National Football League

Eagles on Julian Love's Nick Sirianni comments: 'He just don't understand'

Updated Feb. 2, 2023 5:43 p.m. ET

PHILADELPHIA — The criticism of Nick Sirianni is hardly new, and his players have certainly heard it all before. They know some people think the Philadelphia Eagles are so talented they could probably coach themselves.

So when Giants safety Julian Love went on NFL Network on Thursday morning and said Sirianni was getting a "free ride" and told the hosts of Good Morning Football that "You guys could coach this team," nobody in the Eagles locker room was surprised.

But they were definitely mad.

"That's dumb," said Eagles defensive tackle Javon Hargrave. "That's just dumb. That's just stupid."

"You know what, man?" defensive end Brandon Graham added. "People always got something to say when they're at home, when they got some stuff to think about."

It was lost on none of the Eagles that Sirianni coached them to three wins over Love's Giants this season, including a 48-22 pounding at the Meadowlands in December and a 38-7 thrashing in the divisional playoffs just two weeks ago. But their defense of their 41-year-old coach was about way more than just those two convincing wins.

They marveled at the lack of credit Sirianni has received for taking over a team that was 4-11-1 in 2020 and getting it to the Super Bowl just two years later. He's gone 23-11 during his two seasons in Philadelphia and, for his efforts during this 14-3 season, he wasn't even one of the three finalists for the NFL's Coach of the Year award.

That's mostly because people would rather credit the talent in the Eagles locker room, as if coaching has nothing to do with it. And Sirianni's players don't understand that at all.

"I just know that Coach Sirianni, what he did last year with a team that nobody thought was going to do much, he ended up getting us to the playoffs," Graham said. "Then for his second year, that's what you're supposed to do, you're supposed to get better. You're supposed to bring players in to do exactly what you need them to do and we did that."

There is no doubt that Eagles GM Howie Roseman stacked the deck for Sirianni with a series of aggressive moves to upgrade the roster. He traded for star receiver A.J. Brown and safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson, he signed edge rusher Haason Reddick and cornerback James Bradberry, traded up in the draft for defensive tackle Jordan Davis and bolstered the line with in-season moves for linemen like Robert Quinn, Linval Joseph and Ndamukong Suh.

So Roseman's moves set the Eagles up for success. But Sirianni and his staff still had to put all the pieces together around a 24-year-old quarterback who entered this season with a lot of questions about how good he really was.

"We're very lucky to have all the veterans we have on this team," said Eagles tight end Dallas Goedert. "But I definitely don't think that takes away anything from what Coach Sirianni has done."

It did to Love, who didn't seem to want to give any credit to Sirianni during his morning TV appearance. He called Sirianni "a guy who really is doing a good job because he's not getting in the way of his team."

Love even doubled down on his take later in the afternoon.

"It's no mystery why they're in this position."

The Eagles don't think their success is much of a mystery either. They just think Sirianni has a lot to do with it. Don't forget, some of them lived through the 2011 season when Roseman assembled an all-star roster that then-quarterback Vince Young famously labeled a "Dream Team" — a team that ultimately only went 8-8 and missed the playoffs under then-coach Andy Reid.

So they know talent isn't everything and coaching matters — no matter what Love said.

"A lot of people just mad because of what happened this season," Graham said. "I understand. But it definitely carried no weight because coach proved himself each and every day, and if you're not in here you wouldn't really know that."

"He ain't here so he don't really know what goes on or what he does to help us out during the week," Hargrave said. "He just don't understand what he does for us."

"I mean, if he was here he would really love coach."

Maybe that's true. And if Love was in Philadelphia, he would probably be just as bothered as the rest of the Eagles that they're on the brink of a Super Bowl championship and their head coach still doesn't get the credit for what he's done.

"It don't really matter. A lot of us don't," Hargrave said. "But if we win this game, we all get a lot of credit."

Maybe then, even Sirianni will get some too.

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