Summing It Up

PHILADELPHIA — It was around 1:45 p.m. when Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni and executive vice president/general manager Howie Roseman strolled down the NovaCare Complex corridor and made their way to the podium for their year-end press conference. It was the first we’ve heard from Roseman since the conclusion of the NFL trade deadline and the first time Sirianni has spoken publicly since issuing a statement on the removal of Kevin Patullo as offensive coordinator.

Whenever a season ends in disappointing fashion, as it did for the Eagles, questions mount, just as they do whenever there’s a coaching search for what could be viewed as perhaps the most highly scrutinized coordinator role in the NFL. Both organizational leaders sat at the podium from roughly 30 minutes, doing their best to make sense of a season that got away.

Here a few notable takeaways following the Sirianni and Roseman dual-presser:

ITB PHOTO/ANDREW DICECCO: Eagles HC Nick Sirianni (right) and EVP Howie Roseman answered questions in their annual end-of-season presser.

Replacing Kevin Patullo, criteria for next play-caller

The Eagles on Tuesday inevitably elected to make a change at offensive coordinator, stripping away the title from embattled coordinator Kevin Patullo. The offense, which often lacked for rhythm, sequencing and innovation, flatlined for much of the season, sans for red zone execution and the occasional quarter or half. As a collective, the unit failed to provide a proper return of investment, and Patullo – fairly or not – became the posterchild.

To be clear, as I’ve maintained all season, to point the finger at solely one person in a hasty attempt at identifying who or what you believe to be the primary culprit would be the equivalent of missing the forest through the trees. Sure, Patullo had a hand in the offensive struggles – he called the plays, after all – but the first-year play-caller was hardly the only reason for the underperformance.

While criticism is certainly justified, most of it boarded on extreme, an unwillingness to objectively assess the plethora of shortcomings plaguing the offense.

Still, a move needed to be made, and on Thursday, Nick Sirianni spoke on his decision to remove Patullo from his role:

“I think it’s important that we continue to evolve as an offense and that we go out and do what’s best for this football team,” he said. “Again, everything that I do and every decision I have to make, I have to do that – just like Howie does, just like Mr. [Jeffrey} Lurie does –with the intent of it being the best thing for the football team.

“I love Kevin and everything that he has provided to this coaching staff for his five years here. [He’s] A big reason why we’ve won a lot of football games, but at this particular point, I just felt like that’s what I needed to do [for it] to be the best thing for the football team.”

The wording in Sirianni’s statement upon Patullo’s removal from his title implied the door was potentially propped open for him to return to the staff in another capacity, though optics make it a tricky proposition.

“We’ll see how it plays out,” said Sirianni. “I know Kevin’s going to have other opportunities, and obviously always want what’s best for Kevin and for his family, so we’ll see how that plays out.”

The vacancy should be a highly coveted job, given its high-profile nature and track record of churning out head coaches if successful. Whomever is appointed will also be inheriting a cerebral quarterback in Jalen Hurts, someone ingrained with a winning DNA. That’s not to suggest there aren’t potential drawbacks, such as the health status of the offensive line – key to an offense’s success – as well as the future of a certain star receiver (more on him later).

There’s also the looming question of whether or not the next coordinator will have full autonomy to run his offense without interference. As for what exactly the team will be coveting this time around, Sirianni offered some perspective.

“You’re looking to continue to evolve as an offense, and I’m looking to bring in the guy that’s going to best help us do that,” he explained. “I think that there are many different ways to be successful on offense and everybody has different styles, everybody has different players, and there’s many different ways to be successful, like I said.

“I think you start to get into situations when you’re certain, ‘This is the only thing that makes you successful on offense,’ and that’s just not the case, right? There’s a lot of different things and there [are] a lot of different ways to do it, and that’s not only as an offensive coordinator, but a defensive coordinator, a wide receiver coach, a defensive line coach, a head coach. There’s a lot of different ways to do it.

“Again, it’s about going out and finding the guy that best fits us. [We’re] looking forward to that interview process and being able to go through some really good candidates.”

A candidate for the long or short-term?

