We all know how beloved Doug Pederson is in Philadelphia. The man brought the Eagles their first Super Bowl title in the most Pederson way possible. Unfortunately, everything after that win wasn’t as pretty. The Eagles brass chose to move on from Doug Pederson two seasons ago and went in a completely different direction, or did they?
When Nick Sirianni was hired by the Eagles to be their head coach, no one knew what to make of it. They understood that he was a chip off of Frank Reich but outside of that, who is this guy? Sirianni came onto the scene as a young head coach who was going to do everything in his power to make people respect him. He did just that after two seasons.
Sirianni, along with Jalen Hurts, resurrected the Eagles franchise and brought them right back to the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, they came short of their goal due to a holding call in the final minutes of the game. Nonetheless, last season was phenomenal and has left the future full of nothing but excitement.
The biggest task that Sirianni faced after the loss was finding replacements for his defensive and offensive coordinators. Shane Steichen became the head coach of the Colts while Jonathan Gannon was hired to be the head coach of the Cardinals. Both Eagles coordinators were essential to the growth of Sirianni during the last two seasons but this was his biggest challenge yet.
The Eagles saw the difference…
According to Jeffery Lurie, Nick Sirianni was relentless during the process of rebuilding his staff. Something that many criticized Doug Pederson for. Lurie described the process by stating:
“The other thing is he was relentless, Nick was, and this is something I really appreciate about him. He not only grinds on football and on connections and culture, but when it came time, and this was a first for him, when it came time to how to figure out who’s going to replace the coordinator you lost, he was relentless. He might interview five, 10, 15 people, talk to 100 people in terms of the due diligence. He’s as relentless in that as – and that’s big because you’re going to lose – when you’re successful, I don’t have to tell you guys, you’re going to lose a lot of staff and you’re going to lose them quickly.”
He went on to drop a tidbit that I found very interesting. He followed that statement by saying, “You’ve got to not just rely on connection – in terms of who you know, who you worked with, who gave you a job beforehand. Those are rules that we don’t really believe in, and we think there’s an advantage to having a head coach who truly does the due diligence and is sort of a grinder at it.”
This speaks volumes about how things went back in the Pederson era. Pederson was heavily criticized for his lack of connections in the league and for even trying to promote Press Taylor to OC.
Sirianni has tasted what success with the Eagles is like and he wants more of it. It helps that his team is just as hungry and has bought into his culture and way of coaching. Two years later and it looks like the Nick Sirianni hiring was never about getting a yes man for Howie to boss around. Instead, it was about getting a guy who would do whatever it takes to succeed in this league and would go the extra mile every time.
AP Photo/Matt Slocum
