Multiple reports surfaced this past summer after the 2023 Philadelphia Eagles suffered an epic collapse that claimed the relationship between head coach Nick Sirianni and quarterback Jalen Hurts was somewhere between “still a work in progress” and “fractured.”
In a lengthy piece published on Wednesday, ESPN’s Tim McManus offered a noteworthy update on the Sirianni-Hurts situation as the Eagles prepare to host the Los Angeles Rams in a divisional-round playoff game this coming Sunday.
“One of the sources familiar with Hurts’ thinking who signaled things were off between Hurts and Sirianni around this time last year told ESPN their relationship is in a better place,” McManus explained. “‘Once you learn a person, you learn how to deal with that person,'” the source said.
Hurts’ leadership qualities were questioned after the 10-1 Eagles lost six of their final seven games in the wild-card round of last winter’s postseason tournament. Later, it was said that the Eagles allegedly dealt with “a problem that would splinter any group of men” as they fell apart late last season. Philadelphia entered its Week 5 bye this past fall at 2-2.
It’s now known that Hurts and Sirianni spent parts of that break together working on fixes for the Eagles. McManus shared that “the two had myriad conversations over that period, hammering out a direction for the offense and team that helped fuel the Eagles’ surge, turning a 2-2 start into a 14-3 finish.”
Hurts, Sirianni and others in the locker room were bolstered by Philadelphia’s offseason acquisition of star running back Saquon Barkley. Along with finishing this past regular season with a league-best 2,283 total yards from scrimmage, Barkley also emerged as the “leader of the team” this past spring.
One may never know all that went wrong for the Eagles behind the scenes from December 2023 through the playoff loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It now seems Hurts and Sirianni have put whatever issues they had roughly 12 months ago in the past, and that could result in Philadelphia competing for more than just a Super Bowl berth this year.
As of Wednesday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook listed the Eagles as six-point favorites over the Rams.