When it comes to the offensive coordinator role, the Eagles have been short on continuity. For perspective, the team’s next play-caller will be the seventh for quarterback Jalen Hurts since entering the league in 2020. It’s required quite a bit on bandwidth from the franchise quarterback, adapting to a new voice with different principles and verbiage. It’s probably something that isn’t fully appreciated or taken into accont from the outside, results notwithstanding.

It’s also worth noting that when Hurts did have the same play caller for consecutive seasons (Shane Steichen), he played his best football and was heralded as an MVP candidate. So, when projecting the criteria for the next offensive coordinator, continuity was something front of mind.

Many times, the Eagles are victims of their own success. On the heels of the 2022 season that ended in a Super Bowl appearance, Steichen seized an elusive head coaching gig with the Indianapolis Colts. When the Eagles won the Sper Bowl last February, it was Kellen Moore who fled for a head coaching opportunity after one season in Philadelphia. It’s the ramifications that come with succeeding in a high-pressure position in a major market, where expectations are sky-high.

Given recent history, would the Eagles possibly refrain from targeting a hot commodity with a desire for career advancement, instead setting their sights on a stabilizing veteran play-caller? Roseman didn’t mince words when addressing the topic.

“It’s a great compliment when guys get head coaching jobs from here because it means we’re having tremendous success,” said Roseman. “As much as you’d like to have continuity and would like to have guys here for a long period of time, we want to win. We have an urgency to win right now. If that comes with the ramifications that we lose good people because they’ve earned head coaching jobs, we’ll live with that.”

Getting back to Hurts for a moment, apart from the investment, the quarterback has built up enough equity over the years to have a say in who will be presiding over the offense, though whether or not the coordinator should make concessions might be a bit too far. For the Eagles to evolve offensively, drastic schematic changes need implementing to give the team an advantage.

Whoever presides over the offense, for his sake and ultimately Hurts’ growth, should run his system without much alteration, encouraging Hurts and others to embrace becoming uncomfortable. But for examples of Hurts’ willingness to broaden horizons and try new things, as explained by Sirianni, just think back to last season, where there were several.

“I think you saw this year that he’s open to do a bunch,” said Sirianni. “We were under-center probably more than we have been. Different motions, different things like that. Here’s what I’ll say, Jalen always wants to do … Jalen’s proved this to everybody, that he’ll do whatever it takes to win football games.

“Sometimes that’s throwing it a bunch, sometimes that’s running it a bunch, sometimes it’s him handing it off a bunch. He’ll do whatever it takes to win. All I’ve ever felt from Jalen and all [I’ve] ever [known] from Jalen is that the man will do anything he can do to win football games. He pushes himself to do new things. He pushes himself to excel at the things that he has already done so well, and he’s proven to everybody year-in, year-out all he cares about is winning and all he cares about is being able to hold that trophy up at the end of the year.”

Remaining in the nest?

The Eagles have made it clear at various points this season that there was no intention to move off of A.J. Brown, the team’s ultra-talented wideout who expressed frustration earlier this season with his usage and vocalized his skepticism of the underperforming offense’s long-term sustainability.

Brown himself was crystal clear earlier in the season that Philadelphia is his home and that he’s content with where he is.

But Brown was last heard from on Dec. 8, in the visitor’s locker room at SoFi Stadium following a narrow loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. Given how the rest of the season unfolded, and time has elapsed, it’s unclear if Brown still desires to remain in Philadelphia, so making assumptions would be disingenuous.

What’s common knowledge, however, is that Brown preferred a different style of offense with a higher volume passing attack. Perhaps whoever the team elects as the new offensive coordinator factors into the equation, but on the heels of a season that ended with an abrupt skid, those questions will persist throughout the offseason.

But it’s undeniable that the Eagles are a far better team with Brown on it, and when the 28-year-old is at his best there are few better league-wide at his position. A new coordinator, with distinctive passing concepts, could go a long way toward reminding those who forgot.

“We talked about this I think at the trade deadline last time I talked,” Roseman said. “It is hard to find great players in the NFL and A.J.’s a great player. I think from my perspective, that’s what we’re going out and looking for when we go out here in free agency and in the draft is trying to find great players who love football, and he’s that guy. I think that would be my answer.”

— Andrew DiCecco (@AndrewDiCecco) is a Staff Reporter/Content Producer for InsideTheBirds.com