How Nick Sirianni knows he hasn’t lost the Eagles locker room
During his weekly radio appearance on 94WIP this week, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni was asked if he has lost the team and if players are no longer responding to his messaging.
“No, I’m not concerned about that,” Sirianni responded.
But how does he know?
Sirianni was asked that question during his press conference on Wednesday afternoon.
“I know our guys and we’re with them every single day,” Sirianni answered. “We’ve been through a lot of ups and downs here. And you know because of the guys, because of the relationships, because of what you witness every single day. That’s how you know.
“It’s something that you know from being in meetings with them, being in walkthrough with them, being on the practice field with them, being outside of meetings with them, at lunch, all those different things.”
The Eagles are 11-5 with one game left to go in the regular season. They’re already in the playoffs a year after making it to the Super Bowl. All that is good
But this was a team that looked like it was going to be the No. 1 seed not all that long ago before losing four of five. And the disastrous loss to the lowly Arizona Cardinals on Sunday at the Linc was the worst of the Sirianni Era.
One of the biggest strengths of Sirianni has been his ability to build a strong culture in the NovaCare Complex and for the first time in his tenure that culture is really being tested by extreme adversity. So now we have to see if and how Sirianni keeps it together with the playoffs looming.
A few minutes after Sirianni explained how he knows his players are still buying in, he got one of the most important votes of confidence in the Eagles’ locker room. Receiver A.J. Brown broke his silence and backed the Eagles’ head coach.
“People say I’m beefing with Nick. I’m not mad at Nick,” Brown said. “I’m not mad at nobody. We have a great relationship. I’ve got a ton of respect for Nick because he takes up for us when it be us.”
Brown even gave some new detail about the Seattle game, saying that Sirianni was covering for his players in an explanation about a seemingly weird late-game play call. After the game, Sirianni said the Eagles were trying to draw a defensive pass interference, which didn’t make much sense.
On Wednesday, Brown explained that the players improvised on that ill-fated play. He claimed Sirianni was willing to make himself “look like a fool” for the benefit of his players.
“I have nothing but respect for him because not all coaches do that,” Brown said. “We riding with Nick. We riding with Brian (Johnson). We just gotta come out and play ball. That’s all it is.”
The only vote of confidence that’s more important for Sirianni from inside the locker room is from quarterback Jalen Hurts, who said he meets weekly in a 1-on-1 setting with the head coach. While Hurts and Sirianni appear to be an odd couple of sorts based on their personalities, they do seem to have a strong relationship.
Hurts on Wednesday was asked about the loyalty Sirianni has shown to his players.
“I think he definitely has his ways of building relationships with the players and showing up for the players with his emotions and his passion for the game,” Hurts said. “And that’s all you can ask for.”
