Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

Coaching

Posted July 11th, 2026 | Comments Off on Coaching

Nick Sirianni is a Super Bowl winning coach. He is also a lightning rod for criticism. Part of that comes from being the coach of the Eagles, one of the most high profile jobs in pro football. Part is Sirianni’s persona, which can be over the top. Some also question what he does since he has an offensive background, but doesn’t call plays or run the offense. Let’s compare him to another coach.

Sean Payton has 184 career wins, a .630 winning percentage, and a SB win of his own. He is one of the best offensive minds in the game and his teams have led the league in scoring three times. They were Top 10 in points 12 different seasons. Payton would need to win another SB to be a legit HOF candidate, but there is no doubting he’s been a terrific coach over the years.

Sirianni has more SB appearances. He’s got a .694 winning percentage. Each guy has one Lombardi. And Payton had a HOF QB and Top 5 all-time passer when he won his title. Payton has stood the test of time. We’ll have to see how Sirianni’s career plays out. These are coaches with different styles, strengths and backgrounds. Both are highly successful. You would think with Payton’s offensive acumen that he would have had more postseason success. He’s got 10 playoff wins in 18 years. Sirianni has 6 wins in five years.

As good as Payton is, he’s got his own flaws. Seth Wickersham wrote a great piece on Payton for ESPN. This is a long read, but I highly recommend it. You will get a lot of insight into what goes on in the week leading up to a playoff game.

One of the things that stood out to me is that Payton seemed to plan too thoroughly. He was looking for the perfect play and worked relentlessly just to see some of those plays fizzle out. His coaches would be struggling to stay awake as meetings ran late. Payton texted one assistant with an idea at 4am. I get that the NFL is supposed to be a grind and you’re going to work long hours. But there is working hard vs working smart.

There is a lot of wisdom in this mentality. Don’t feel the need to be perfect. Don’t overthink things. Work efficiently and get enough rest/down time so that you can have a fresh mind. Seeing things clearly is important. If you’re exhausted, you won’t always be making good decisions or thinking clearly.

I also got the feeling Payton obsessed on out-scheming the opponent more than he should have.

“Each Monday, he sits at his computer and watches every touchdown leaguewide from the weekend and divides them into two categories: ? If it’s player, he skips it; he can’t replicate it. If it’s play, he moves it into a folder of ideas to adapt.”

There is wisdom in looking for plays that can help you. The 2017 Eagles did a lot of that and won the Super Bowl. But there is also an old coaching adage that in key situations you think players over plays. Who do I want to get the ball to can be more important than what play should we run? Sirianni seems to believe heavily in that mentality and it has worked well for him.

I wasn’t sure what to make of this mentality.

He sets a goal of 120 rushing yards against the Patriots, which seems almost comical. Denver hasn’t run the ball well for most of the year, and workhorse running back J. K. Dobbins is out. So is Nix, one of the Broncos’ most effective rushers. Payton also tends to bail from the run if it’s not working. On top of all that, New England will key on the run and force Stidham to throw. Payton knows that 120 yards is unrealistic, but as he later tells me, “otherwise the excuses will be built in.” So the staff starts by showing runs that the Chargers deployed against New England. L.A. ran for only 87 yards but Payton sees opportunities, solid ideas lost in bad execution, and what unfolds over the next several hours is a kind of football laboratory.

Payton is right to not want to set low expectations, but he also seems delusional in setting the goal too high. The coaches and players aren’t going to take that seriously. Denver ran 24 times for 79 yards in the game. Payton learned from Bill Parcells, a master psychologist. Payton got some good lessons, but he doesn’t seem as good at pushing the right buttons as ol’ Tuna was.

Football is an ever-changing sport and that is certainly reflected in coaching. The days of long, brutal Training Camps are over. The Eagles practice less than most teams, but also win more than most. Coaches like Payton still work brutal hours. The newer generation has dialed that back. Coaches embrace technology rather than fighting it. Most embrace analytics. There isn’t one way to do things. Each staff seems to figure out what works for their team.

It feels like more coaches are embracing the CEO role and mentality. Hire good coordinators and let them run the offense, defense and STs. You then focus on what the overall team needs. That cuts down on a massive workload and creates more free time for the coach to use as needed. Sirianni is in this category. This isn’t new.

