The Philadelphia Eagles’ disastrous end to the 2023 NFL season had head coach Nick Sirianni fully on the hot seat.
Philadelphia dropped five of its final six games, including a brutal 32-9 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC Wild Card Playoffs.
Less than a calendar year removed from leading Philadelphia to the Super Bowl, this resulted in a meeting with owner Jeffrey Lurie. Nothing had been decided at that point. But ultimately, Lurie opted to keep Sirianni. The head coach apparently won over his owner with a plan to bring in a better coaching staff.
As all of this was playing out, the Eagles found themselves linked to six-time Super Bowl champion Bill Belichick who had just parted ways with the New England Patriots after nearly a quarter century.
We now have more information on Philadelphia’s reported interest in Belichick. It was real.
“Probably the most interesting thing that I’ve heard — and this is just Senior Bowl rumor mill — is that the Eagles were very interested in Belichick if things didn’t work out with Nick Sirianni and they could be at the front of the line if things again go poorly for [Sirianni] next year.”
Report from Greg Bedard of Boston Sports Journal on Philadelphia Eagles
There are several interesting layers to this report.
Sirianni ended up hiring Kellen Moore as his offensive coordinator with the respected Vic Fangio to run the defense. He had set forth a plan earlier to Lurie and seemed to execute it. If that did not come to fruition, there is no telling what would’ve happened on this front.
The latter half of this report is also interesting in that Belichick could very well find himself at the top of the Eagles’ candidate list next offseason should Sirianni struggle as pretty much a lame duck during the 2024 season.
Related: Everything you need to know about Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore
Bill Belichick could still end up with the Philadelphia Eagles
In what has to be a pretty big surprise, Belichick has yet to land a head coach job. He was heavily linked to the Atlanta Falcons’ opening before they opted to hire Raheem Morris. Earlier in the process, the Washington Commanders came up as a real possibility. Once they hired Adam Peters to run the front office, those rumors died down big time.
Now at this late stage in the NFL coaching cycle, it really doesn’t look like Belichick is going to land a job. There are only two openings with Washington joining the Seattle Seahawks in still looking for new head coaches.
Process of elimination is real here. There’s no reason to believe that Seattle will turn around and hire Belichick after “firing” the oldest head coach in the NFL in that of Pete Carroll. The team is looking for more youth in that role.
Could this all equate to Belichick ultimately landing with the Eagles next offseason should things continue to spiral in Philadelphia under Sirianni? We’ve seen stranger things happen.