PHILADELPHIA - Nick Sirianni doesn’t have much use for the noise that comes with coaching in Philadelphia, and that may be part of why he keeps winning anyway.
As he heads into his sixth season with the Eagles, Sirianni is set to hit that mark on Sept. 13 against the Washington Commanders. By then, he’ll have built a résumé that would look elite almost anywhere else: 65 wins in his first five seasons, the third-most ever for a head coach in that span, plus playoff trips in each of those five years. He is just the fourth coach in the Super Bowl era to do that, and one of only three to post four 11-win seasons over that stretch.
And yet, the conversation around him never seems to settle. In some corners, he’s treated like the beneficiary of the roster Howie Roseman built rather than the coach guiding it. When the Eagles aren’t sitting on top of the league, the perception shifts fast - even though plenty of franchises would happily take “only” 11 wins and a playoff berth.
That’s the strange part of Sirianni’s job. The success has been so steady that it almost works against him. Philadelphia’s expectations aren’t just high; they’re relentless.
Sirianni addressed that reality in a wide-ranging interview ahead of training camp with reporters, including Eagles On SI’s John McMullen, and he didn’t sound interested in chasing approval.
“I can’t control what anyone thinks or feels,” the coach said. “That’s OK. I think, sometimes, if I get wrapped up into the wrong things, [like] ‘Hey, the appreciation for us should be higher.’
It doesn’t matter - but in a public-facing industry where fans are starved for every detail of how the sausage is made and constantly fed speculation dressed up as analysis, the noise can still creep into the building in negative ways.
“There’s always, in these seats and in football, where you’re being watched by [fans and pundits] because it’s such a loved game, and granted, it’s such a freaking awesome game, there’s always going to be noise,” the coach said. “It’s like, what does it help you to focus on that?
That said, Sirianni has navigated that kind of difficult landscape better than most - an intangible that’s tough to quantify.
“Even if a second of my time is being worried about, ‘Hey, I wish they appreciated this more,’ then I just lost a little bit of time that I could have been doing with something else that really matters,” he said.
The Eagles coach also made clear that none of this is finished business. He’s still trying to improve, and one of the biggest changes this year is the move to a Shanahan/McVay-style offense under Sean Mannion, a first-time coordinator who is only three years removed from his playing career.
“I’m not saying we’ve been perfect at [ignoring the expectations]. And I’m not saying that I’ve been perfect at that because we’re human, and we haven’t,” Sirianni said. “But I think there’s growth in finding yourself through the journey that you’ve gone through to get to a point where like, ‘Yeah, should we be appreciated more?’”
He began to answer that question, then stopped himself: “Who gives a f…”
He corrected course immediately.
“That’s out of my control,” he said. “So what is in my control?
The daily habits that we go about to put the best product that we can on the field to ultimately do the best things that we can do. And we’ve done a good job.
And we want to continue to do a good job in that. So, it’s all part of the journey of becoming who you are.”
That mindset fits the way Sirianni has operated since arriving in Philadelphia. He leans hard into repetition, into the same message over and over again, until it becomes the culture. His “tough, detailed, and together” standard has been a defining part of the Eagles’ run.
“F@$% yeah [the expectations are] high. And I think sometimes - and I’ve been guilty of it too - we can be like, ‘Uh, expectations are high,’” Sirianni said.
“But that’s great that expectations are high. Because of that, your standards are higher.
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