Too young? Too inexperienced? Hasn’t called plays? Not ready?
Here's what Frank Reich says about Nick Sirianni: “This guy is brilliant.”
Sirianni and Reich spent three years together with the Chargers and the last three with the Colts, and Reich, the Eagles’ Super Bowl offensive coordinator, has some pretty lofty praise for the Eagles’ new head coach.
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Reich appeared on Dave Spadaro’s podcast on the Eagles’ website to talk about Sirianni, his offensive coordinator in Indianapolis the last three years.
“He's been preparing for this his whole life,” Reich said according to a transcript on the Eagles’ website. “He's a young guy in many respects, but I'm just telling you: This guy is brilliant. Football smart. To his core, he's a football coach.
“He comes from a football family. He's a natural leader. He's got a lot of presence. He's a great coach on the field. He holds guys accountable. Strong leadership. Good communicator. Phenomenal teacher. All the qualities you need to be a head coach.”
Sirianni, 39, is the Eagles’ youngest head coach since Dick Vermeil, who was a few months younger when the Eagles hired him in 1976.
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He replaces Doug Pederson, who hired Reich five years ago this week as his offensive coordinator.
Reich called plays with the Colts, so that’s the one thing Sirianni hasn’t done yet.
Of course, Reich never called the plays when he was here, but it hasn’t stopped him from having success with the Colts, who have had top-10 offenses and reached the playoff twice with two different quarterbacks under Reich and Sirianni.
“That's probably the thing that Nick and I talked about more than anything,” Reich said. “I think Nick has a great understanding that this is a players' game and you have to adapt to your players. As the offensive coordinator here, he was the one leading the charge and how we did that, and how we used the personnel that we had. Not only year to year, but week to week.
“As guys get hurt or as guys get COVID or whatever the situation was, you've got to be able to be quick on your feet and you've got to be able to adapt. Not only week to week but even in game. I would find during the course of the game, as a play caller, I could turn to Nick and talk to him about the way the game was going series to series and we could talk it through. That's a needed quality to have in your head coach and play caller, and Nick certainly has that.”
People always ask, “Well, if he wasn’t the play caller, what did he do?”
Reich talked about that as well.
“He was a driving force in everything we did,” he said. “He really led the effort with the offensive staff to collaborate on the game plan and then he and I would work out the details. On game days, he's my right-hand man as far as calling it. A lot of calling plays and setting up the call sheet is how you want the call sheet to flow and you're thinking of ideas. Some of that is done on game day, but a lot of it is done during the week.
“In my experience, there is nobody better at that than Nick was. He was a huge help to me and a big part of the success that we had in San Diego offensively and here.”
What about intangibles?
What kind of person did the Eagles get to be their head coach?
“He's the guy who knows everybody's name in the building because he cares,” Reich said. “He's just great at connecting with people like that. I know the organizational support he'll get from the Eagles to make that transition and that will help as well. He's ready for all of it. This is the right person at the right time for the Eagles.”
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