Navigating a new role, Nick Sirianni taps Dawn Staley for guidance (2024)

PHILADELPHIA — Dawn Staley was talking about the balance of management and expectations when Nick Sirianni joined his team’s most high-profile players in the room. The decorated coach of the South Carolina women’s basketball team, who’d begun her Hall of Fame playing career at Dobbins Tech High in North Philadelphia, had spoken with Sirianni while attending a 76ers-Knicks playoff game and agreed to visit the NovaCare Complex in June.

Staley met with players who belonged to the Philadelphia Eagles’ leadership council. Among them: Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Saquon Barkley. They talked about the team’s desire to win. They talked about motivating teammates, how praising others aloud in the locker room can inspire others to also step up. They talked about how it’s really the little things that produce winning in a high-stakes environment.

It was “a very engaging session” that lasted about two hours, Staley toldThe Athletic.She left encouraged — both by the discussion and that one had happened at all. Others might have considered it “ludicrous” to speak with a woman in relation to “such a rough and tough sport,” Staley said. But they’d understood “success is relatable.”

Sirianni, too. He’d equated their teams. Their athletes. Their depth. He’d admired how South Carolina navigated a pressure-laden season and still won their third national title under Staley with the division’s 10th perfect record in history. “It’s very similar to the Eagles where it’s basically win or bust,” Staley said. The two coaches connected over this shared pressure. As a Philly native, Staley understood Sirianni’s brand of scrutiny. As another coach constantly under a national microscope, she understood why he’d reached out.

“I mean, it’s a really lonely place at times,” Staley said. “Because our expectations as fans, you need to win them all. You need to win all the games. You need to run through the playoffs and when you get to the Super Bowl, you need to blow those teams out. That’s our expectation, right? So, that’s hard. It’s hard to live up to that. And if you have somewhere to put that and get perspective on that, because we know that’s impossible, but you gotta talk about it. You can’t just go through the season and think you’re invincible, and then you’re rocked because you never discussed it. It’s so new. He’s trying to get all the information that he can to give our team a really good shot.”

Sirianni spent his most tumultuous offseason in Philadelphia yet restructuring his role on the coaching staff and reinforcing his beliefs in how to manage a team. He met with Staley. He also met with former Villanova men’s basketball coach Jay Wright. And after operating within Sirianni’s new structure for three weeks in training camp, the Eagles are entering their first preseason game under a redefined regime.

Sirianni relinquished his grip on offensive operations. He embraced his CEO-style role. He owned the disorder and dysfunction of the team’s late-season collapse in 2023 — a saga that created a disconnect between Sirianni and franchise quarterback Jalen Hurts — by taking full responsibility for the lost season in front of the entire team during an offseason meeting, which was first revealed in an ESPN report published Wednesday.

“If I’m not accountable to the s— I mess up, how am I going to expect them to be accountable to what they mess up?” Sirianni said before practice on Wednesday.

Training camp began with a pressing question: What will Sirianni do in his new role?

Philadelphia’s first 10 practices offer a glimpse into a routine Sirianni says offers him a “30,000-foot view.” He roams from field to field, studying each position group. He pops into every meeting room, assistant coaches and players say. He spends time “coaching the coaches,” he says. He doles out individual points to players, receives feedback from others. He manufactures competition throughout practice, drilling the players and his staff with prepared in-game scenarios. He carries a play sheet with his left hand, a bullhorn with his right.

“The general has to have an entire broad view of everything,” said assistant head coach and running backs coach Jemal Singleton, among the first members of Sirianni’s inaugural staff in 2021. “Not that he hasn’t in the past, but now he’s really dialed in and focused on both of that. Morale of players, understanding those things, being in different positions, meeting them to get a chance. Being available to coaches when you need it, and just looking at a little bit different picture where now maybe his focus is a little bit tighter, now it’s high-brained.”

Sirianni, who admitted he’d been too consumed with the offense in 2023, is devoting more time to the defense in 2024. New coordinator Vic Fangio said Sirianni attends their staff meetings, and they review practice film together. Sirianni checks in with position group meetings, defensive tackle Jordan Davis said. The offensive-minded coach knows that his increased presence can provoke more accountability.

“Our (young) guys only see the wide receiver coach most of the time,” A.J. Brown said. “And when you see the head coach come in there, it’s like, ‘Uh-oh.’ You can tell, they sit up straight and everything. It’s kind of funny.”

