Three years after the Eagles lost Super Bowl offensive coordinator Frank Reich to the Colts, they hired one of their top assistants to be their new coach.
The Eagles are hiring 39-year-old Colts offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni to replace Doug Pederson, league sources confirmed to NBC Sports Philadelphia. ESPN reported the news for the first time.
Sirianni has spent the last three years training with Reich, who was Pederson’s offensive coordinator in 2016 and 2017.
In 2017, a year before Reich and Sirianni arrived in Indianapolis, the Colts reached 4-12 and placed 30th in the NFL in points and 31st in yards under Chuck Pagano and offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski, former coach of Browns.
In the past three years, the Colts have ranked 5th, 16th and 9th in scoring and have reached the playoffs twice. During that three-year period, the Colts ranked 8th in the NFL in scoring.
At 39, Sirianni becomes the Eagles’ second youngest coach. Dick Vermeil was also 39, but he was four months younger than Sirianni when the Eagles signed him in 1976. Andy Reid was 40 when he signed in 1999.
Sirianni is the fourth direct offensive coach that Jeff Lurie hired, after Reid in 1999, Chip Kelly in 2013 and Pederson in 2016, and the seventh consecutive with no experience as a head coach.
The Eagles fired Pederson on January 11, just three years after the Eagles won the Super Bowl.
Sirianni’s biggest challenge will be trying to help Carson Wentz regain his 2017 form when he was on track for the NFL MVP title working with Reich before his knee injury at the end of the season suffered against the Rams in Los Angeles.
Although Wentz played well without Reich in 2018 and 2019, he’s been 17-21-1 since Reich left for Indianapolis and last season was ranked either the worst or the second worst in the NFL in virtually every major passing category.
Sirianni, who was interviewed by the Eagles on Tuesday (January 19), started his coaching career working as defenders in 2004 in his alma mater, the NCAA Division 3 powerhouse, Mount Union of Alliance, Ohio, and then moved on three years as a wide receivers coach at Indiana (Pennsylvania) University before joining the NFL in 2009, when Chiefs coach Todd Haley hired him as an offensive quality control coach.
When Romeo Crennel replaced Haley in 2012, he promoted Sirianni to wide receiver coach and when Crennel was fired after the 2012 season, Sirianni spent five years in various roles with the Chargers under Mike McCoy and Anthony Lynn. From 2013 to 2015, Sirianni worked alongside Reich, who left to join Pederson’s team in 2016.
Sirianni trained Chargers quarterbacks – notably Philip Rivers – in 2014 and 2015 before moving to wide receivers in 2016.
When Reich took over as Colts coach in 2018, after Josh McDaniels changed his mind, he hired Sirianni as his offensive coordinator.
Sirianni was among the 10 candidates the Eagles interviewed, along with Panthers offensive coordinator Joe Brady, 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, Titans Arthur Smith offensive coordinator, Patriots in-line coach Jerod Mayo, coach of running backs of Eagles Duce Staley, Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, Buccaneers defensive coordinator Todd Bowles, defensive coordinator Dennis Allen of Saints and offensive coordinator Kellen Moore of the Cowboys.
Of that group, Saleh was appointed chief trainer of the Jets and chief trainer Smith of the Falcons.
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