June 26, 2022
Much was made over all the upheaval in the Eagles’ front office since January with the organization losing four of its major executives and its three top scouts. From there came the shuffling to the tune of 19 promotions and 11 outside additions to both football operations and the scouting staff.
The polar opposite of that disruption is Nick Sirianni’s coaching staff where all the key members will return for a second consecutive season, the kind of continuity not seen since at least 2017, Doug Pederson’s second year in charge and the only Super Bowl-winning season in franchise history.
And even then Pederson had to fight for then-offensive coordinator Frank Reich to keep his job.
The seas were calm this time around with the only real question mark being the return of the highly regarded Jonathan Gannon, who got three head coaching interviews and was a finalist in Houston (although behind Lovie Smith and Josh McCown), and the runner-up behind Nathaniel Hackett in Dever, according to NFL sources.
Others like passing game coordinator Kevin Patullo and quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson got cursory interest from Chicago and Green Bay, respectively, but Sirianni was able to get the band back together.
In many ways, the downfall of the Pederson era can be traced to attrition on the coaching staff starting with Super Bowl success costing the organization Reich, who got the top job in Indianapolis, and then-QB coach John DeFilippo, who became the offensive coordinator in Minnesota.
After that, team owner Jeffrey Lurie started to micromanage the staff a little too much forcing Pederson into a corner with names like Mike Groh, Carson Walch, Press Taylor, Matt Burke and Cory Undlin in the subsequent years causing a rift in the relationship with the former head coach.
Privately, some at the top of the Eagles organization questioned Pederson’s ability to “manage his own assistants” and that hasn’t been the case in a honeymoon that is now into its 17th month in the Sirianni era.
There have been few raised eyebrows when it comes to Sirianni abdicating the play-calling responsibilities to OC Shane Steichen, nor Gannon’s restructured front seven plan in which the defensive coordinator split the day-to-day responsibilities among three positional coaches, adding Jeremiah Washburn to Tracy Rocker and Nick Rallis.
“To have the entire staff back is huge, “ Sirianni said of keeping his assistants.
That said, Sirianni is also aware that if he has the success expected, attrition is built into that. GM Howie Roseman has already acknowledged the organization is likely renting Gannon and the lease there is short-term while Steichen will have a bigger profile now that everyone understands he’s the play-caller.
“My vision here is to be able to keep the staff intact, win games obviously,” said Sirianni. “Guys will obviously get promoted from that, and then be able to have a good young group of nucleus guys that are in support roles to be able to promote.”
Like many aspects of his coaching philosophy, Sirianni developed his framework from his college coach Larry Kehres at Mount Union.
“I think that was something that the college team that I came up in, Mount Union, that's what we did a ton of,” Sirianni said. “You look around the NFL, that's what some of the great teams do is they promote from within.
“So, it's just accumulating talent and trying to promote from within.”
And those were the only real changes with Washburn’s larger role being the headline, but also the tweak of more responsibilities for ex-NFL quarterback Alex Tanney, who is now a quality control coach, and Sirianni’s own assistant, Tyler Scudder, from a support role to one with more meat on the bone.
You can already envision Tanney specifically having the background to eventually be in a key offensive role for Sirianni down the line.
One thing is certain – continuity is always better than the alternative in the NFL.
“The coaching points that you want to get across are across [are already there].” said Sirianni. “There's already that familiarity with the players. Now, the rookies have to get to know everybody, but you'd be surprised too that when you bring in a new coach, that's a big step for myself and Shane to teach the guy the offense or vice versa on the defensive side, Gannon to teach the defense to.
“That's a big portion of time because you're not just teaching plays, you're teaching techniques within the plays, what's the responsibilities, you're teaching situations.”
The system of the coaching profession itself means the clock is already ticking, however.
If the Eagles take off, ambition comes into play and Gannon or Steichen at least will likely have to be replaced in 2023. Meanwhile, if expectations that are reaching a fevered pitch with July approaching aren’t reached, scapegoats will be necessary.
Either way, 2022 is assuredly the last tour all the originals in this band will be together.
John McMullen is a contributor to PhillyVoice.com and covers the Eagles and the NFL for Sports Illustrated and JAKIB Sports. He’s also the co-host of “Birds 365,” a daily streaming show covering the Eagles and the NFL, and the host of “Extending the Play” on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com. Follow John on Twitter.
