Why Nick Sirianni is ‘grateful’ for collapse of 2023 Eagles

Roughly 13 months before Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni became a Super Bowl champion via his team’s 40-22 thrashing of the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday night, many fans and local media personalities blamed Sirianni for the collapse of the 2023 Eagles side that entered December at 10-1.

Sirianni spoke with reporters on Monday about all that he and the franchise went through over the past year-and-a-half. 

“I think I look back on last year and how last year ended and I’m grateful, as crazy as this sounds, at how last year ended because it shaped us to who we are today,” Sirianni explained, as shared by Bob Brookover of NJ Advance Media for NJ.com. “And then the adversity at the beginning of the year and through the season — the ups and downs — through everything, I think when you embrace that, it does something to you.” 

Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie may/may not have reached out to Bill Belichick last winter after the New England Patriots showed the living legend the door and after Philadelphia lost six of its final seven games of the 2023 campaign through the wild-card round of the playoffs. Additionally, the Eagles allegedly dealt with “a real significant problem” behind the scenes as they endured a brutal stretch that reportedly landed Sirianni on the hot seat. 

Multiple reports later surfaced about how the relationship between Sirianni and quarterback Jalen Hurts became “fractured” during the previous campaign. Those two seemingly got on the same page when the Eagles were 2-2 during their Week 5 bye this past fall.

“You don’t know how close a team is going to be until you go through the journey together,” Sirianni said on Monday. “It’s hard to say this because we won 16 of our last 17 games, but even in the midst of that … adversity has a tendency to bring you together.”

Meanwhile, Hurts’ leadership style came into question after he signed a five-year contract extension reportedly worth up to $255M with $179.3M guaranteed in the spring of 2023 and then failed to prevent the team from coming apart late in that season. He became both a Super Bowl champion and Super Bowl Most Valuable Player on Sunday night. 

“I think my entire career, I’ve been challenged with different things and it’s put me in a place where I was just trying to improve, improve, improve so I could be the best that I could be,” Hurts said on Monday. “…This was just the evolution and the maturation of myself and a team, a culture and being able to evolve and grow knowing that things are always changing as time goes by. But also knowing that everything comes right on time.”

As of Monday afternoon, DraftKings Sportsbook listed the Eagles as the betting favorites at +600 odds to win Super Bowl LX next February. If Sirianni and Hurts can grow even closer during the offseason, they could help Philadelphia become the league’s next dynasty.