Jalen Hurts’ Relationship With Nick Sirianni Is Concerning For Eagles

The Philadelphia Eagles may look like a star-studded team heading into 2024, but we must not forget that six months ago, Jalen Hurts and Co. completed one of the most bizarre collapses we have seen in recent memory. It nearly cost Nick Sirianni his job.

The Eagles ultimately retained Sirianni and retooled the roster this offseason, signing running back Saquon Barkley and heavily addressing their secondary.

However, based on the recent report from The Athletic’s Dianna Russini , Philadelphia is far from a finished product, and it may never be so long as Hurts and Sirianni are on the same team.

Are the Eagles headed down a bad path with Jalen Hurts and Nick Sirianni?

It was become increasingly obvious that the dynamic between Hurts and Sirianni is a bit odd. Russini noted that their relationship is “a work in progress,” but this is now Year 3. At what point will Hurts and Sirianni finally begin seeing eye to eye?

It’s also fair to question if Hurts is the problem here.

Remember: during the second half of 2023, as Philly was busy losing five of its last six regular-season games, there was some chatter that Hurts was not all that well-liked inside the Eagles’ locker room (or at least some of the players took issues with how he handled things).

Apparently, the quarterback’s demeanor rubbed some teammates the wrong way, and based on how some Philadelphia players stuck their neck out for Sirianni after the team was blasted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card Round of the playoffs, it doesn’t seem like Sirianni is detested.

The relationship between a quarterback and his head coach is arguably the most important one in all of sports, and if Hurts and Sirianni are not exactly simpatico, it spells trouble for the Eagles moving forward.

Let’s be real here: Philadelphia was awful over the last seven weeks of last season (including the playoffs). Do we really think signing Barkley and drafting a couple of defensive backs suddenly solved all of Philly’s issues? Let’s also keep in mind that the Eagles lost their consummate leader in center Jason Kelce.

It’s not like Hurts was exactly playing great football in 2023, either. He committed 20 turnovers. He finished with a rather pedestrian 89.1 passer rating. He averaged a career-low 3.9 yards per carry.

Realistically speaking, the soon-to-be-26-year-old has really only had one very good season out of three as a full-time starter, which came in 2022 when he led Philadelphia to a Super Bowl appearance and finished second in MVP voting. Otherwise, he has been a fairly average to slightly-above average quarterback.

It’s not due to a lack of weapons, either. Hurts has one of the best receiving duos in football at his disposal in the form of A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, not to mention an elite tight end in Dallas Goedert. On top of that, the Eagles boast arguably the best offensive line in the sport.

All of that, and yet, Hurts still ripped into his teammates—publicly—during the midst of Philadelphia’s slide last season. That isn’t exactly going to win him many brownie points in the locker room.

The fact that we are already hearing rumblings that Hurts’ relationship with Sirianni is rocky is worrisome. Training camp hasn’t even started yet.

Of course, Sirianni will get the boot long before Hurts. After all, Hurts is the franchise quarterback (or at least he’s being paid like one), and franchise quarterbacks will always take precedence over a head coach.

It’s also far too early to say that Hurts is a malcontent. Perhaps he just wasn’t used to losing, and Philly’s miserable December simply got to him.

We’ll get a great glimpse into who Hurts really is this coming season. If he bounces back and leads the Eagles to an NFC East division title and another deep playoff run, then all is forgiven.

But if Hurts has another pedestrian campaign and we see more finger-pointing, it will almost certainly result in the dismissal of Nick Sirianni.

It will then be followed by a whole lot of pressure on Jalen Hurts moving forward.

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