Eagles owner praises Nick Sirianni’s relentless offseason recruiting

Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie praised head coach Nick Sirianni for being able to fill the vacancies left on his coaching staff this offseason.

The Philadelphia Eagles nearly won Super Bowl 57, but lost 38-35 to the Kansas City Chiefs. Considering the success they had, they were going to lose pieces on their team, both on the roster and on the coaching staff.

Sure enough, the Eagles watched offensive coordinator Shane Steichen and defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon get head coaching jobs with the Indianapolis Colts and Arizona Cardinals, respectively.

How did head coach Nick Sirianni fill those voids? Well, he promoted quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson to offensive coordinator, and hired Sean Desai to replace Gannon as defensive coordinator.

While meeting with the media on Thursday, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie praised Sirianni for his “relentless” recruiting process for filling out his coaching staff. Specifically, Lurie brought up Sirianni’s search for a new linebackers coach, recalling a phone call in which he said he got done with his 12th interview.

Eagles: Jeffrey Lurie praises Nick Sirianni for recruiting assistant coaches

“And that’s big,” Lurie said, h/t NBC Sports. “Because when you’re successful, I don’t have to tell you guys, you’re going to lose a lot of staff and you’re going to lose them quickly. You’ve got to not just rely on connections in terms of who you know, who you’ve worked with, who gave you a job beforehand. Those are rules that we don’t really believe in and we think there’s an advantage to having a head coach who truly does the due diligence and is sort of a grinder at it.”

As for the linebackers coach search that Lurie brings up, that went to D.J. Eliot, defensive coordinator and outside linebackers coach for the Temple Owls last season.

One of the easier decisions Sirianni made in his coaching search was to promote Johnson to offensive coordinator. But, it was more difficult to make it happen, as he was being sought out for offensive coordinator opportunities, with the New York Jets and Baltimore Ravens interviewing him this year.

Now, Johnson stays to continue his work with quarterback Jalen Hurts. If Hurts continues to play at a high level, and the offense produces as well as they did in 2022, it won’t be surprising to see if Johnson receives interview requests for head coaching positions.

As for Desai, he was a popular name in the defensive coordinator market. After spending the 2021 season as defensive coordinator for the Chicago Bears, he became a defensive assistant for the Seattle Seahawks in 2022.

This offseason alone, he interviewed with the Minnesota Vikings, Denver Broncos, and Cleveland Browns, before ultimately taking the Eagles job. Even with the losses on defense, Desai still has plenty of talent to work with throughout the 2023 season.

Even with the amount of losses on the roster and coaching staff, the Eagles should still be favored to contend for the NFC title again. They have great talent on the roster, and two first-round picks in the upcoming NFL Draft to add even more quality players. The NFC, after all, is a much easier path to Super Bowl 58 than the AFC.