Jim Lee Howell was the head coach of the Giants from 1954-60. He was highly successful, with a .663 winning percentage and one NFL championship. One day a writer came to see Howell. He walked down a hallway and saw an assistant coach running the offensive meeting in one room and another assistant running the defensive meeting in the next room. Howell was sitting in his office reading the newspaper.

The writer asked Howell what he was doing, knowing the Giants had a big game that week. “I’m coaching” was Howell’s response. His assistants were some guy named Vince Lombardi and some guy named Tom Landry. Howell saw how good they were and stayed out of their way. He focused on big picture stuff and let his guys run their units. Figure out what works for your team and do that.

If Sirianni was a brilliant play-caller that wouldn’t mean the Eagles would have be more successful. Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan are brilliant offensive minds. Each of them has been to a pair of Super Bowls. McVay won one, Shanny lost both. They have the same overall success as Sirianni. You might argue that Nick has been given a better roster, but it isn’t like those guys are coaching chopped liver. All three guys have coached stars, even HOFers.

Sirianni let’s Vic Fangio run the defense. He will let Sean Mannion run the offense. And Nick will focus on the big picture stuff. Hopefully that formula leads to another trip to the SB.

2022 – SB
2024 – SB
2026 – ???

*****

ESPN posted rankings for offensive tackles and the Eagles did well, as you would expect.

4. Jordan Mailata, Philadelphia Eagles
Highest ranking: 1 | Lowest ranking: 9
Age: 29 | Last year’s ranking: 5

Mailata is getting a pass for the Eagles’ bad offensive season. Most voters recognize that the team’s overall struggles in the running and passing games affected him.

“He was the best tackle in the NFL by far [in 2024],” a personnel executive with an NFL team said. “He regressed some last year. But that wasn’t all his fault.”

Mailata is considered scheme-transcendent. One NFL coordinator said, “He does everything consistently well.

“That’s rare.”

Mailata’s 89.8% pass rush win rate was in the middle of the pack, and the Eagles finished an uncharacteristic 18th in rushing offense last season. But Mailata is still one of the best in the league.

And

7. Lane Johnson, Philadelphia Eagles
Highest ranking: 2 | Lowest ranking: Unranked
Age: 36 | Last year’s ranking: 3

When Johnson plays close to a full season, he’s a fixture on the Pro Bowl and All-Pro circuit. But last season was tough for Johnson, who missed eight games (including the playoffs) with a Lisfranc injury. He still earned a solid 77.4 Pro Football Focus grade on 449 offensive snaps. And his 93.2% pass block win rate and 77.2% run block win rate are both strong clips.

“I know they had a tough year as an offense, but the play was still elite,” a veteran NFL defensive coach said. “He’s a guy you can trust more than just about any other tackle to play at a high level. I just don’t know if the body will hold up at this stage.”

I’m surprised they had Mailata that high. He did regress a bit last year. He still played well, but just wasn’t as good as 2024, as they noted.

Some of you will be upset that Johnson is this low and was unranked by someone. I think his injury factors into that. He is coming off just a half-season. He is still an elite talent and should bounce back nicely this year.

Most of the guys in the list were unranked by someone. That just shows you how high variance OL grading can be. The other position rankings weren’t nearly as volatile.

Speaking of Mr Johnson…

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The Evolution of a QB

Posted July 10th, 2026 | Comments Off on The Evolution of a QB

We know Jalen Hurts will be asked to do different things this season. He’ll be under center more. He’ll be working the middle of the field more. He should also be spreading the ball around more.  His game will be evolving.

Hurts may also be changing off the field.

EJ Smith and Bo Wulf had an interesting discussion about Hurts on a recent show. I had been thinking along similar lines so it was good to hear others share their thoughts on Hurts and what we’ve seen recently.

Jalen came to the NFL after three years under Nick Saban at Bama and one playing for Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma. Riley helped him develop into a good dual-threat QB. Saban taught Hurts a different set of skills. He taught him to work hard, stay focused on football, avoid distractions and to ignore the “rat poison”. Hurts brought that mentality to the NFL, thinking that would be the mindset needed to succeed at this level.

The problem is that college and pro football are very different in some ways. College is temporary. You are there for four, maybe five years. Teammates come and go. Hurts played when no one got money (legitimately). Players were judged on how they played. You weren’t worrying about who had the biggest NIL deal. You just needed to do your job and impress the coaches. Saban ruled his team like a mostly benevolent dictator. Everyone answered to him. Fall in line, do your job and you’ll be good.

