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PHILADELPHIA — There are a lot of moving parts for Nick Sirianni entering his sixth season as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles and he’s using all sorts of instruments, from pop quizzes to Chat GPT, to try and get all the gears in a groove.
Last year fell below the lofty standards the city and franchise have set. The offensive inefficiencies eventually caught up to the Eagles, who were eliminated in a home wild-card playoff game by the San Francisco 49ers following an 11-6 regular-season campaign.
Frustrated star receiver A.J. Brown got the trade he wished for. Kevin Patullo was fired as offensive coordinator and replaced by an up-and-comer in Sean Mannion with just two years of coaching experience. The offensive staff was largely revamped, complete with the departure of revered O-line coach Jeff Stoutland. They are implementing a new scheme.
Sirianni, 45, said the passing of time since he assumed this role in 2021 can be marked by the additional strands of gray in his hair and by how much his three kids have grown from the time he arrived from Indianapolis to take his first head-coaching job. He has overseen plenty of change during his stint and has been around long enough to build strong convictions in what's important when trying to shape each new version of his team into a champion.
"It's no secret. Our best teams since I've been here have been the closest teams," Sirianni said. "We believe in that very much."
The importance of a strong culture was reinforced as Sirianni watched NBA teams like the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs as well as the Carolina Hurricanes and Vegas Golden Knights of the NHL advance all repeat a similar refrain — “We didn’t want to let each other down” — as they advanced deep into the postseason.
There's been a collective effort to promote bonding over the last several months, from bowling and basketball outings to team dinners. Sirianni hosted a get-together for all of the coaches in downtown Philadelphia and attended another meet-up for offensive coaches along with his wife, Brett, hosted by Mannion. The players arranged a golf event on their own. (Turns out, Jalen Hurts has a pretty smooth lefty swing.)
It's also important Sirianni finds ways to keep his messaging fresh even if the core values (Tough. Detailed. Together.) remain the same. This offseason, he's tapped into AI, using ChatGPT to find stories that speak to the principles he's trying to drive home.
Looking for examples of relentless effort, a recent search led him to former Arizona State wrestler Anthony Robles, who won the 2011 NCAA Division I championship in the 125-pound weight class despite missing a leg.
There are plenty of good tales to tell from the last five years of Eagles football as well, and Sirianni will draw from those as well to make it more personal.
As a CEO style coach, culture setting and running team meetings are part of Sirianni's macro approach. But he'll get more hands on in a specific area of the operation as he sees fit, like he did with a struggling offense down the stretch in 2025.
Right now, he's tasked with helping to make sure Mannion, the former Green Bay Packers quarterbacks coach, is ready for his first playcalling gig. Part of that is by designing “pop quizzes” for Mannion. Sometimes Sirianni will give his coordinators a heads up on the type of situational football they’ll be working on at practice on a given day (third-and-long deep in their own territory, for example) but is springing a good bit of “call-it” periods on Mannion so learns to adjust on the fly.
Mannion has earned high marks to this point. Sirianni isn't sure he's ever beat Mannion to the practice facility and doesn't remember a time when he's left and not seen Mannion's car still in the parking lot. Sirianni recalled a time this offseason when there was a snow storm in the region the weekend coaches were due back at the facility. Instead of calling Sirianni to say he couldn't get a flight, Mannion drove through the storm from Green Bay.
"I'm not at all concerned as far as his inexperience because he's worked his ass off," Sirianni said, "and I know that he'll work his ass off to be as ready as he possibly can [for Week 1]."
Mannion and Hurts will be the driving forces of this new Eagles offense, but as Sirianni noted, "Everything on that field has my name on it." He's helping to weave in aspects of the offense that have been successful during his tenure and said he and Mannion will go through everything together.
Entering a season with a green offensive coordinator while implementing a new scheme after losing one of the top receivers in the game comes with its set of challenges, but change is the only real constant in the NFL, as Sirianni has learned.
"That's football," he said. "You have to adapt in game, you have to adapt in season, you have to adapt to all different styles of how you coach different people."
