The Philadelphia Eagles lost 27-10 to the Washington Commanders on Sunday, extending their losing streak to six games. After back-to-back primetime losses, the warning now extends beyond head coach Nick Sirianni to the entire coaching staff, whose job security could be affected if results do not improve. Behind the scenes, the message around the Eagles right now is not subtle.
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“Text from a league source: “This [Eagles] team is going to look very different come the bye… it’s a loss that loses people their job.” “They just got their a** kicked back-to-back weeks in primetime; there will be changes,” NFL analyst Ryan Fowler posted on X.
That kind of talk tends to land hard when a team has just lost on Monday night to Dallas and then on Sunday night to Washington. The Eagles now sit at 2-6, and they are in the longest skid of the Sirianni era. It is also the franchise’s first six-game losing streak since 2012.
Sirianni did not hide from any of it after the Commanders game. He promised to “fight like hell” to turn things around, and he put the responsibility on himself.
“Until we coach better, until we are better with our detail as coaches, until our players play with better detail, then we’re going to see the same results. That falls on me,” Sirianni said. “With all of the detail that’s not happening right now, I got to try a different approach. I’ll do everything I can do to try different things to make sure we’re getting that point across.”
So far, though, the Eagles have not announced any firings or changes to their staff. However, as the team is going through one of the toughest stretches in recent years, the situation has raised fresh questions about the head coach’s future.
NFL analyst Nick Wright said on First Things First, “I think you do hold a fire sale, and I think you start getting your search committee ready for a head coach. I think that’s what they’re going to do.
“I think Shane Steichen will be the next head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. I said it a week ago. I’ll say it again. I don’t think Sirianni is going to survive this type of season… Had he built up enough equity, you would hope, you would think he could have survived a lot of bad seasons, particularly one where the quarterback is knocked out for the year,” he added.
The last time the Eagles suffered a six-game losing streak was in 2012, when Andy Reid was still in charge. Philadelphia went on to lose eight consecutive games that season before finishing 4-12, and Reid was fired afterward. With the current team struggling to find answers, Sirianni is facing growing pressure, and the questions are no longer limited to his job alone.
The question is where the biggest problem actually sits. Injuries have hurt the team all season, and general manager Howie Roseman is dealing with a rough stretch of his own.
Even so, columnist Marcus Hayes argues the most pressing issue is offensive coordinator Sean Mannion, whom he describes as someone who leans on football theory more than what is happening on the field.
His case rests on a single sequence against the Commanders. Facing fourth and 4 at the Washington 13, trailing by six with just over nine minutes left, Sirianni chose to go for it.
Mannion’s call left out both Dallas Goedert and Saquon Barkley, the only two healthy frontline skill players who suited up for the game. They watched from the sideline, visibly stunned, while one of the season’s biggest plays unfolded without them. Hayes called it “a fireable offense.”
The numbers back up some of his frustration. The offense managed just 10 points against the second-worst scoring defense in the league, and the team averages a little over 17 points per game.
According to Hayes, that is why the Eagles are 2-6, and he believes Mannion cannot continue in the role.
When Sirianni was asked about his faith in the coaching staff, he avoided getting into specifics.
“I’m not thinking about any of that stuff right now,” said Sirianni. “We need to get better as a whole, and I got a lot of faith in everybody in that locker room. I got a lot of faith in the coaches in that locker room. I’ll keep it at that.”
He also pushed back on the idea that the Cowboys loss came down to a lack of effort.
“I did not see an effort issue on Monday night,” Sirianni explained. “Obviously, it was other things, which I’m sure you guys will ask me about. There were other things. But effort in no way, shape, or form was an issue there.”
For now, it looks like Sirianni is standing with his staff and his players. Whether that holds as the bye week approaches is the part that remains to be seen.