The NFL is full of highly paid players, some with massive egos. There are cliques on teams. There are organizational politics. The media is more of a factor. You are dealing with players who may be 21, 31 or even 41 in some rare cases. Avoiding trouble and doing the right thing isn’t necessarily enough, especially for someone who is a team leader. You have to build relationships with players, coaches and staff to have long term success. You can’t be the face of the franchise and also want to avoid the spotlight. When you sign the $50M a year deal, you are agreeing to be The Guy on the field and off the field. It feels like Jalen may have realized that.

Think about him at DeVonta’s wedding recently. Hurts was there being one of the guys. Then he organized workouts with the receivers. But they also did some socializing and bonding. That stuff is important.

Nick Sirianni preaches connecting as one of his core values. Here is Hurts connecting with his teammates, some new and some old. You can’t pick and choose guys to bond with. You need to be accessible to as many of them as possible. I’m sure Hurts did some of this in the past, but he was sure more secretive about it. It helps when you let people see you with your hair down, so to speak. Let them know you can be one of the guys. Let them see you as normal, not just a star athlete who covets privacy.

He may also be realizing that as a star he’s bigger than life to some of his young teammates.

Hurts may not want to be a star, but he is and that brings its own set of responsibilities. Maybe age and time have helped Hurts understand this and open up a bit more.

The first thing Sean Mannion did after getting hired was to get to know Hurts as a person. He wanted the two of them to connect and build a relationship off the field to help them work well together on the field. I’m sure that was a good lesson for Hurts.

Jalen has always been a good guy. I have told this story before, but it fits well here so I’ll share it again. I was at the Senior Bowl back in 2020. It rained that day so practice moved to the South Alabama covered practice facility. I was standing at the back of the end zone by myself (Jimmy Bama had headed to the airport). There was a group of kids standing just outside the facility. They couldn’t get in, but wanted to see any Alabama players or other stars that were inside. The facility is open air so there was a small fence or something, but not a wall blocking them.

Hurts wasn’t practicing at the moment and walked down near me for some reason. He saw the kids, who lit up when they realized who he was. Hurts walked out in the rain to talk to them. No media was watching this. It wasn’t a PR move, just Jalen doing the right thing and giving those kids a great story/memory.

It feels like Hurts is now seeing the value in letting the world see this side of him. Pro athletes, fair or not, get judged on and off the field. We love BG because he’s always got a smile on his face and never has a bad day. We love Jason Kelce because we see him chugging beer and acting like a fun buddy more than a football star. We didn’t like Nnamdi Asomugha sitting in his car and eating lunch by himself. Too weird. We didn’t like Cary Williams skipping OTAs because he had to pick out sconces. Too weird. We love it when players seem like good, normal dudes.

Hurts will change on the field this year and it feels like he’s already changed off it. I think that is important. It could help quiet the critical whispers that come out against him. Build strong relationships and make people embrace you more. They will be more forgiving when you have a bad game or an extended streak of struggles. It would be great if Hurts could raise his game and then be the QB for the next five years. That level of play and kind of stability would help the Eagles to continue winning. It would also give Hurts one heck of a legacy.

Another Lombardi wouldn’t hurt things either.

*****

Villanova alum and NBAer Josh Hart recently ripped Philly, calling it a bad sports town. His argument is that Knicks fans shouldn’t have been able to take over the Sixers arena and take away any home court advantage. Saquon Barkley strongly disagreed about Philly.

Agreed. Being frustrated with the Sixers and selling  your tickets doesn’t make Philly a bad sports town. I think that said more about the Sixers organization than anything. And with the offseason they’ve had, that frustration is going away and excitement is building.

*****

Will BG be back this year? He wants to play.

Maybe the Eagles are trying to figure out how he would fit in. They do focus on young players so maybe they are trying to decide if the fit is right. Vic Fangio doesn’t like to use too many guys. Getting everyone the right amount of snaps can be tricky. That said, they don’t want to use Jalen Carter as much as they did in 2024 so having BG as an inside rusher would make some sense.

I guess this could always be about money. BG may not want to play as cheap as the team wants.

It would be fun to get one more season out of our old friend. We’ll see how this plays out.

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