Nick Sirianni is staring at the kind of problem that can swallow a season whole.
The Eagles have already lost Jalen Hurts for the rest of the 2026 season because of a blood clot, and that news landed just as the roster around him kept thinning out. Lane Johnson retired two weeks ago, the team traded Cam Jurgens to the Ravens, and now Philadelphia is trying to survive with one of the league’s worst offensive lines in front of Tanner McKee.
Saquon Barkley has missed the last two weeks with a hamstring injury, other key playmakers have also been in and out, and the defense has had its own health issues. After Sunday’s loss, the Eagles are 2-4 and riding a four-game skid.
That puts Sirianni in a far tighter spot than he’s faced before, at least in terms of the pressure surrounding him. He came into the year with his job already under scrutiny after a disappointing 2025 season, and he needed a turnaround to quiet that noise. Instead, the ground has shifted even more dramatically beneath him.
“Obviously, we are in a rut right now,” Sirianni told reporters on Monday about the offensive struggles. “I don’t think there’s any question [about] that.
We’re in a rut. This is why you work in the offseason to come together, because every team is going to go through ups and downs here and it’s important to have that relationship and build those relationships so when you go through down times, it doesn’t tear you apart.”
The quarterback picture is bleak, and that’s putting it mildly.
McKee got his first start of the season against the Panthers after a rough summer, and the results weren’t pretty. He completed 25 of 46 passes for 215 yards and a touchdown, but the tape showed the bigger problem: balls fluttering outside the numbers, trouble driving the football with a tight spiral, and too many plays where he was an easy target in the pocket. He is still the best option the Eagles have right now, but the ceiling is low.
The team added Joe Milton on Friday, signing the former Cowboys quarterback from Dallas’ practice squad. He brings arm strength, but his accuracy and other issues have kept him from sticking as a trustworthy backup or starter in the NFL. Fifth-round rookie Cole Payton is not ready.
That’s bad news for a team whose offense was already sputtering with Hurts. Philadelphia wasn’t exactly humming through the first five weeks, and now the quarterback play has dropped into a worse tier. The issues go beyond the passer, but the downgrade at the most important position makes everything harder.
It hasn’t helped that new offensive coordinator Sean Mannion’s system has gone nowhere fast. Through six weeks, the Eagles rank 28th in EPA per play at minus-0.111 and 31st in offensive success rate at 36.6%, according to RBSDM Stats. Mannion wanted to lean on under-center play-action, but that part of the plan has been a dead end so far.
Against the Panthers, Philadelphia used five under-center dropbacks, and every one of them was a play-action pass. The result: no completions, two sacks and a loss of 17 yards, according to SumerSports. The numbers across the board are ugly - 26th in passing, 29th in rushing and 30th in yards per game.
Sirianni rolled the dice by hiring Mannion, who had never called plays before and brought only three years of NFL coaching experience, over more established candidates. Six weeks in, the move looks risky. Sirianni doesn’t handle the play sheet himself, and that leaves him with the burden of overseeing an offense that hasn’t found its footing.
“Have a high confidence level in everybody in this building,” Sirianni said on Monday. “Sean, that’s why I hired him, the position coaches, the players.
Right now, we’re in a rough spot as we know. It is about controlling the things that you can control in this moment and figuring out what the next steps are.
I think we’ve got to find out what the things are that we have to get better at and what we have to do well or what we do well. That’s what these next two days are for, and we get an extra day here on this end, but my confidence level in our guys is high.”
Up front, there is at least a path toward growth, even if it comes with a lot of pain. Philadelphia’s new starting five is young and inexperienced, with Markel Bell at right tackle, Willie Lampkin at left guard and Drew Kendall at center.
Those players could improve as the season goes on and develop into long-term starters. But with young linemen, the growing pains are real.
Landon Dickerson’s return could help stabilize things a bit, but it won’t solve everything. For now, Sirianni is trying to keep a battered team from falling further apart while the pressure around him keeps rising.
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