The Eagles are hiring Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni as their next head coach, executive vice president Howie Roseman told ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio on Thursday.
Reactions to the hire are still being formed, but the exciting part is Sirianni’s youth and the advanced work ethic he embraces seem to be just what you’d like in a first-time head coach.
Sirianni was Frank Reich’s right-hand man in Indianapolis and was the quarterbacks coach when Reich was the Chargers offensive coordinator in 2014 and ’15. The connection could hold significance for Carson Wentz, who has a great deal of trust in Reich.
Sirianni has worked as a quarterbacks coach and receivers coach since coming into the league with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2009.
Zach Berman of The Athletic sees the hire as an opportunistic one since Sirianni comes without any known demands for personnel control and therefore will be on the same page with owner Jeff Lurie and GM Howie Roseman— that, and he has the “Frank Reich” pedigree in quarterback whispering:
Lurie seems to be relying on his ability to identify successful coaches who might not top the list of prospective coaches. Andy Reid didn’t call plays and wasn’t a coordinator before the Eagles hired him in 1999, and he became the winningest coach in franchise history. Pederson wasn’t a full-time play caller before the Eagles hired him and had been an offensive coordinator for the same amount of time as Sirianni, and he won the only Super Bowl in Eagles history. Both of them worked closely with quarterbacks, though, and they became the play callers in Philadelphia.
There will be lots more to say about Sirianni as reactions come in and he addresses the media. For now, since he is still a relative unknown to most of us, here is a quick look at his career path:
A COLLEGE STUD: Sirianni was a wide receiver at NCAA Division 3 powerhouse Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio. Mount Union won seven NCAA Division 3 titles between 1993 and 2002, and Sirianni was on three of those teams. His senior year he caught 52 passes for 998 yards and 13 touchdowns, finishing just two yards of 1,000 for the season. His biggest game was a 4-for-164 performance in a 55-7 win over Ohio Northern, including a 73-yard touchdown catch from Zac Bruney. His 19.6 career average ranks 5th in school history. He spent one year playing for the Canton Legends of the Atlantic Indoor Football League before starting his coaching career back at Mount Union in the fall of 2006.
A FAMILY OF COACHES: Sirianni comes from a family of his coaches. His dad, Fran Sirianni, coached high school football in upstate New York for 45 years and was inducted into the Clarion (Pa.) Sports Hall of Fame in 2018. Nick played for his dad at Southwestern Central High in West Ellicot, N.Y. Older brother Mike coaches at Washington & Jefferson in Washington, Pa., outside Pittsburgh, where he’s the winningest coach in school history and has a career record of .812. Another older brother, Jay, no longer coaches but won a state Class C championships while coaching at Southwestern Central. [nbcsports.com]
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