Report: Birds hire Sirianni as their new head coach
The formal announcement is pending but Nick Sirianni, who spent the past three years restoring veteran quarterbacks with Frank Reich, will become the 25th head coach of the Eagles, according to sources.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter first tweeted the news Thursday afternoon.
Sirianni was offensive coordinator for Reich with the Indianapolis Colts, where he helped revive the career of the injury-prone Andrew Luck and when Luck retired, 39-year-old veteran Philip Rivers, who also retired.
The Colts went 28-20 in that time with two trips to the playoffs.
The hiring of Sirianni is telling in that Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, after firing head coach Doug Pederson, said he believed franchise quarterback Carson Wentz was fixable.
Wentz is coming off the worst of his five NFL seasons. He led the league with 19 giveaways despite playing in just a dozen games. Moreover, Wentz lost the starting job to rookie quarterback Jalen Hurts.
Sirianni got the nod over several interviewees, including Josh McDaniels of the New England Patriots and Duce Staley of the Eagles.
That’s already led to grumblings that Sirianni won’t have the control over his game day roster and coaching staff as the aforementioned Pederson had only limited control of his coaching staff, per sources.
Sirianni’s skin tone isn’t going to quell the angst of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, which after lobbying for more head coaches of color has watched league owners hire five Caucasians and one Lebanese boss.
Robert Saleh became the first Muslim to be hired as a head coach, as he took the job with the New York Jets. Two newly hired general managers are men of color, Terry Fontenot with the Atlanta Falcons and Brad Holmes with the Detroit Lions.
The bottom line is that for now, there are just four minorities or persons of color in head coaching roles in the NFL: Mike Tomlin with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Brian Flores with the Miami Dolphins, Ron Rivera with the Washington Football Team and Saleh with the Jets.
The group of new head coach hires consists of Arthur Smith (Falcons), Brandon Staley (Los Angeles Chargers), Urban Meyer
(Jacksonville Jaguars), Dan Campbell (Lions), Sirianni and Saleh.
Sirianni, 39, is the Eagles’ youngest head coach since Dick Vermeil was hired in 1976. Vermeil was four months younger than Sirianni.
The Eagles’ youngest head coach was Jim Trimble, who at age 34
coached the team from 1952 through 1955.
Sirianni was a Kansas City Chiefs’ assistant for four years, before Andy Reid took over. The Mount Union graduate also spent five seasons with the San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers, part of the time with Reich.
Including the playoffs,
Pederson guided the Eagles to a 46-39-1 record in five seasons, winning the Super Bowl in 2017.
Pederson is just the third Super Bowl winning head coach to be let go or to step aside under duress after three seasons, joining the late Don McCafferty, who guided the Baltimore Colts to the 1970
Super Bowl championship and George Seifert, who led the 1994 San Francisco 49ers to the title.
Pederson has had a tough time since winning the Super Bowl as he lost valuable staff members Reich and John DeFilippo. The Eagles are just 23-27-1 since the Super Bowl without those coaches.