“When I was with him in Indy, he was the OC, so he was knee deep in the offense,” said Parris Campbell, who played for the Colts from 2019 until 2022. “That was kind of his thing, just taking over the offense, coaching receivers. But now he’s taking over the head coach role, and he has to be a leader of men. You know what I mean? And that’s not an easy task to do when you’re leading a bunch of grown men that make tons of money and all that stuff. But he’s doing a great job, man. He’s doing a really good job. And the one thing for me that I noticed from then to now is he hasn’t changed. He hasn’t taken on this macho man role just because he’s a head coach. He’s still himself, he’s still Nick.”

Because of his personality, Sirianni has been prone to sudden emotional outbursts. Such displays became frequent on the sideline in 2023, and Sirianni has acknowledged he needs to be calmer in certain crucial scenarios. His demeanor in 2024 has yet to be tested by in-game situations, but some of his most tenured staffers have noticed a difference.

“Yeah, I’d say he’s a lot more calm,” said wide receivers coach Aaron Moorehead, a holdover from former Eagles coach Doug Pederson’s 2020 staff. “I’d say (Sirianni) knows what he wants to do and he’s very confident about why he wants to do it. And that leads to a little more calm. So he’s been really good. And he knows when it’s time to ramp it up. And he’s going to get after a player or a coach or a referee or somebody. That’s going to happen at times.”

How well Sirianni communicates will be one of the most vital factors of the 2024 season. Tension strained the 2023 team, exacerbating frustrations that increased as the losses mounted. Sirianni strongly considers the culture of the organization, and it’s a subject he discussed with Staley and Wright. Staley keeps a three-word mantra: Look. Sound. Feel. If any of those senses reveal something is off, address it. “Will somebody get mad in a moment?” she says. “Probably, but they’ll get over it.”

“Things can linger on a team,” Staley said. “Like, a small thing can linger and become big if you allow it to, if you’re not communicating what’s actually happening. And then you finally, you know, halfway through the season, you finally address it and it’s over in a matter of five minutes? You just wasted a whole half of a season. When there’s miscommunication, when there’s no communication, like, that frustrates me more than anything. Like, more than anything.”

Hurts began training camp saying his relationship with Sirianni is “in a great place.” He characterized their “adversity” together in 2023 as “a matter of being on the same page,” a “learning experience” that’s “supposed to test you.” The rapport between Hurts and Sirianni, two deeply competitive people, ultimately relies on the success of a new offensive dynamic in which Moore is the predominant voice. How Sirianni involves himself if problems persist in 2024 will reveal the lessons he’s learned.

That, of course, doesn’t mean Sirianni is completely removed from the offense. A small snapshot from Wednesday’s practice: Sirianni spent time on the sideline speaking with Brown while the second-team offense was deployed for 11-on-11 drills. The coach jotted something down on the sheet he was carrying. Sirianni then approached Hurts, who was kneeling on the sideline. They spoke until it was time for the first-team offense to return to the field. Sirianni walked behind the drill and quickly chatted with Moore and quarterbacks coach Doug Nussmeier.

“It’s just been a thing of constant communication, open dialogue, and really just hearing each other out,” Hurts said of the offense’s development. “It comes down to executing and how this group executes. That’s the beauty of this game, where you have a lot of different people coming from different parts, different places, and different experiences. The goal at hand is to find out how we can be the best that we can be with this team. So, I think we’ve been putting a great effort there.”

After Monday’s practice ended, Hurts sat behind the wheel of security chief Dom Disandro’s golf cart. Sirianni hopped into the passenger seat. Disandro sat in the back. Hurts drove past the media tent, music blasting from a speaker, flashed a smile, then disappeared.

(Top photo of Dawn Staley and Nick Sirianni: Thien-An Truong / ISI Photos / Getty Images; Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)

Brooks Kubena is a Staff Writer for The Athletic covering the Eagles. Brooks has covered the NFL since 2021, most recently as a reporter for the Houston Chronicle covering the Texans, and he previously reported on LSU football for The Advocate | Times-Picayune from 2018-2020. Brooks, a graduate of the University of Texas, has received APSE National Top 10 honors eight times for his reporting, which includes his beat writing coverage during the 2022 season. Follow Brooks on Twitter @BKubena