Want to criticize the Eagles’ offense?
Start with me, Nick Sirianni said on Wednesday afternoon.
Last week, the Eagles made a significant coaching staff shakeup when they demoted Sean Desai and made Matt Patricia their de facto defensive coordinator. After that move, plenty of fans have wondered why a similar move hasn’t been made on offense with OC Brian Johnson.
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“Make no mistake about it, this offense is being run the exact same way the offense was run last year and the year before that,” Sirianni said. “This offense is my offense. This is my offense. And so the criticism on the offense, I think unfairly goes to Brian. Brian calls the plays. It unfairly goes to Brian. The criticism on offense should come to me. Because this is my offense.”
The Eagles have certainly sputtered on offense in recent weeks. They have failed to score 20+ points in three straight games — losses to 49ers, Cowboys, Seahawks — for the first time in the Sirianni Era. The last time the Eagles failed to score 20 points in three straight was the end of Carson Wentz’s career with the Eagles before getting benched in 2020.
Sirianni pointed out the two key areas where the Eagles have really struggled: turnovers and explosive plays.
The Eagles have turned the football over 21 times in 14 games this season after they had 19 turnovers all season in 2022. Five of those turnovers have come in the last two weeks. Quarterback Jalen Hurts has turned the ball over 17 times in 2023 (12 INTs, 5 lost fumbles) after just 13 total turnovers in 2022.
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And then there are the explosive plays — or the lack of explosive plays.
Sirianni classifies explosive plays as runs of 10+ yards and passes of 16+ yards. The Eagles have just 101 such plays this season — 61 passes, 40 runs — which ranks tied for 19th in the NFL. For reference, the 49ers lead the NFL by these parameters with 149 explosive plays. The other teams with 101 are the Saints and Broncos.
While it’s definitely fair to question Johnson’s play-calling, it is important to remember that he had some giant shoes to fill. Former offensive coordinator Shane Steichen was a brilliant play-caller in 2022. And we also have to remember that Sirianni is right: This is his offense.
Sure, there are individual play calls that have been questionable and Johnson deserves criticism for that. But so many of the criticisms of this offense have been about scheme and structure and those things are on Sirianni more than anyone.
So Sirianni is right: He does deserve blame.
“I was hired to do a job here,” Sirianni said. “And got hired because I was a successful offensive coordinator with our schemes and the different things we did to coach players and help players win. And I’m committed to that. Like I said, the criticism should come to me and I think it unfairly goes at Brian a lot of the times because he’s calling the plays.
“But make no mistake about it, this offense has been consistently similar throughout the three years. Yes, there’s different things you do based off your personnel and different things you do based off the teams that you’re playing and what’s working for you. Again, it all starts there with me. I guess I’m not thinking that a change needs to be made there for multiple reasons and that’s one big one.”
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