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The Philadelphia Eagles hunt for a new head coach ended Thursday, with the team reportedly hiring Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni to replace Doug Pederson. While the move is notable in part because of the names the Eagles have gone by, including short-lived favorite Josh McDaniels, the bigger question of Sirianni’s arrival centers on the franchise quarterback he inherits: Carson Wentz. Weeks after a Wentz-Eagles divorce has become inevitable, if not healthy for both parties, has the situation suddenly taken on a new light? What exactly does Philly’s new head coach mean for Wentz’s future?
Nothing is set in stone. The Eagles may still be open to listening to offers for Wentz, whose $ 128 million contract looks intimidating in the wake of his drastic and unexpected 2020 regression, not to mention the reported fallout with team leadership. Sirianni has yet to lay eyes on a single Wentz training rep, and second-round pick Jalen Hurts remains in the building with starting aspirations.
But almost everything else indicates that hiring Sirianni is proof that Philly is serious about restoring, not parting, Wentz in 2021.
Let’s start with the fact that the Eagles have reportedly told head coach candidates that they intend to keep Wentz. Now, due to Wentz’s contract, which would have made it difficult to receive an abundance of favorable business offers in the first place, it can be argued that the team had no choice but to prepare a new coach for the comeback. by Wentz. But Sirianni is not just any coach. He is deeply imbued with the teachings of Colts coach Frank Reich, who was just Wentz’s offensive coordinator during the most promising period of the quarterback’s career (2016-2017) and would have made Indy a favorite destination. for Wentz in case of Trade.
“I believe Sirianni’s background with Frank Reich,” writes Charles Robinson of Yahoo, “helped the team get the answers they were looking for regarding their twinning with Carson Wentz.”
Was Wentz the only factor in adding Sirianni? To suggest so would do the 39-year-old coach’s resume a disservice. With Pederson out, the Colts’ assistant ticked almost all of the boxes as a potential successor: he’s a young ascending offensive spirit; was Reich’s chosen coordinator a year after Reich himself left the Super Bowl-winning Eagles; supervised years of career since his beginnings as the Chargers receivers coach (2014-17); survived the head coach changes of two different teams, in Kansas City and San Diego; and comes from a strong football family.
There’s no denying, however, that his background and best qualities are a huge resemblance to the kind of background and best qualities you would want if a main priority was to re-kiss and polish Carson Wentz.
“We’ve spent so much time talking about, is Carson Wentz going anywhere? Will he go to Indianapolis?” Ian Rapoport of NFL Network said Thursday, referring to the Colts’ vacant QB. “Instead, what the Philadelphia Eagles did (it seems) was bring him Indianapolis. They don’t get Frank Reich, someone who obviously had a close relationship and worked very well with Carson Wentz. But they get Frank Reich’s senior lieutenant, a top quarterback developer. “
What will Sirianni bring to the table, in this scenario? On the one hand, experience working with all kinds of QBs; in Indy alone, he was coordinator with Andrew Luck, Jacoby Brissett and Philip Rivers at the center. Prior to that, he worked with Rivers on the Chargers and Matt Cassel on the Chiefs. One thing to take away from this harvest: Sirianni’s QBs have often posted the best career dismissal rates under his watch, signaling quick decisions – and something that Wentz notably struggled with throughout 2020.
Overall, this isn’t a bad bet on the Eagles’ part, although the front office dysfunction contributed to an offseason where a heavy contract from a QB helped influence a hiring of first coaches. location. Ideally, Wentz is returning to form as the good, sometimes big caller he was during the first four seasons of his career. Worst-case scenario, Wentz proves either stubborn or really broken, Sirianni pulls the cork from the experience – Wentz was never naturally “his” guy at QB, after all – and the Eagles swallow a pill much easier. by cutting ties with No. 11 in 2022, only to officially launch a reconstruction.
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