After 11 games, the defending NFC champions, the Philadelphia Eagles, who were 10-1, had the best record in football and were considered one of the best teams in the NFL.
However, it went way downhill from there. Philly lost six of their last seven games, including getting routed by the Buccaneers in the wild-card round of the playoffs 32-9.
Philly went from one of the best teams in football to one of the worst teams as they lost to the Giants, Seahawks, and Cardinals near the end of the season.
Anytime things go awry, the way things went awry for the Eagles, changes must be made. The Eagles fired defensive coordinator Sean Desai, who lost play-calling duties to senior defensive assistant Matt Patricia, who was also let go. In addition, offensive coordinator Brian Johnson was relieved of his duties.
Some speculated that head coach Nick Sirianni could get fired as well, but after meeting with owner Jeffrey Lurie and Eagles executive vice president/GM Howie Roseman, he will return.
On Wednesday, Roseman and Sirianni addressed the media for the first time since the season ended, and according to reports, Sirianni had to explain his vision to Roseman and Lurie, which he discussed.
“Yeah, again, it was business as usual of how we go about an end-of-year meeting,” Sirianni said.
“Obviously my thought is there — it was just normal. It wasn’t anything different than it’s been the last three years.
“Now, in my mind, you’d better believe I’m thinking how do I re-prove myself. I was a young coach that Mr. Lurie and Howie, and this organization trusted to give the job to. I had to prove myself that this guy can lead the organization like they asked me to, and I had to prove myself from then.
“I think you ask me that question: did I have to sell my vision, no, because it was business as usual, but you’d better believe that I’m thinking after that 1-6 finish after starting the way we started and doing the things that we’ve done in the past that I’m thinking I’m going to prove them right again, and we’re going to prove them right. We’ve got to re-prove ourselves. We’ve got to go prove it again. That’s how I feel right now. That’s how I’m attacking this off-season. That’s how I’m attacking this upcoming season as we get ready for it. Just hungry to be able to prove myself again to Mr. Lurie and the faith that he’s had in me and Howie and the faith he’s had in me and the rest of the team and the city.”
Sirianni also discussed Johnson’s firing.
“Sure, we evaluated our season at the end of the year,” Sirianni explained. “Obviously are going to be in constant evaluation of this. We did what we thought was best at the time, and I can’t say enough good things about Brian, though. He’s a great football coach, and he’s going to have another opportunity to lead an offense, and I will miss him.
“Some of the things that we want to do as a team is grow in a lot of different areas and grow with some of the guys that have been in here with me for a while. So, it’s about coming up with fresh ideas and doing some things different.
“That’s exactly where we are right now. Brian being at that position — unfortunately, he’s the one that is leaving at this particular time. But I can’t tell you how much I appreciate him as a coach.
“We’ve had a lot of success here in the past three years, and Brian has contributed a lot to that. But like I said, it’s now about bringing in fresh ideas, some different thoughts than what a lot of the guys — sometimes when you’re with a group of guys like we’ve been together for three years, that group of guys, but in addition to that, it was a couple of the other guys that I’ve been with for multiple years, as well.”
“Just wanted to bring in some fresh ideas, and that’s where we are with that.”
Roseman was asked about his input in the team’s decision to give defensive play-calling duties to Patricia.
“Coach comes to me and tells me what he’s thinking,” Roseman said. “No different than when he decided to give [former Eagles offensive coordinator and current Colts head coach] Shane [Steichen] the play-calling duty, and he said, ‘Hey, this is what I’m going to do.’ I trust him with the coaching staff. That’s his responsibility, just like he trusts me with my front office staff. That’s how we’re structured here. That’s how the relationship works.
“I always want to be supportive for him and a resource if he needs me to do something, if he asks me a question, if he asks me an opinion in a situation like this. He had made up his mind, he had made the decision, and I’m going to support him.”
Sirianni was asked if he regretted going from Desai to Patricia.
“Yeah, obviously I understand that anything that I do, any decision that I make, if it doesn’t work out, you can look at it and second-guess it,’ he said. “We are where we are right now.
“At the time I made that decision, like I’ve told you guys, I made that decision because I thought it was the best decision for the team. Obviously, we all fell short at the end at those last six weeks of the season. All of us did.
“I’ll say obviously Matt was in a tough situation trying to — because you can’t completely change the defense, so he was trying to make some things happen with, quite frankly, things that weren’t his defense.
“I know I put Matt in a tough spot, and I know I put Sean in a tough spot, obviously. But at the time that I did that, I did it because I thought it was the best decision for the football team.
“There’s a lot of decisions I have to make like that, whether I go for it on fourth down in certain situations, what our philosophy is in a four-minute drive at the end of a game, and trust me, every time we do something like that, and it doesn’t work, I think to myself, what was the best thing, and I can only come back to that answer to you right now, is that — and forevermore, that at the time when I did it, I did it because I thought it was the best thing for the defense.”
Overall, Sirianni is probably on the hot seat next season. If this team falters, he could be out of a job, so the pressure is on him to fix things, and at this point, Lurie and Roseman believe he can get the job done.
The Doug Pederson era in Philadelphia is over. Pederson was fired by the Eagles, the team announced on Monday. Pederson spent five seasons with the Eagles and has been to the postseason three times, including winning a Super Bowl with the team in 2017.
The 2020 season was a struggle for Pederson and the Eagles. The team finished a disappointing 4-11-1, and reportedly, QB Carson Wentz, who struggled mightily this season, had a bad relationship with Pederson. According to reports, Wentz felt the relationship with Pederson was irreparable. In 12 starts, the 28-year-old Wentz threw 16 touchdowns and 15 interceptions(tied for most in the league), had a 72.8 quarterback rating(second-worst among starting quarterbacks), and was sacked a league-high 50 times. Ultimately, Wentz was benched for the final four games of the season in favor of 2020 second-round pick Jalen Hurts.
What the Eagles will do at the quarterback position in 2021 should be interesting, and according to Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, who addressed the media on Monday after the announcement of Pederson’s firing, the decision on the quarterback position in 2021 is up to the new head coach, but Lurie appears to be a fan of Wentz.
“First of all, I don’t think any owner should decide that,” Lurie said. “Carson, to us, to me, and to I think virtually everybody in our organization, is a quarterback that his first four years was in many ways elite and comparable to some of the great quarterbacks’ first four years in the league.
“Fifth year, obviously not satisfactory, for whatever reasons. There are probably multiple reasons for that. The way I look at it is we have an asset, and we have a talent. He’s a great guy, and he wants nothing but to win big and win Lombardi Trophies for Philadelphia. This guy is tireless. He has his heart in the right place, and he’s really dedicated off-season, on-season – he’s just what you want. It behooves us as a team with a new coach, a new coaching staff, to be able to really get him back to that elite progression where he was capable of, and at the same time, understand that there have been many quarterbacks in their fourth and fifth year … if you trace this, you can come up with many, many quarterbacks that have a single year where it’s just, whoa, the touchdown-to-interception ratio is not what you want. And we’re talking some great ones, like Peyton [Manning] and Ben [Roethlisberger] and guys like that.
“So I take sort of a more, probably a longer view of this was not the best season for our offense, it was a poor season, and we also had a poor season from Carson in terms of what he’s been able to show in the past. Very fixable, and I fully expect him to realize his potential.”
Based on Wentz’s performance, it appeared that having Hurts around was a distraction to the fifth-year quarterback, so the new coach and organization has to figure out how to fix that situation.
As for Pederson, he will get another job. He’s had a lot of success in Philadelphia and has proven to be a very good coach in the NFL, but at this point, it was not good enough for the Eagles going forward.
