Did Eagles coach Nick Sirianni think he was getting fired?

After the Eagles got blown out by the Bucs in the wild-card round, a week went by where we had no clue whether or not Nick Sirianni would get fired.

That 32-9 loss in Tampa capped one of the greatest collapses in NFL history.

The Eagles became the first team in 37 years and only the second team since the AFL-NFL merger in 1969 to open a season 10-1 and not win its division. They became the first team in 37 years to open a season 10-1 and lose five of its last six regular-season games. They became the first team in 54 years to open up 10-1 and not win 12 games or win a playoff game. And they became only the third team ever to win 11 games and lose a wild-card game by 20 or more points to a team that won nine or fewer games.

Yikes.

But the 2023 Eagles didn’t just lose football games. 

They embarrassed themselves game after game, week after week, dropping back-to-back games to the 49ers and Cowboys by a combined 43 points, blowing a lead in the final seconds in Seattle, squandering a 15-point 3^rd-quarter lead at home to the 3-12 Cards, suffering their worst loss to the Giants since Andy Reid’s final game 12 years earlier and finishing with the franchise’s worst postseason loss in 31 years and 2^nd-worst ever. 

They were out-scored by 82 points in their final seven games.

Even with a Super Bowl appearance in 2022, could Sirianni survive this?

While everybody else waited to see what owner Jeff Lurie would do, Sirianni just went to work every morning and claims he wasn’t concerned with what would happen next.

 “I don’t know, I just didn't think (about) that,” he said. “I didn't think about that. Because at the end of the day, that's something that's not in my control.  

“Now, us winning games and the product on the field, that was in my control. And at the end of the year, for seven games, I failed at that. And sometimes when (that happens), you have to play the cards as they lie after that.”

During the days immediately after the Tampa loss, Sirianni focused on meeting with his players, presenting ideas to Roseman and Lurie and figuring out what went wrong than his own future.

“More than anything … I hurt for the people in that (locker room),” he said. “Jason Kelse and Fletcher Cox, I probably had a sense that maybe they were they weren't going to play anymore and and that always hurts. You always want to let the guys that aren't going to play football ever again go out on top, and obviously you have goals as well and you have team goals. 

“You're pissed. As a competitor, you're angry that you lost, and you're hurting for the other guys on your team, but (getting fired) wasn't on my mind, to be quite honest with you.

“I still knew that my three kids loved me, I still knew my wife loved me, I still knew that. I still had some joy in my heart.”

The Tampa loss was Jan. 15. On Jan. 22, the Eagles sent out a group text announcing that Sirianni and Howie Roseman would hold their annual year-end presser on Jan. 24. That was the first acknowledgment from the Eagles that Sirianni would remain head coach and it ended a wild week of speculation.

Highly unusual for a head coach coming off a third straight playoff appearance to be left hanging like that, but it was a truly horrifying finish to a once-promising season.

But even with last year’s collapse, Sirianni has a 34-17 career record, and his .667 winning percentage is 2^nd-highest among active coaches, behind Matt LaFleur’s .675 mark in five years with the Packers.

Of 201 coaches in NFL history who’ve coached at least 50 games, Sirianni’s .667 winning percentage ranks 14^th. In the last 50 years, only John Madden, Jim Harbaugh, Don Shula and Tony Dungy have a higher winning percentage.

But it’s a given that just reaching the playoffs in 2024 will almost certainly not be enough for Sirianni to get a fifth season. You never know what Lurie is thinking, but it’s hard to imagine Sirianni surviving another wild-card loss – or worse, not reaching the playoffs.

As his fourth training camp is set to begin, Sirianni knows exactly what’s at stake.

“It's Philly, it's the NFL,” he said. “I mean, at the end of the day, if we don't win enough, it's going to be hard for me to continue to work here, right? And I get that.

“I think that goes back to the things that you can control. I can control our daily process. I can control the message every day of, ‘Hey, this is what's important,’ and then everybody else has to continue to do that, too. And so that's what I can control. I can't control anything else. 

“I can't think about, ‘What if we start this way? What if we do this? What if we do that?’ All I can control is daily. “I’ve got another opportunity to coach the team, I'm grateful for that and my plan is to let Mr. Lurie know that he made the right decision by bringing me back.”