My Biggest Takeaway from the Jalen Hurts and Nick Sirianni ESPN Story (2024)

Everybody’s talking about a Wednesday morning ESPN story co-authored by Tim McManus and Jeremy Fowler, titled “Eagles look to bridge Nick Sirianni, Jalen Hurts divide.” It’s a deep dive that sheds more light on why the team fell apart last year and explains how the head coach and quarterback weren’t on the same page.

It’s a good story, with some newish tidbits, though at this point Eagles fans are pretty well aware of the disconnect and it seems as though most have moved on to focus on the coming season. The radio stations are picking this up and running with it, the aggregators as well, and there are some quotes from anonymous sources that flesh out the story, so it’s definitely worth a 10-minute read.

Honestly, though, totally unrelated to the Hurts and Sirianni relationship, I found this to be the most interesting takeaway:

With the playoffs approaching and the hunt for improvement unending, Hurts made an unusual move. He called former Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale, who had parted ways with New York following Week 18.

“I’ve been doing this for 40 years,” said Martindale, now the defensive coordinator at the University of Michigan, “and it’s the first time I’ve had an opposing quarterback call me up. I thought it was pretty cool that the guy called. It shows you what kind of pro he really is. He’s just looking at every angle that he can to get better.”

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The phone call lasted about half an hour, Martindale told ESPN. They discussed weaknesses in Philadelphia’s protection and how New York tried to game-plan him.

“It was very effective and he knew it, and he just wanted to know why we did certain things that we did. Then he went to work on that,” Martindale said.

…

“They weren’t committed to the run,” Martindale said of the Eagles’ offense down the stretch. “They weren’t committed to the quarterback runs. They were trying to throw the ball a little but too much on early downs, which put them behind the sticks. That’s when defenses can go to work.”

Doesn’t seem like the craziest thing of all time, to gather information from former opponents, but Martindale left NY on January 10th and the Tampa playoff game was on January 15th, so that was pretty aggressive on Hurts’ part, to make that call inside a short window.

It’s also reassuring to know that the heralded Giants defensive coordinator saw the same things you and I did, though, to be fair, it doesn’t take a master tactician to realize that “four verticals” ain’t it. You don’t have to be the second coming of Dick LeBeau to diagnose the problems with having DeVonta Smith block for Kenny Gainwell on a 3rd and 19 bubble screen. The Birds were too far gone at that point for the Wink information to be impactful, but Eagles brass understood this fully and went out and got a new offensive coordinator, a stud running back, and had Nick take a back seat to become more of a CEO-type coach.

I do think the consistent reporting on this topic makes Brian Johnson look a little better. We all knew that this was Nick Sirianni’s offense and that Nick was pulling the strings, but to what extent was the nebulous part of the discussion. Remember, Johnson kept showing up on head coach shortlists and even did some interviews, so other NFL teams knew that he wasn’t public enemy #1 when explaining why the Birds’ offense went to stale sh*t in the second half of the season.

Here’s Tim and Jeremy’s story:

A closer look at the Nick Sirianni-Jalen Hurts disconnect last season, and what’s next.

With @JFowlerESPN https://t.co/tuWTpPHmQl

— Tim McManus (@Tim_McManus) August 7, 2024