The Eagles head coach talks about his appreciation for the organization, how they shift their mindset after a Super Bowl win, and more.
The Philadelphia Eagles were back in the building on Tuesday and head coach Nick Sirianni spoke to reporters for the first time since earning a contract extension.
“Obviously, very thankful to Mr. [Jeffrey] Lurie for believing in me to hire me four years ago, and that I’m able to continue being the head football coach of this team and just can’t thank him and the organization and Howie [Roseman] enough for everything. What a great owner we have. Like I said, I can’t be more thankful. My family’s thankful. I’m thankful and I love being the coach of the Philadelphia Eagles and looking forward to continuing on.”
Sirianni wouldn’t go into the details of his contract, including refusing to say how many years his extension was for, explaining there usually aren’t as many details revealed in coaches contracts. Still, he talked about how nice it is to know that he’ll be staying and raising his family in Philadelphia.
“We love this city. I know how happy I am being able to come into this office every day and work for Mr. Lurie and work alongside Howie and with all the great players we have. My wife loves this city, and my kids love this city, and we’re sure glad that it will be our home for the foreseeable future.”
He quipped that he’s learned so much in his first four years in this job, and that he keeps learning every day. Most of all, Sirianni explained that being a head coach has reinforced the notion that success takes insanely hard work and that it’s important to embrace adversity.
The head coach said that he’s not resting on the comfort of having won a Super Bowl and getting some job security, noting he’s around a lot players and coaches who have a strong will to win.
“I’ve talked to a lot of coaches this offseason trying to get better at my craft, and somebody put it this way; you don’t win a pickup basketball game and say, ‘All right, I’m satisfied. I’m going home.’ You say, ‘Hey, how do we run it back?’ And we’re not even thinking about running it back.
We’re thinking about where we are today and trying to get better, but you strap up and you play again. I think there’s always pressure in this profession, and [I’m] looking forward to the next year and building this team. Everything else is in the past. Everything else that goes in, I think that when teams are trying so hard to repeat or trying so hard to recapture, there’s two mistakes that they make.
They either are looking at their past accomplishments or they’re looking too far into the future of how do you do that again? And it’s really about the daily grind that you go through day in and day out. There’s a mental toughness to being able to do that and go through that every single day.”
He wants to continue to do his job and what’s best for the team, as well as make Jeffrey Lurie proud of the decision he made to hire Sirianni.
As they turn the page to the 2025 season, Jalen Hurts will have yet another offensive coordinator/play caller, but Sirianni expects the QB to handle the change the same as he has every year. It’s starting back at the beginning, working out like crazy, getting ready in the classroom and on the field. Hurts goes through the same process regardless of who is the OC.
Still, Sirianni has been really impressed with how Kevin Patullo has stepped up into his new role, noting the new OC is hungry for this opportunity and is bringing a lot of good ideas.
“Even though Kevin’s been with me for eight years, there’s still things that when you’re in charge that [you’re] like, ‘Hey, now let’s do this. Let’s give this an opportunity.’ So, I’m really excited about where we are there, and I don’t see any change in Jalen [Hurts] and anything that he does and how he preps, regardless of who the coordinator is.”
With so many coaching changes over the years, Sirianni said that they always look to focus on the things that their players do best – and Patullo has a leg up having been around the team for four years.
“You always want to keep things in that you’ve done well, that you want to continue to grow and dress up a little bit. And then also some new wrinkles that kind of mesh to that. And then you have some things that might be brand new, but that’s the beauty of the offseason. You go through your process, and you decide, ‘Hey, here’s what’s primary, here’s what’s secondary, here’s out, here’s what’s new.’ Then you start repping. It kind of evolves as you go.”
Sirianni and the rest of the team turned the page from the Super Bowl win pretty quickly, and are now focused on what’s ahead of them and not what they’ve already accomplished.
