National Football League

Should the Eagles fire Nick Sirianni?

Published Jan. 17, 2024 6:24 p.m. ET

Nick Sirianni entered the year appearing to have one of the most stable head-coaching jobs after leading the Philadelphia Eagles to a 14-3 record and Super Bowl appearance last year. However, after a 10-1 start to the 2023 season, the Eagles finished the year 1-5, then got humiliated in a 32-9 blowout loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the wild-card round of the NFL playoffs.

Sirianni has come under fire for his team's struggles. Though first-year offensive coordinator Brian Johnson calls plays for the team, Sirianni, an offensive-minded coach, has earned part of the blame for what often appeared to be a lack of inventive playcalling that often relied too heavily on deep throws from quarterback Jalen Hurts to wide receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith.

And Sirianni recieved even more scrutiny for effectively changing defensive coordinators from Sean Desai to longtime Patriots assistant and former Lions coach Matt Patricia in mid-December, which only appeared to make the already-struggling Eagles defense perform even worse.

So, despite Sirianni's recent success, FS1's Craig Carton believes it's already time for the Eagles to move on.

"There's too much blood in the water for Philly to not make major changes," Carton said on "The Carton Show" Wednesday. "That's off a year where they had to make major changes because they lost their offensive coordinator [Shane Steichen to the Indianapolis Colts] and defensive coordinator [Jonathan Gannon to the Arizona Cardinals]."

Carton believes the Eagles have two major issues — the bigger of which is Sirianni and the coach's leadership.

"It is very clear that he lost the locker room," Carton said. "Not a lot of guys, especially in today's NFL world, can lose the locker room and ever get it back. … That's the easiest change to make. Just bring in a new coach. It would be one of the great jobs available in the NFL because there's tons of talent on both sides of the ball in that locker room."

The other big issue, Carton said, is Hurts.

"Who is Jalen Hurts?" Carton said. "Jalen Hurts is still a young quarterback. He had one great year, obviously, last year — MVP-caliber performance, and they go to a Super Bowl. Jalen Hurts was not good this year. He wasn't. If you go back game-by-game, he had some moments, but Jalen Hurts was bad in a lot of games this year."

"Speak" co-host Emmanuel Acho agrees that Sirianni is running out of excuses.

"There is no great reason for why the Eagles struggled as they did," Acho said. "What's your why, Sirianni? Because you decided to change defensive coordinators and you didn't have the right defensive coordinator in the building? Because your offense was stagnant, but aren't you an offensive coach? Because your All-Pro quarterback didn't play like an All-Pro, but isn't he under your tutelage? What in the world did you lose six of the last seven games for?"

Several key Eagles players, however, pushed back on the notion that Sirianni could lose his job. Longtime defensive end Fletcher Cox was bewildered when asked about the possibility.

"Come on, man," Cox responded to reporters. "He's the head football coach of this team. … There ain't even no f---ing discussion about that, man. … What is there to talk about? He's a winner. He's a winning head coach. Did we have some bumps this year? Yeah, but every team, every organization, everybody goes through it. But we don't look at firing a man who's won 10-plus games two years in a row, that's taken this organization to the playoffs three years in a row."

Veteran offensive lineman Jason Kelce also affirmed his faith in Sirianni, and when asked about the topic, Hurts responded along similar lines as Cox, saying that he "didn't know [Sirianni] was going anywhere."

The Eagles are committed to Hurts for at least the short term after signing him to a five-year, $255 million contract extension last season. Sirianni, however, is reportedly meeting with Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie on Wednesday — as his seat suddenly becomes warmer than anyone may have expected heading into this season.

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