Expect great things from Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni

By: Brennan Sokowoski 

It is official! The Philadelphia Eagles have a new head coach by the name of Nick Sirianni! The 39 year old former Indianapolis offensive coordinator will come into the Nova Care Complex with one thing in mind, FIX CARSON WENTZ! However, before we get into the tasks at hand, let’s learn a little bit about Coach Sirianni first.

Nick Sirianni was born and raised in Jamestown, New York, just 70 miles south of Buffalo. As a result, Sirianni grew up as a Bills fan. 

His coaching resume isn’t extensive but we’re also talking about a former college athlete as well. Sirianni was a Division III wide receiver for the Mount Union Purple Raiders (Ohio) from 2000-2003, where he was a part of the most historical winning streak in college football history. That’s right, Sirianni was a part of the 55-game winning streak that shattered previous college football records for more consecutive wins, a streak that still stands. Sirianni had never lost a game in his college football career until his very last game against St. John’s (Minn.) in the SJU Football National Championship where they were defeated 24-6, which ended the historical run. Sirianni attempted to thrust himself forward into professional football while playing for the Canton Legends of the Alliance Indoor Football League but ultimately decided to switch his career path to coaching, rather than playing.

Sirianni spent three seasons as a coach at Indiana University of Pennsylvania before breaking into the professional coaching circuit in 2009. Nick spent his early professional years in Kansas City, having spent four years learning under Todd Haley as the offensive Quality Control coach. A lot of people may connect the dots to Andy Reid however, Sirianni left Kansas City in 2013 before Coach Reid’s arrival. Interestingly enough, Haley’s initial meeting with Sirianni happened in a YMCA in upstate New York while Sirianni was home on break, Haley was currently the wide receivers coach for the Chicago Bears, and was impressed with the young coaches mind so he brought him onto his staff when hired by Kansas City. Sirianni spent most of his first four NFL coaching seasons in the cellar of the AFC West, having only one winning season under Haley, and finished with a 23-41 record and was let go after the firing of his mentor Todd Haley.

After his departure from Kansas City, Sirianni was then hired by the, then, San Diego Chargers to work with Mike McCoy as the offensive quality control coach. During his five year stay in San Diego, Sirianni saw multiple promotions, even going from Offensive Quality Control to Quarterbacks coach in just one season with the team. After a 9-7 first season, the Chargers were playoff bound and even managed to beat the division foe Denver Broncos in the Wild Card Round before losing in the divisional round. After a second 9-7 season that saw Sirianni make the leap to quarterbacks coach, before missing the playoffs, and a 4-12 season, Mike McCoy was then fired for new head coach Anthony Lynn. Lynn decided to retain Nick as a coach but moved him to wide receivers coach. A 5-11 season, followed by another 9-7 season saw Sirianni depart from the Chargers to join Frank Reich’s staff in 2018 as the offensive coordinator for the Indianapolis Colts.

After having spent 3 seasons already coaching underneath Reich with the Chargers, Sirianni was elated to get his first step into controlling an offense under Frank Reich. The 2018 season saw the Colts finish with a 10-6 record but just barely missed the playoffs. In the famous offseason of Andrew Luck’s retirement, the Colts saw a steady decline in offensive production under Jacoby Brissett and finished the season with a heartbreaking 7-9 record that led to scrutiny of the offense instead of the quarterback under center. Indianapolis’ General Manager Chris Ballard had enough of this talk and decided to sign Phillip Rivers to be the new Colts’ signal caller and what a decision that was. 2020 saw the Colts finish with a record of 11-5, finishing second in the AFC South, in route to a playoff heartbreaker against Buffalo where they lost 24-23. After the season ended for Indianapolis, Sirriani was the ninth, of ten candidates interviewed by the Philadelphia Eagles. Nick’s interview went so well that it spilled into a second day before Jeffery Lurie eventually announced that he would be the next head coach of the Eagles.

Sirianni brings little play-calling experience with him to Philadelphia so expect a strong offensive coaching staff to be hired to help mitigate the issues that this may cause. Due to his prior experience and Sirianni coming from his prior staff, Anthony Lynn has been a name to watch as Offensive Coordinator but there will be no short list to repair Carson Wentz of his historically bad 2020 season, but I’ll leave the hires to Coach Sirianni. If there’s one thing I want to leave off on, it’s a quote from Sirianni on his offensive philosophy. “As coaches, what offensive scheme do you run? It’s the one that fits your players the best, not the one that you like best,” he told the Colts’ website. “Figure out the type of players you have, their strengths, their weaknesses. Maximize their strengths. Try to hide their weaknesses.”