coach that year. So many other factors.

[phillychuck]

From Honest NFL on twitter: "If I’m the Eagles decision makers, I’m not even allowing any OC candidate to be interviewed unless there’s proven evidence of a competent system that gives the offense outs within the formation based on the front/coverage presentation. This is stuff that’s completely outside of the players on the field, so I’m not saying any players should be free of criticism here, but the 2025 Eagles offense may have ran more plays into ■■■■ looks than any I’ve followed in years. I saw way too many elementary, minimally effective route conversions, minimal utilization of formations/alignments/movements to manufacture separation and/or create throwing windows, and minimal use of scaffolding routes and sequencing calls. If you don’t have a robust system that allows you to attack what’s presented, then you absolutely need to be able to string plays together to make yourself harder to defend (see: 49ers/Bears/Rams). It got to the point where everyone who follows what they do weekly started applauding them for even doing the most basic things that resulted in a positive result (myself included). What happened this season should never happen in the NFL. Everyone is welcome to have an opinion and there’s many ways to look at it, but I focus on system and scheme above all else when I watch, so that’s the perspective I’m coming from with this. It’s not a vindication of players failing to execute when the play is there to be made.”

And... https://x.com/ktsmithffsn/status/2010715294436618512?s=46

[zambonir]

I am not crapping on Reid at all. They are both accomplished NFL coaches.

[zambonir]

Agreed, the timeout was part of the problem.

[LegoDoom]

I am not crapping on Reid at all. They are both accomplished NFL coaches.

Reid is a HoF coach. We probably shouldn't be mentioning these two in the same sentence.