Year 5 Surge: Sirianni’s Low-Key Offseason Sets Eagles Up for Another Run!

He’s been fired by the public and media near and far several times.

Back in 2021, Nick Sirianni’s first as the Eagles’ head coach, his team started 2-5. One and done was the belief. Then he started talking about fertilizing and watering, and the Eagles went on a playoff march.

The Eagles lost six of seven in Year 4 after a 10-1 start. It was an epic collapse that drew comparisons to the el foldo the Phillies had back in 1964. Yet, he was brought back for Year 4, which didn’t start well with the Eagles sitting at 2-2 and looking like the same team that swirled down the drain the previous year. Then came the bye week, but Sirianni kept himself on the hot seat by arguing with fans – Eagles fans, no less – behind the bench because his team struggled to beat a bad Browns team in Week 6.

Then came 10 wins in a row and blowout victories in two of the league’s showcase games – the NFC Championship and the Super Bowl.

Now, Sirianni is opening his fifth training camp in Philadelphia in one of the most demanding sports towns in America. He is armed with a new contract and a shiny new Lombardi Trophy, a 48-20 regular season, a 6-3 playoff record, and job security for the next however many years.

Sirianni has had a mostly nondescript offseason. He was at the ESPY awards when the Eagles rwere named Team of the Year, but he only made a few speaking engagements.

“Obviously, with winning, there comes opportunities for all those different things, and everybody's different,” he said. “Everybody has different responsibilities. Obviously, I wanted to focus solely on the team. Now, I've had some speaking engagements here and there, but wanted to really — how do I get better?

“I mean, it's really, if I want my players —our players — to think constantly about growth, growth, growth, then I better be thinking about it, too. If I want our players to be constantly thinking, connect, connect, connect, I better be doing that. If I want our players to be mentally tough, I better be mentally tough. If I want our players to be detailed, I better be detailed.”

When the Eagles won the Super Bowl for the first time, head coach Doug Pederson turned author, penning his book, “Fearless: How an Underdog Becomes a Champion,” that was released on Aug. 21, 2018, not quite seven months after the Eagles beat Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII.

Training camp was in full swing for a team that was trying to move on to the next season, but the Super Bowl kept coming up. Even in the locker room, there were banners proclaiming them Super Bowl champions until safety Malcolm Jenkins asked that they be removed.

Sirianni never stopped working on being a better coach to make his team better, polishing his new slogan for the year – sustaining success.

“Yeah, you could do a book, you could do endorsements, or something like that,” he said. “...I just wanted to focus on our team and how we get better, taking football away. How do we get better tackling? How do we get better taking care of the football? How do we get better at this scheme? How do we get better at that scheme? How do we get better at our culture? I think sometimes, too, it's like, you have to repeat steps and find ways to get better at repeating those steps.”