On Thursday, the Philadelphia held their post-mortem press conference, with Nick Sirianni and Howie Roseman taking questions from the media. Here’s what they said, with my takeaways following thereafter.
Why didn’t the Eagles change play callers during the season?
Sirianni: “We did some different things as we continued to go through. I told you guys, I got involved more. At the end of the day, I did what I thought was best for the football team. We didn’t reach our goals, so obviously it didn’t work out, but again, we did what we thought was best for the team.”
#JimmySays: The Eagles changed defensive coordinators during the 2023 season, and the defense proceeded to get even worse. Still, a play calling change might’ve at least made the offense somewhat less predictable. Then again, the Eagles’ delusional staff didn’t think they were predictable, so…
Will the offense be a collaborative approach, or will the new coordinator run the offense?
Sirianni: “That’s way early. Those decisions don’t have to be made for a long time and, as the head coach, you always have to be oversight of everything. Again, this year obviously I did, I got involved more on the offense as the end of the season came because that’s what I needed to do as the head football coach there. Many different ways to do it. I know that I want to be the head football coach and I think that that’s what the team needs. Everything I’m doing is not about what I want to do or anything like that.
“It’s what I think is best for the football team, and I think it’s best for the football team when I’m the head football coach and [am] able to give my expertise on whatever it may be: tackling, taking the ball away, protecting the football, anything on offense. It could be anything, special teams. You have to be so intertwined as the leader of an organization. You have to be so intertwined with every different thing. We will see where all that goes as far as that goes, but we’ve had a lot of success doing it differently. Again, it’s never like, ‘This is the certain thing you have to do.’ There’s a lot of different ways to do it in different times of the season and different times of the year call for different things. We’ll see how that plays out, but we’re not there yet as far as that goes.”
#JimmySays: It sounds a lot like the new coordinator will be free to run their own offense, which in my opinion is the right (and obvious) approach.
Would the Eagles like the next offensive coordinator to stay longer than one year?
Roseman: “It’s a great compliment when guys get head coaching jobs from here because it means we’re having tremendous success. As much as you’d like to have continuity and would like to have guys here for a long period of time, we want to win. We have an urgency to win right now. If that comes with the ramifications that we lose good people because they’ve earned head coaching jobs, we’ll live with that.”
#JimmySays: I’ve seen some mention that the Eagles should base their hiring on a guy who will be here long-term. I respectfully disagree. The focus should be on once again having a potent offense, and finding the best person to make that happen. If that person has so much success that he is poached for a head coaching job this time next year, sure, that’s frustrating, but at least the dismal offense we saw in 2025 will be faded memory by then, and that is what is most important.
Will the new coordinator be free to bring in his people to work on staff with him?
Sirianni: “We’ll see where that is. To answer that question, you’d have to know exactly who you’re hiring exactly right now and who he has and what they have. Again, we will get to all that. Our job right now and our thought process right now is to get the best candidate possible, cast a wide net there, interview some of these great candidates that are out there, and find the best guy that fits the Philadelphia Eagles.”
#JimmySays: I agree that that’s probably an unanswerable question, for now. My guess is that if the Eagles are able to hire a new coordinator with some cachet, they will be able to bring in their own people, within reason. If their stance is something like, “I have my own offensive line coach, Jeff Stoutland needs to hit the bricks,” then that’s not going to fly.
Will Kevin Patullo be back with the team in another role?
Sirianni: “We’ll see how it plays out. I know Kevin’s going to have other opportunities, and obviously always want what’s best for Kevin and for his family, so we’ll see how that plays out.”
#JimmySays: It sounds like he’ll be welcomed back if he doesn’t find another opportunity elsewhere. But my guess is that Patullo will be ready for a fresh start in another city after the extreme — sometimes over-the-top — criticism he faced here.
What was Jalen Hurts’ role in the offense’s regression this season?
Sirianni: “Throughout the year, there were a lot of questions on Kevin, and like I’ve said to you guys, we all had a hand in our offense this year. Good, bad, you name it, we all had a hand in it. That’s every coach, every player, myself obviously at the front of that list. Again, I love Jalen Hurts. I love everything that he brings to the table. Every time you step on the field, you feel very confident that you can win any game that you’re going to play when you have him as your quarterback. He has shown that to this organization, to myself, to Howie, to the city, that he’s a winner and he is able to do many different things at a very high level. But again, whether it was winning the games or whether it was us not playing up to our [standard] on offense, we all have our hands in that.”
#JimmySays: That was a rare occasion in which Sirianni acknowledged that Hurts was at least partly at fault.
