“How did you go bankrupt?”
“Gradually, then suddenly.”
Ernest Hemingway’s iconic line can be applied to many lines of work.
When you look at the final seasons of the head coaches under Jeffery Lurie, this feels like it could be it for Nick Sirianni.
Andy Reid’s Dream Team went 7-1 over the final 4 games of 2011 and first 4 of 2012. He then went 1-11. Chip Kelly was 19-9 entering December 2014, he went 7-12 and didn’t finish 2015. Doug Pederson needed a 4 game win streak at the end of 2019 to make the playoffs,
in 2020 he won 4 games all season.
Since starting last season 8-2, Sirianni is 5-7. When a head coach fails, there’s plenty of organizational blame to go around, it doesn’t happen in a vacuum. But the owner isn’t going anywhere, and the GM isn’t going anywhere either. The 2026 Eagles are looking like what the end of a coaching tenure looks like.
Injuries have not saved an Eagles coach before
In only four games the injuries have piled up on the Eagles. That’s out of the head coach’s control, but they have not been a get out of jail free card.
Doug Pederson’s final season was a graveyard on offense: Miles Sanders, every OL but Jason Kelce, every WR but Greg Ward, and every tight end but Richard Rodgers missed at least four games. The defense was decimated too, with only 5 players starting 12+ games, and 8 starting 8+.
Nor did injuries save Andy Reid in 2012, when LeSean McCoy, DeSean Jackson, and three OL starters missed at least 4 games. Michael Vick lost his starting job to a concussion, then gained it back for the season finale after Nick Foles broke his hand.
Bad drafts have wiped out the cupboard
From 2016 to 2018, the Eagles had some really good drafts: Carson Wentz, Isaac Seumalo, Hal Vaitai, Derek Barnett, Rasul Douglas, Mack Hollins, and then Dallas Goedert, Avonte Maddux, Josh Sweat, Matt Pryor, and Jordan Mailata in 2018.
Then in 2019 the Eagles drafted Miles Sanders, in 2020 Jalen Hurts. Their other 13 picks over those two years were a waste, highlighted by Andre Dillard, JJ Arcega-Whiteside, Jalen Reagor, and Davion Taylor rounding out their first and second day selections those years.
The back of the draft provided no gems. Quez Watkins, K’Von Wallace, and Jack Driscoll hung around for a few years. John Hightower, Shaun Bradley, Prince Tega Wanogo, Casey Toohill, and Shareef Miller gave the Eagles nothing. Clayton Thornton didn’t make the roster as a rookie, but the next QB drafted in 2019, just 11 picks later, was Gardner Minshew.
The 2014 and 2015 drafts were pretty empty. Jordan Matthews was fine, while Jordan Hicks (3rd round) and Beau Allen (7th) were good value; Nelson Agholor had a great season in 2017. But the rest of those drafts left nothing behind: Eric Rowe was taken 47th overall in 2015 and a year later was traded for what would be the 131st pick. That’s still a better return than Marcus Smith, Josh Huff, Jaylen Watkins, Taylor Hart, Ed Reynolds, JaCorey Sheppard, Randall Evans, and Brian Mihalik.
It’s a similar story in 2010 and 2011. Brandon Graham was a great pick in the 1st round in 2010, and Jason Kelce was a steal of steals in the 6th round in 2011, but the rest of those drafts were a wasteland. The third best player the Eagles drafted was Dion Lewis, who barely played for the Eagles, with Kurt Coleman, Nate Allen, and Riley Cooper the best of the rest. The Eagles had 24 total picks in that two year span, and landed just two of them.
It is early, but after an incredible run from 2021 to 2024, the past two Eagles drafts are looking closer to the end of era hauls than they are depth providers. Makai Lemon hasn’t shown anything and the coaching staff doesn’t know what to do with him. Jihaad Campbell is still more theory than reality. Drew Kendall has done a nice job in a couple of games but already 4 of the 8 day three picks from 2025 are on other teams or out of the league.
New play caller failure
This has doomed Eagles coaches. A coach can’t really control injuries and bad draft picks, but coaching is coaching.
In 1998 to replace Jon Gruden, who was hired as Raiders head coach, Ray Rhodes brought in Dana Bible. The Eagles offense was such a disaster that Bible was replaced after six games by Bill Musgrave, who had one year of experience as a coach and actually was in Colts training camp as a player earlier that season. The Eagles not only finished the season dead last in scoring with 161 points (10.1 per game), they were so bad that no team has scored fewer points or points per game in a season since.
In a slight parallel to this season, the Eagles also replaced their excellent OL coach, as Gruden took Bill Callahan with him to Oakland. His replacement turned out alright over the long run: Juan Castillo.
Castillo takes us to our next disastrous play caller hire. In 2011 Andy Reid made two horrible decisions: first, he wanted the wide nine defensive front that was in vogue to be the basis of his defense, so he hired his defensive line coach, Jim Washburn, to install it then hired his defensive coordinator, rather than the other way around. Then he made an even worse decision to make his offensive line coach, one Juan Castillo, his defensive coordinator. Nothing about this worked.
The 2020 season also has some parallels. After promoting Super Bowl winning assistant Mike Groh in 2018, Doug Pederson had to fire him ahead of the 2020 season. Pederson, with more than a gentle nudge from the front office, then went with a college of coaches, bringing in former Kyle Shanahan assistant Rich Scangarello, former Dan Mullen assistant Andrew Breiner, and former Kevin Sumlin (who the Eagles had considered for their head coach opening in 2013) assistant Aaron Morehead. In the end though it was still Doug Pederson’s offense, just with too many lousy cooks in the kitchen. Bringing in accessory pieces from top (or supposed top) offensive minds didn’t get the job done.
It was apparent early on that Brian Johnson wasn’t up to the job, it was apparent early on that Kevin Patullo wasn’t up to the job, and it sure looks like Sean Mannion isn’t either. The decision to move on from Jeff Stoutland has backfired. There’s only so many bad coaching hires one can make before their credit runs out.
Jeffrey Lurie has a quick hook
Maybe the Eagles circle the wagons and start to turn things around. The unintentional accelerated offensive line replacement might improve the situation as the season progresses. Maybe the leaders of the team, who have previously shown the ability to bounce back, find it again. This team is trending down, but they haven’t yet sunk. There is still time to bail enough water out.
Or maybe they are headed to rock bottom. The Eagles offense has been built on the line, it has fallen apart. The defense is less than the sum of its parts. A depleted roster, one that wasn’t nearly as good as originally thought, a limping defense, and a broken offense. These are all key ingredients of the end of an era.
This is the 32nd full season under Jeffrey Lurie. Only twice has a head coach survived a losing season that wasn’t his first: Ray Rhodes’ 6-9-1 in 1997, he would be fired the next year; and Andy Reid’s miserable 2005. That’s a very short leash by Lurie, but none of the firings were mistakes. Ray Rhodes (Packers) and Chip Kelly (49ers) were immediately hired as head coaches but were one and done. Doug Pederson was fired after three seasons in Jacksonville. The Eagles won a Super Bowl before Andy Reid did.
Sirianni has never been beloved by his players. The heavier the hand he’s had in the coaching staff the worse the results, and not just on offense. His in-game coaching has been inconsistent at best. The Eagles started taking on water last season. If they are sinking to the bottom, there is no lifeboat for Sirianni.
