Why it matters that Nick Sirianni calls plays ‘here and there’

It was time to push the tush.

Or so one might believe.

Who more than the Philadelphia Eagles would be happy with a third-and-7 hitch shy of the sticks?

The head coach and the coordinator — the men who designed Parris Campbell’s route, who drilled such end-of-half scenarios, who called their process a collaboration — quickly glanced at call sheets they’d long prepared. But it was the head coach who removed his headset, approached their quarterback and guarded his muttered instructions with his call sheet. It was the head coach’s conviction, he’d later reveal, to go with a tricky end-around over a conventional Brotherly Shove or a field goal or anything else. It was the head coach who grimaced when the New Orleans Saints stopped Saquon Barkley short.

“Just so anyone’s wondering… I called that,” Nick Sirianni said unprompted.

He’d meant to unburden Kellen Moore of blame. Instead, Sirianni subjected himself to further scrutiny. To that point, he’d projected a process in which Moore called the offensive plays. What transpired on Sunday conflicted with the “selflessness” Sirianni described about their arrangement in a June roundtable interview: “I brought Kellen in. I let him run with the offense. We share some thoughts. And he goes with it.”

In that same interview, Sirianni offered two caveats:

1. “That doesn’t mean I don’t have opinions on what this should look like.”
2. “That doesn’t mean that I haven’t been in a film room.”

Both conjured images of Sirianni inside the NovaCare Complex, offering insights while Moore and the offensive staff built out schemes and game plans. Indeed, that’s the kind of collaborative work that’d eventually get printed on a call sheet. But it’s one thing to offer an opinion about what plays should be included or what they should look like. Choosing which play to run — particularly in a pivotal in-game moment — is entirely different.

Brian Johnson

“I know everyone thinks…” Sirianni began saying in June, before pausing, shifting. “I didn’t call plays last year. All right? But, like, I had to help. I wanted to help with that. It was my expertise of helping — just like it was in ’21 and just like it was in ’22.”

That’s why Sirianni’s response to a reporter after Sunday’s game convoluted previous clarity.

Have you made an offensive play call otherwise this season?

“Come on, man,” Sirianni said, as if it shouldn’t have been questioned. “Yeah.”

A singular instance became definitively plural. Sirianni doesn’t see himself as the primary play-caller. But that hasn’t precluded him from calling plays.

Only then — after months of evasiveness and obscurity as it related to Sirianni’s working relationship with Moore — was there a sufficient understanding of Sirianni’s influence over offensive operations.

Why is this important? The very reason Sirianni offered up the detail in the first place: Accountability.

It’s fine timing that this clarity arrives just before the Eagles return to Tampa, Fla., where, in a 32-9 wild-card elimination, the dysfunction of their 2023 offense was reduced to its final rubble. Owner Jeffrey Lurie subsequently separated Sirianni despite public outcry partly because Lurie believed Sirianni’s self-criticism would lead to growth.

So, what does Sirianni change? The source of offensive ideas. Not how in-game decisions are made.

Sirianni is instinctively involved. It seems to be his nature. It comes from a place of accountability. He’s often said that, as the head coach, he’s responsible for whatever product is on the field. To not make a play call in a pivotal in-game moment requires the sort of restraint to which Sirianni doesn’t fully submit.

Consider the analogy he used Wednesday when asked what he’d learned from the past year about when to pick his spots with his offensive coordinator.

“I’m letting Kellen drive the car,” Sirianni said. “And just like my wife will say to me, ‘Hey, make sure you take a right here, take a left here.’ She’s giving me directions, and same thing in these scenarios. It’s just chiming in when I have something to chime in.”

Sirianni must be more patient than most husbands.

The wisdom of the proverbial passenger-seat driver is also contingent on whether “take a right here” or “take a left here” is the correct direction. Or whether it’s even the consensus direction.

What if Moore believes they should instead take a left? Or is it right? How hard must he push to get his way?

Moore said it’s not that simple. To follow the car analogy, they’d already assembled their map. They’d spent “a lot of time during the week talking through every possible scenario,” Moore said. They’d drilled play calls for not only the fourth-and-1, but the third-and-7 that preceded it, and the second-and-10 that preceded that… and so on. To suggest they hadn’t already discussed potential fourth-and-1 calls would be insincere.

To suggest Moore comes up with everyone other play call would also be insincere. The basis of Philadelphia’s play-calling process is indeed collaborative. Sirianni is on a headset. Moore is on a headset. So are passing game coordinator Kevin Patullo, run game coordinator Jeff Stoutland and other offensive staffers. But no matter whose suggestion crackles over the speakers, someone has to decide if the play gets run.

Most of the time, that’s Moore. Sometimes, it’s Sirianni. The head coach wouldn’t “say a number” regarding how many times he’ll call plays, “but here and there, that’s going to happen.” Sirianni said that was also the arrangement with Steichen and Johnson. Moore said he understood this arrangement upon getting hired, and he insisted his dynamic with Sirianni is “no different than any place I’ve ever been.”

This is the Lurie approved arrangement. While hosting Monday Night Football, the franchise honored Nick Foles, who officially retired an Eagle. In Super Bowl LII, when Foles approached then-coach Doug Pederson and asked if they should run the since-famous “Philly Special,” the Eagles had the clarity of their head coach and offensive play-caller being one and the same. Lurie doesn’t insist on that dynamic. During March’s league meetings, Lurie said it doesn’t matter to him whether or not Sirianni calls plays — just that “it’s a head coach’s responsibility to have the plays called really well.”

By hiring Moore, Sirianni secured fresh ideas. By not attending every offensive game plan meeting anymore, Sirianni can resist the instinct to get further involved. By calling plays “here and there,” especially during pivotal in-game moments, Sirianni is maintaining his belief that it’s his responsibility to both hold and wield the final say.

That is Sirianni’s place in this process.

That is where he’ll partly be evaluated.

Passenger-seat driver or not.

(Top photo of Nick Sirianni: Wagner Meier / Getty Images)