TAMPA – After an embarrassing playoff loss put an exclamation point on a massive collapse, the question was a fair one.
Is Nick Sirianni worried about his job?
“I'm not thinking about it,” the Eagles coach said after Monday's 32-9 loss to the Buccaneers in the wild-card round. “I'm thinking about the guys. Again, there's a lot of guys in that locker room, all the guys in that locker room, every single one of them, they put their heart and soul into this.
“I'm not worried about me. I'm not. You know, as a head coach, I'm just trying to be there for our guys and our staff right now during the tough times. Obviously we didn't finish anywhere near where we wanted to finish. And so, again My heart goes out to these guys, we all take it seriously and that's what I'm thinking about right now.
Eagles owner Jeff Lurie has a lot to think about.
On the one hand, Sirianni has a 34-17 regular season record. He has led the Eagles to the playoffs in each of his three seasons as their head coach. He got them to the Super Bowl in 2022 and came very close to winning it.
On the other hand, this collapse is unlike anything we've seen before in the NFL. Not only have the Eagles lost six of their last seven games, they've lost many of them in embarrassing fashion. Once the calendar turned to December, the Eagles went 1-6 and had a point differential of -82.
In the coming days, the Eagles will conduct exit interviews with players and Sirianni is supposed to meet with the front office and ownership about his future and the future of the team.
We all have to wait and see.
“I'm just like you. I'm sitting and watching,” veteran Lane Johnson said. “I really don't know what's going to happen. But it's very frustrating. You see what that team was like and you see how the team finished and the skid that we had. There was no stopping. It was very frustrating. It's a brutal business we're in. No one is safe. We will see what happens.”
Most of the Eagles in the locker room Monday night publicly supported Sirianni, who has made a real effort over the past three seasons to connect with his players. But this connection was not enough to keep the 2023 season together.
After Monday's loss, quarterback Jalen Hurts was asked if he wanted Sirianni back.
“I didn't know he was going anywhere,” Hurts said, claiming he was unaware of the questions surrounding his head coach.
When asked about his level of confidence in Sirianni to fix the team, Hertz did not take the opportunity to publicly support Sirianni. Instead, he answered in a more general sense.
“I have great confidence in everyone in this building,” Hurts said. He added: “It's just about us going out there and playing clean football, which is something we haven't done.”
Even if Sirianni returns for 2024, there will be changes. Lowry simply won't bring it back after the way this season ended.
In the wake of Monday's loss, Sirianni was asked about his coordinators and potential changes to the coaching staff. Just like the questions about himself, he wasn't ready to go there.
“Yes, I mean it's too early to talk about that,” Sirianni said. “Everyone in the locker room is hurting right now, the coaches, the players, the staff. Everyone in the locker room is hurting. My job now is to be there for them, to be there for the guys.”
“We'll get to all of that, I'm not there yet. But, yeah, we're hurting right now – it's hard to come out the way we did. Congratulations to the Bucs, they had a good game plan, they did a good job. My mind's not there right now. I have a lot of time to think about it. My thoughts now are on the locker room, the players, the coaches, all that stuff.
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