by The Eagles are the only undefeated team remaining in the NFL, moving to 4-0 with a blowout win over the Jaguars. They have one of the five best quarterbacks in the NFL, one of the most efficient offenses in football and one of the best defenses.
Since midway through the 2021 season, they’ve been boiling the best parts of their system on both sides of the ball into a potent concentrate, then dressing up that raw mush in a million different ways to convince their opponent they’re not going to backstab. in the way he fears—and ultimately predicts—he will be stabbed. Like any talented chef, they have the leftovers from Friday’s seafood delivery in the palm of their hand. Among the dishes they serve is ceviche with a Michelin star. It is something that only happens when a group understands itself in the most intimate ways.
That’s hard to do, though it’s only part of the Eagles’ narrative. The other element of their appearance is wider in scope and, while nebulous, is essential to their ability to survive and thrive in their unique ecosystem. It’s even harder to do than constantly planning disastrous football plays.
Philadelphia is a city that has treated even its winningest coaches with all the love and respect of an aloof Victorian parent—indifferent coaches and stars and other prominent sports figures exposed in some ill-advised attempt to motivate or change. perception, only to be clothed by one of the most die-hard fans in professional sports. This is a group of people who, collectively, are a lot like comedian John Mulaney describing eighth graders: “They’re going to make fun of you, but in an accurate way. They will end up with what you don’t like about yourself. They don’t even have to look at you for long.”
On Sunday, Eagles coach Nick Sirianni sat cool at the podium, as he has for each of the last four weeks, with all the confidence worthy of a friend who just got into college early. In many cases, he’ll wear shirts that either celebrate the area, a specific player, a nearby landmark, or a local high school (personal favorite: a retro Allen Iverson 76ers jersey pulled from an early 2000s fever dream). That comfort and lack of defensiveness is the best way to outwardly represent the relationship he and his team have achieved with a city that seemed certain to swallow him whole, just as it did Doug Pederson, the Super Bowl champion. Bowl LII , and Chip Kelly, five games over .500 at the time of his firing.
A little more than a year before that, Jalen Hurts was considered at best a bridge quarterback, meant to regularly fill the gap between the running back Carson Wentz and whoever they selected in the upcoming draft (Google “Eagles” and “Spencer Rattler” or “Matt Corral” for a glimpse into a very fun, upside-down universe). Their offensive line was aging. Their secondary was non-existent. Their pass rush was fading.
And Sirianni himself was the author of one of the most egregious opening press conferences in recent NFL history when he took the job in late January 2021. It was the layer of film that stuck to all the other related doubts about the Eagles, and maybe because they had walked away from the guy who had just won them a Super Bowl.
“It was a train wreck,” Howard Eskin, the legendary Eagles reporter and Philly media institution for more than three decades, says Sunday night when asked to look back. “It was a big train wreck in the league. It was awful. That it was a joke.”
Sirianni read a cue card. He looked nervous. He messed up unfortunate parts of his speech that specifically dealt with his desire to build a smart football team. He was flayed online, with people comparing him to a less complex Michael Scott who was oblivious to a meeting with David Wallace. He started 2-5 last fall.
Joe Giglio, host of Philadelphia radio station WIP, says a caller called last year and called Sirianni “a high school coach trying to run a professional football team.” Later that season, another caller compared him to a funny version of Ted Lasso, the American football coach trying to find success overseas in football.
“People called him overmatched, they said he had no idea, but the worst thing people said was that they should get rid of him after five games. Hosts and callers,” says Eskin. “It was relentless.”
Then, at the end of October last year, Sirianni compared the Eagles to a flower. He told the media that, in a meeting, he showed the players a picture of the root structure of the plant. It was symbolic of growth beneath the surface, the kind of progress we can’t see until, one day, something beautiful breaks its way through the dirt. Fans responded by wearing flowers.
Sirianni’s flower metaphor was initially mocked, but for some it became a rallying cry.
Mitchell Leff/Getty Images
In the eyes of a cynic ready to pounce, these were the latest mistakes by a manager who had clearly chosen the wrong playground. public negativity threatened to bulldoze over a vulnerable dressing room. Although, as the close observers of Seriannis see it now, it was something completely different. It was, on a personal level, a determination to stay the course. The introductory press conference was, perhaps, an attempt to be something other than himself. The Eagles went 7-3 after the “flower” speech, and both coach and team worked their way out of the ninth circle of visual hell.
As the Eagles understood themselves better schematically, they seemed to understand themselves better individually, managing, one small step at a time, to erase their perception of a city that doesn’t often let you forget. Eskin jokes that, even now, a two-game losing streak could always jeopardize Sirianni’s status as Philadelphia’s go-to everyman, just as it would hurt the offensive line’s renewed reputation as a versatile run-blocking unit effective in almost any style. or system, or Hurts’ status as a dark horse MVP candidate. Any other way and it wouldn’t be Philadelphia.
But for now, the Eagles occupy a sacred place in Philadelphia, earning mutual respect and seeds of harmony among fans. It is something to admire as it emerges from the ground.
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