By Chip Keagy, AATSN Co-Host
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It's been 7 games. I want to buy into the narrative that Nick Sirianni is the right head coach to lead this team through the rebuild. I want to buy into the "1% better everyday" and "we are all plants and fertilizer" sound clips. I want to believe in this brilliant young coaching staff.
But why should I? In 7 games, this team has been absolutely dreadful with the exception of the Falcons game and the last 5-8 minutes of a few games. They lack fire, desire, and the ability to execute at all efficiently. The Eagles are leading the league in penalties and dumb decision making.
This article is going to be a series of myth and narrative busters. Eventually, you have to call a failure a failure.
Andy's First Season Was Identical to This...
First off, maybe by record this could be the case. Andy Reid did finish his first season 5-11 which was better than the team he took over. This is an easy one to dispel though. Andy Reid is a part of the Mike Holmgren coaching tree. Andy Reid won a Super Bowl as an assistant coach in Green Bay. Nothing even closely resembling that level of success is on the resumes of Sirianni, Steichen, or Gannon. These guys do not understand how to run a winning organization because they have never really been a part of one.
But Sean McVay was young when he was hired...
Ok....but he had Wade Phillips and John Fassell, two former head coaches to help him navigate. Sean McVay WAS an offensive hotshot but had also worked under some exceptional head coaches prior to taking the job. He also focused only on the offense and game management. Nick Sirianni has no senior voices in his ears helping him through this. Sirianni clearly doesn't adjust as the game goes on, a skill he would've learned with more time as a coordinator and with veteran assistants in his ear. Nick Sirianni even referred to himself as the offensive coordinator after last weeks loss.
Even the Raiders, who are dealing with the chaos of losing a coach midseason, have actually looked better under Rich Bisaccia. Why? First because Bisaccia has 39 years of NFL coaching experience himself. Besides that, he has 4 former head coaches on his staff and he listens to them.
Its still early. They will turn it around....
Maybe they will. The young coaches have lost the locker room already though. Ertz being traded, Fletcher Cox and Rodney McLeod openly throwing the coaches under the bus? Its week 7 and there are NO answers on a weekly basis. The cliches and sound clips are great but the Eagles look lost at sea right now.
The kids who are coaching the Eagles are totally unsupervised and the lack of experience is becoming glaring. The Eagles won't be able to get an accurate read on young stars like Jalen Hurts, Dallas Goedert, Miles Sanders, and Devonta Smith as long as the scheming is going directly against what they do well.