Eagles news: Nick Sirianni doubles down on his roots theory

Once upon a time, Nick Sirianni, the then-rookie head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles sat with members of the media, drew a verbal parallel that connected his team’s struggles to a flower in bloom, and the world went bananas. Perhaps he was ridiculed more than he should have been, but one could make the argument that his timing was a little off with his theory.

His team was losing almost three times as often as it was winning. No one wanted to hear a lesson in anthology. Or, would that be botany? Either way, you get the idea, we were confused about the message.

If you remember, the Birds were the owners of a 2-5 win-loss total after seven games of the 2021 season. Everyone was searching for answers about how to turn the tide.

Philly’s most recent loss at that time was a 33-22 bludgeoning in Week 7 at the hand of the Las Vegas Raiders. Using the term ‘bludgeon’ isn’t an exaggeration. The 11-point difference shown in the final tally wasn’t indicative of how the afternoon went.

No one thought we were looking at a playoff team at the time, but Nick and company turned things around, winning seven of their next nine games before electing to rest their starters and more important role players in a meaningless regular-season finale versus the Dallas Cowboys.

Fast forward, and here we are. With Week 18 in our rearview mirrors, Coach Sirianni has completed his sophomore season as an NFL head coach. The Eagles are 21-7 after his controversial speech, and it appears he hasn’t forgotten his own teaching.

Don’t look now, but Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni is doubling down on that controversial message he delivered a little over a year ago.

Cornerbacks and defensive backs are told to have short memories. We don’t often hear that rule applied to head coaches. They’re asked to be knowledgeable and experienced, and recently, Nick Sirianni during an appearance on 94 WIP-FM shared a little over 20 minutes talking to Angelo Cataldi about what he’s been learning during a record-setting regular season.

Never one to forget past injustices, Coach took a moment to laugh about the heat he took for a now-year-old monologue. He’s also well aware of his team’s recent struggles, but as far as he’s concerned, those old roots are growing.

"We’re very results aware, but what we really base everything on is our process. Did we go through our process that week to get better? And, sometimes, it doesn’t always show in your results. I know we’re working hard in practice. I know we’re practicing harder than any team I’ve ever been on in this league… Our meetings are detailed. Our players are detailed… I know we’re committed to getting better at our core values."

Coach Sirianni continued his thought.

"So, sometimes the results aren’t exactly what you’d expect every time out of that, but I know we’re getting better from the process that we’re going through each week. It’s kind of like what we said last year. Maybe you aren’t seeing the results, but the roots are growing… I’ll double down on that. I know I got made fun of about that, and that’s okay… The roots are growing. The foundation is continuing to spread out… We want to keep growing. We feel like we’re doing that. We’ll correct the mistakes that we’re making. I don’t see this team making the same mistakes over and over and over again."

The Eagles have an extra week to prepare for their first playoff game. We’ll see what happens, but something tells us that this team will be okay.

More Eagles news: Jonathan Gannon and Shane Steichen earn interview requests.

Teams that are successful see their cupboards. That’s the law of the land in the NFL, and following and two Eagles coordinators, Shane Steichen (offense) and Jonathan Gannon defense (defense) have seen the Carolina Panthers and Houston Texans respectively request interviews for their services. Keep your eyes peeled. More could be coming.

NFL news: Damar Hamlin goes home.

This week, regardless of which NFL team you cheer for, we were all honorary members of the Buffalo Bills Mafia as every franchise and the fans of their respective teams bonded in their support for Damar Hamlin.

Here’s another reason to smile. A little less than one full week after watching him collapse on the field of play, he’s headed home. Check out this tweet from ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

We can’t find words to express our happiness, but that is truly awesome. It’s been an emotional week, one that led to this young man’s recovery and a memorable opening kickoff return by the Bills in Week 18. We’ve learned a lot about ourselves and about Damar Hamlin, and we’re all better for it.

We’ll continue to pray for this young man’s rapid recovery.