What was Howie’s opinion of Hurts this season?
Roseman: “We’ve all got to look at ourselves and what we could do better. It’s a disappointing season. We sit here and want to be playing right now, and I think for that, getting a chance to really go back and reflect. Sometimes when you’re in the middle of the season, you’re week-to-week and you’re kind of going through and, ‘What happened last week and what are you doing this week?’ I think what Coach has said, we have won a lot of games with Jalen as our quarterback. We’ve won a world championship with him as an MVP in that game, so I think obviously he’s done a tremendous job as our starting quarterback.”
#JimmySays: Howie defended Hurts’ career with the team, but not the 2025 season.
Are the Eagles open to trading A.J. Brown?
Roseman: “We talked about this I think at the trade deadline last time I talked. It is hard to find great players in the NFL and A.J.’s a great player. I think from my perspective, that’s what we’re going out and looking for when we go out here in free agency and in the draft is trying to find great players who love football, and he’s that guy. I think that would be my answer.”
#JimmySays: I’ve seen this quote posted on social media, and it’s funny how Roseman’s words are interpreted, depending on whether you like Brown or not. Some responses were, “See? Nothing to see here, he’ll be back,” while others were like, “He’s gone.”
In reality, Howie didn’t say much of anything here. I would, however, disagree that A.J. “loved football” in 2025.
Has Lane Johnson indicated that he’ll be back in 2026?
Roseman: “I think all those conversations that we have of our players are between us and anything they’re doing. I’m not saying that negatively or positively, but anyone you ask about, I think that that’s their business to discuss. Obviously, you’re talking about a Hall of Fame player who’s been a huge, huge part of any of our success that we’ve had, and when you watch him play, he’s still playing at an elite level.”
#JimmySays: He’ll certainly be welcomed back if he wants to keep playing.
How much influence will Hurts have on the offensive coordinator hire?
Sirianni: “I think when we were going through an offensive coordinator search, I would compare it very similarly to when I’m thinking about what the right path is to how practice goes that week or what the schedule is. Of course, you have so many resources to be able to use to help you make the best decision that you possibly can, and you’d be foolish not to use all your resources. Whether that’s like, ‘Alright, I’m checking with the doctors, I’m checking with the–.’ It’s the same thing in an offensive coordinator search. I’m going to obviously talk to Howie through it and Howie’s going to talk to the guys. I’m going to get Howie’s opinion and Mr. Lurie’s opinion and Jalen and [RB] Saquon [Barkley], [WR] A.J. [Brown], [T] Lane [Johnson], whoever it may be and let them talk to him, too. At the end of the day, I have to make the best decision that’s necessary for the football team, but you use all your resources.”
#JimmySays: It sounds like he won’t have much of a say at all.
After losing a bunch of free agents last year, do the Eagles have enough resources to keep the guys they want to keep this offseason?
Roseman: “Well, as you get better, you have a natural arc of the team. I think that when you look at our team, we draft a lot of offensive players, we resigned a lot of offensive players, [and] we drafted a lot of defensive players that were young on rookie contracts. There’s natural transition in what we do. I’m not making an excuse or anything, but there’s a national transition in that in terms of what you’re paying your guys, which side of the ball you’re paying guys who are coming up. The important thing for us is that there are players that we can’t lose. I mean obviously, we are going to do what’s best for us, and we’re not going to do whatever it takes to do whatever it takes, within reason, and we want to keep [guys] around here because they’re really good players, homegrown players that are really good people that are part of our core.
“With that, you’re going to have to make sacrifices. That’s on me to make sure that the sacrifices we make are filled in with really good players again. I’m proud, since coach has been here, of our first- and second-day draft success. I think we’ve drafted 15 guys since Nick has been here in the first and second day, and 14 of them have been long-term starters. We’ve got to keep hitting like that. I know that’s hard, but we’ve got to keep doing it. That means we have to have a good process. We’ve got to understand the people that we’re bringing into the building. We’ve got to understand the roles and the vision that we have for them when they’re playing. If we do that, good things will happen. We’ll be able to keep the players that we need to keep under long-term contracts and have an influx of young players that are really good that can play at a high level.”
#JimmySays: The Eagles have a ton of defensive players that they have drafted who have been big hits. Many of those guys will soon be paid big money. In 2025, the Eagles had the most expensive offense in the NFL, and they selected a lot of defensive players in the draft. Over the next few years, we’re likely to see that flip. The defense will probably become the expensive side of the ball, and the offense re-built through the draft.
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