Confident Sirianni ready to move forward after replacing both coordinators
Confident Sirianni ready to move forward after replacing both coordinators originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
In the grand scheme of things, it’s a pretty good problem to have.
But you still have to fix good problems.
The Eagles this offseason became a victim of their own success when they lost both offensive coordinator Shane Steichen and defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon to head coaching jobs after their Super Bowl appearance.
“How many times does that happen?” Nick Sirianni asked this spring.
Well, not very often, Nick.
The Eagles are the first Super Bowl team to lose both coordinators to NFL head coaching jobs since the 1994 San Francisco 49ers, when OC Mike Shanahan was hired by the Broncos and DC Ray Rhodes was hired by the Eagles. The 2004 Patriots also lost both coordinators when Romeo Crennel went to Browns and Charlie Weis left for Notre Dame.
You get the point. This doesn’t happen all that often.
But the Eagles also knew this was a possibility and they planned for it as much as they could. They had their top internal candidate in mind to replace Steichen and promoted Brian Johnson from quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator. And then they went through an exhaustive search for the new DC, eventually landing on Sean Desai.
Time will tell if these hires prove successful but if they aren’t, it’s not for lack of effort.
One of the hallmarks of success is getting your coaching staff poached. We saw it happen during Andy Reid’s lengthy tenure in Philly and it can be a major detriment to longstanding success if the head coach fails to replenish.
The good news for the Eagles is that Sirianni really cares about his coaching staff and the hiring process. In fact, Sirianni’s plan for his coaching staff was one of the things owner Jeff Lurie really liked about him back in 2021 when he was hired. And even though his initial coaching staff was extremely young, Sirianni nailed it and they had major success with Steichen and Gannon.
“I miss 'em,” Sirianni said this spring. “Those are not only, they've become good friends of mine too, right? So I miss 'em. I remember saying that, it was Shane or Gannon, I can't remember which one I said this to, but it sounded like one of them in the hallway and I'm like, 'Uh!' but no, it wasn't him. It sounded like him or someone said something that sounded like him.
“Yeah I miss 'em. Of course I miss 'em. Just like I miss Javon Hargrave or like I miss Kyzir White (who both left in free agency). You can't preach connect, connect, connect and not preach it but do it and then not miss the guys you've built this connection with. It just is what it is.”
Sirianni will see Steichen in August when the Colts come to town for a joint practice and a preseason game and he’ll see Gannon when the Cardinals visit for a Week 17 game on New Year’s Eve.
While the Eagles technically have a new OC and play caller in Johnson, he’s not new to the building. Johnson has been here for the past two seasons and was probably going to be an offensive coordinator even if that didn’t happen in Philly. The timing worked out and it has been a pretty “seamless” transition, according to Sirianni.
“We’re going to have new wrinkles and things like that,” Sirianni said. “But all the coaching points of the offense remain exactly the same. … And so like, often the coaching points, the fundamentals, those things of that, you know, remain exactly the same. So, to me, there's no change there, except some person who’s calling the plays is different.”
There’s no denying that Steichen had a knack for calling plays on game day but Sirianni’s point has been that it wasn’t all on Steichen and has pushed back against the idea that the offense will change immensely with the OC switch.
While Johnson will be the one calling the plays on Sundays, all the situational work the team does during the week lays the groundwork. Whether or not it was always the case, Sirianni has said that most of the time he was on the same exact page as Steichen’s play calls because of all the situational work they went through during the week.
“The process is the same, the infrastructure’s the same,” Sirianni said. “Everything's exactly the same. I don't look at that one that way. As long as I'm here, it's going to be that for the the offense, which is, you know, is important for your for your quarterback. It's our offense, and it's going to continue to develop. So that's the answer to that.”
It’s also important to point out that had the Eagles not been able to promote Johnson to OC this offseason, there was a good chance he would have gotten that promotion elsewhere. As nice as it is that Johnson has a history with Jalen Hurts, that’s not the reason the Eagles promoted him. Johnson earned it.
“Brian is in the position he’s in now because he’s a really good football coach,” Sirianni said. “He was the best guy for the job at this point. Relationships are very important, but Brian didn’t get this job because of his relationship with Jalen and he didn’t get this next job because of his relationship with Jalen. He got it because he’s really good at what he does.”
On defense, there are going to be more changes. That is undeniable.
Because on offense, the system is still Sirianni’s. On defense, the system now belongs Desai. While it will include plenty of the same staples of the defense implemented by Gannon in 2022, there are differences, starting with the verbiage.
“It’s not major differences, but there's definitely differences,” Sirianni admitted. “One thing that we're going through now is … there's things that Gannon knew that my vision for the defense. Again, am I an expert at defense? No. But am I the head coach and look at it [from] an offensive point of view? Of course. And so there's visions I have for the defense of what I want things to look like in scenarios. And that typically is more so in situational football than anything.
“Gannon and I had a ton of reps together. You're going back to our Indy days of all the situations that we've been through. And so, that's just me being diligent to make sure that, you know, the things that I require out of our defense or the way that I want them to be. And so, but that will look different. But I hired Sean because I thought he was the best guy for the job and I know he was super ready to be the coordinator.”
We all know by now that connecting is very important to Sirianni and it doesn’t just pertain to players. He wants to connect to his coaches too and he’s been working toward building that connection with Desai.
As far as the defense the Eagles’ new defensive coordinator is going to run, Desai explained some of that back in May, when he met with reporters in Philly for the first time.
Even though Sirianni is an offensive-minded head coach, there’s not total autonomy on the defensive side of the football. What he says still goes. Sirianni tries to avoid overstepping but he has a clear vision for his defense too and will relay that to Desai as they continue to forge what they hope will be a fruitful working relationship.
“He's done a phenomenal job to this date,” Sirianni said. “So I'm excited about it. I looked at it as an opportunity to say, ‘Hey, how do we get better from this?’ Gannon was a great coach. Got himself a head coaching job from it. How do we get better from this? How do we improve? Just like when a player leaves. How can we get better from from there?”
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