The Philadelphia Eagles are one day removed from a shocking defeat to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card round of the NFL playoffs. Naturally, it hasn’t taken long for the rumor mill to start spinning, with speculation surrounding the future of Head Coach Nick Sirianni being the main topic of conversation.
Will the Eagles fire Nick Sirianni?
Sirianni has spent three seasons in Philadelphia and is yet to miss the playoffs. He’s won an NFC Championship (made the Super Bowl), an NFC East Crown, and has helped push Philadelphia into the upper echelon of NFL teams in that span.
However, the past few months have been nothing short of dismal. The Eagles had lost 5 of their last 6 going into Monday’s game against Tampa Bay, and the Bucs capitalized on that, beating down on a broken team that lacked any kind of identity.
Does an inability to change things up fall on Nick Sirianni, or are there other forces at play? Should a Head Coach with a 36-20 record really be on the chopping block?
The folks at BetOnline have put together a hypothetical odds sheet to rank the Eagles’ next potential Head Coach candidates if Nick Sirianni is indeed fired.
Who will be the next Head Coach of the Philadelphia Eagles if Nick Sirianni is fired?
| Mike Vrabel | 2/3 | |
| Bill Belichick | 4/1 | |
| Bobby Slowik | 4/1 | |
| Ben Johnson | 5/1 | |
| Jim Harbaugh | 9/1 | |
| Frank Smith | 12/1 | |
| Dan Quinn | 16/1 | |
| Mike MacDonald | 16/1 | |
| Rex Ryan | 16/1 | |
| Kellen Moore | 18/1 | |
| Todd Monken | 18/1 | |
| Pete Carroll | 25/1 | |
| Brian Callahan | 28/1 | |
| Jim Schwartz | 28/1 | |
| Aaron Glenn | 33/1 | |
| Jason Kelce | 33/1 | |
| Mike Lafleur | 33/1 | |
| Dave Canales | 40/1 | |
| Mike Kafka | 40/1 | |
| Raheem Morris | 40/1 | |
| Donovan McNabb | 100/1 | |
| Terrell Owens | 200/1 | |
Well, we can immediately write off Terrell Owens and Donovan McNabb as being potential Head Coach candidates…
Mike Vrabel is the leading candidate
Unsurprisingly, Mike Vrabel is the leading favorite to be named the next Head Coach of the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Titans surprisingly fired Mike Vrabel despite a horrific job from the front office over the last few years that left the Head Coach with a shell of a roster and no real direction.
Vrabel was named NFL Coach of the Year two years ago and was renowned for getting the most out of a weak roster.
A disciple of the ‘Patriot way’, Vrabel overachieved at every level as Head Coach of the Titans. Now imagine him with a talented roster, one that features the best offensive line in football plus a 1,000-yard rusher and two 1,000-yard receivers.
He brings the kind of discipline and assertiveness this roster is crying out for and would be deemed a great hire by many,
An unfortunate truth
Bill Belichick and Jim Harbaugh might be among the best coaches in football, but they would likely want some level of control over how the roster is built, and it’s assumed that neither Lurie nor Roseman would be willing to give that up. So we can likely exclude both of those candidates from this discussion.
The best of the rest
Names like Ben Johnson and Dan Quinn round out the ‘best of the rest’ group. Johnson is of course helping form a real resurgence in Detroit as their offensive coordinator and has made Jared Golf look like prime Peyton Manning at times, while getting the best out of an eclectic group of offensive playmakers. He’ another young coach who is being highly-touted in NFL circles and is bound to prick the ears of Jeffrey Lure.
Of course, all of this is dependent on whether or not the Eagles would fire Nick Sirianni. It’s going to require a big decision from Jeffrey Lurie, and one that will undoubtedly shape the future of this team regardless of the outcome.
AP Photo/Chris O’Meara
