The challenge facing Jeff Lurie as he sorts through the rubble
The challenge facing Jeff Lurie as he sorts through the rubble originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Is fixing the Eagles as simple as just getting a new head coach?
That’s the question facing Jeff Lurie as he sorts through the rubble of a season that began with so much promise and ended in total failure.
Lurie’s job is to evaluate every facet of the franchise’s operation and figure out why a team that was 10-1 and in position to lock up the No. 1 seed in the NFC just by beating a few second-division teams suffered a meltdown unprecedented in NFL history.
Something is horribly broken with this team and Lurie’s job is to figure out exactly what it is and get it fixed.
He’ll look at everything.
That means the Eagles’ approach to the draft. How they evaluate free agents. How they hire assistant coaches. How they handle training camp. How they practice during the season. How they schedule meetings.
It means studying the training staff and strength and conditioning. The food in the cafeteria. What time they practice. Whether they need to upgrade their indoor bubble. How they warm up pre-game. What they’re doing at halftime.
He’s got to evaluate the entire franchise, from the last guy on the practice squad up to team president Don Smolenski.
What makes all of this so complicated is that the Eagles did everything the same way last year, when they went to the Super Bowl, as this year, when they suffered one of the most horrifying collapses in NFL history.
So the challenge for Lurie is to determine why a team that was rolling through the season – and going 6-2 vs. playoff teams along the way – suddenly couldn’t beat anybody.
There are three untouchables in the entire franchise. One is Howie Roseman, who will be general manager as long as Lurie owns the team. One is Jalen Hurts, who despite the ugly end to the season is 25 years old and was the MVP favorite two months ago. And the third is Jeff Stoutland, who’s already been here under three head coaches and should remain here as long as he wants.
Everybody else? Fair game.
Lurie is thorough and will do his due diligence to understand what happened over these last seven weeks and why.
But it’s a safe bet that when he finishes his evaluation, everything will point to Sirianni and his coaching staff.
They were just terrible.
Lurie has to have difficult conversations with the Eagles’ veteran leaders and other people around the locker room and determine exactly what Sirianni’s role in this collapse was. And whether he has what it takes to fix this.
Is he the guy whose teams went 30-5 from the middle of 2021 through the middle of 2023? Or the guy who had no clue how to stop the Eagles’ slide once it began?
The only Eagles head coach ever fired immediately after going to the playoffs is Buddy Ryan after the 1990 season, and that had as much to do with the unrepairable relationship between Buddy and owner Norman Braman than five straight years without a playoff win.
No coach in NFL history has been fired after a Super Bowl appearance one year and a playoff appearance the next year. But then again no coach in history has overseen a collapse this catastrophic.
What’s most concerning about the way this season ended is that we kept seeing the same issues pop up. Nothing got fixed. Everything got worse.
Terrible tackling. An inability to deal with the blitz. Defenders out of position. Slow starts. Not enough big plays on offense, too many on defense. Lack of pass pressure. Costly penalties. Blown leads. A pedestrian offense and an overmatched defense.
Nothing changed.
Lurie has a tremendous track record when it comes to hiring head coaches. Ray Rhodes was Coach of the Year after taking his first team to the conference semifinals. Andy Reid got the Eagles to five NFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl. Chip Kelly was 20-12 his first two years before his ill-fated stint as GM doomed him. Doug Pederson won a Super Bowl in his second year. And Sirianni reached a Super Bowl in his second year.
All five coaches he’s hired have either been a Coach of the Year or reached a Super Bowl. He’s very good at determining the right guy to hire … and when to let him go.
Lurie was embarrassed by the product the Eagles put on the field the last couple months. This is a guy who loves cutting-edge offense and hard-nosed, physical defense.
We saw neither.
Lurie hired Sirianni because he was a sharp offensive mind who knew how to build a winning culture.
And now the Eagles have an inept offense and a losing culture.
Ultimately, Lurie’s decision will come down to this: Is it enough to change coordinators and a few position coaches or does the entire coaching staff need to go?
From the outside, the answer seems clear.
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