Eagles owner's comments about Nick Sirianni's job security raise eyebrows

Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie had an opportunity while speaking with reporters at the NFL owners meetings on Tuesday to address the job security of head coach Nick Sirianni beyond the 2024 season. 

According to Chris Franklin of NJ Advance Media for NJ.com and Dave Zangaro of NBC Sports Philadelphia, Lurie offered no guarantees regarding what could occur next winter. 

"Every coach is in a high-pressure situation," Lurie explained. "Nick has had a spectacular three seasons. He’s shown all the ingredients to have outstanding success. I’m just looking forward to it. No coach is not feeling pressure to perform. That’s the way it is in the National Football League. I’m just really excited about this season and our roster development."

Questions about Sirianni's status arose in January as what had been a 10-1 Eagles side fell to 11-6 and to second place in the NFC East standings. Philadelphia then suffered an embarrassing 32-9 wild-card playoff loss at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but Lurie ultimately retained Sirianni. 

NFL insider Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk shared in January that there was "a belief in some league circles" that the Eagles had "expressed interest in" former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick following Philadelphia's postseason defeat. Florio added that Belichick "didn’t reciprocate" amid the living legend's discussions with the Atlanta Falcons at that time. 

It's thought the Eagles could reach out to Belichick next January if things go poorly for Sirianni during the 2024 campaign. 

Lurie noted that he didn't let "recency bias" impact his decision to keep Sirianni despite the "extremely disappointing ending to the season."

"We go through a very, very intensive process after every single season," Lurie insisted. "...Take a very hard look at exactly what the entire season looked at, what the entire history has been over the last few years for our organization, for our team and listen." 

Sirianni accepted the Eagles job in January 2021, completed trips to the playoffs across each of his three seasons in charge and guided the club to an NFC Championship Game victory in January 2023 before Philadelphia fell to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII. Such a résumé makes it easy to understand why Sirianni received a mulligan this offseason, but his seat likely feels warmer today than it was as recently as November 2023 when Belichick was still employed by the Patriots.