Eagles' patience and plan with Nick Sirianni should be a lesson for the rest of the NFL

The Philadelphia Eagles could have fired Nick Sirianni more than a year ago. Many NFL teams would have given into that pressure.

And before we give the Eagles too much credit, it's worth noting that reports have said the Eagles were talking to Bill Belichick as they weighed Sirianni's future. Sirianni was clearly on the hot seat despite taking the Eagles to the Super Bowl the season before. There were moments of doubt.

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But as the Eagles on Monday signed Sirianni to a multi-year extension following his Super Bowl title, we should give Philadelphia credit for ultimately landing on the right answer.

It wasn't just keeping Sirianni. It was recognizing that changes needed to be made for Sirianni to succeed.

Nick Sirianni survived after the 2023 season

It's easy to celebrate Sirianni now, but his job security was a story for a majority of 2024. A little more than a month into the season, when the Eagles were barely above .500 and Sirianni was seen yelling at fans at the end of an ugly win over the Cleveland Browns, he apologized for his actions and plenty wondered about his future again.

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Those questions had been going on for many months, dating back to a bad collapse at the end of the 2023 season.

“It's Philly, it's the NFL,” Sirianni said last July. “I mean, at the end of the day, if we don't win enough, it's going to be hard for me to continue to work here, right? And I get that."

That's the NFL. Overreaction to losses and the outcry to fire everyone at every failure used to be an SEC thing, but that impatience has come to the NFL too. Coaches rarely get more than a couple years to win anymore. In Sirianni's case he did win a lot, he just had one bad stretch of games. And that was enough to put him on the hot seat.

All of the controversy seems like ancient history. Sirianni led the Eagles to 16 wins in their final 17 games, including a dominating win over the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl. Now he has a contract extension.

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The Eagles seemed tempted to make a change. They resisted, and that's a big reason they got another Super Bowl trophy, and a coach they trust for the next few years. Though, knowing Philadelphia and the NFL in general, job security is always just a few losses from changing.

Sirianni had a different role

When Sirianni was brought back after the 2023 season, he got a demotion. It was announced he wouldn't run the offense anymore; that would be the Eagles' yet-to-be named offensive coordinator. He was there to set the culture and oversee all three phases.

That was the magic touch. By the end of the season, the players had clearly bought in. During the Eagles' media availability leading up to the Super Bowl, it was impossible to miss the players repeating one of Sirianni's many catchphrases. "You can't be great without the greatness of others" was a popular one.

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That's a lesson to the rest of the NFL too. Some coaches, particularly Sean Payton and Andy Reid, are very successful calling an offense and also doing everything else that comes along with managing the team as a head coach. But it's difficult and not for everyone. Credit to the Eagles for recognizing that Sirianni had to take a step back to become a better coach.

Keeping Sirianni and stripping some of his power weren't the easiest moves. But they worked out in a nearly perfect way. Some NFL teams that are struggling for their own answers should take some lessons.