Who is Nick Sirianni? Everything we know on the Philadelphia Eagles new head coach

The Philadelphia Eagles officially introduced Nick Sirianni as the franchise’s 21st full-time head coach at a virtual news conference on Friday. To learn about the 39-year-old’s path to the Eagles and start in Philadelphia, dig into The Athletic’s stories on Sirianni and read more about his background below.

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Where he’s from: Sirianni, a native of Jamestown, N.Y., grew up near the New York-Pennsylvania border, about 70 miles south of Buffalo and more than 150 miles north of Pittsburgh. He was raised in a football family. His father, Fran, had a 45-year coaching career and was inducted into the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame. The athletic complex at Nick’s high school, Southwestern Central, bears his father’s name. Nick’s older brothers are also coaches: Mike Sirianni is the head coach at Washington & Jefferson and Jay Sirianni won two state championships at Southwestern Central before stepping down in 2015.

“I’m looking at a sign that’s over our archway that says, ‘Faith, family and football,’” Fran Sirianni said in a 2018 The Athletic story. “That’s probably the motto of our family. Our faith is strong but football is definitely strong in that third spot.”

Where he’s played: Sirianni was a productive wide receiver at Division III Mount Union, where he won national championships in 2000, 2001 and 2002 and started for three seasons. In his best season, 2003, he had 52 catches for 998 yards and 13 touchdowns.

The Purple Raiders are a Division III powerhouse. Two of Sirianni’s teammates — Matt Campbell (Iowa State) and Jason Candle (Toledo) — are successful college coaches. Sirianni played one season in the Atlantic Indoor Football League for the Canton Legends, although he held no illusions that he’d build a career as a pro player.

“It was never going to be a long-term thing,” Sirianni said in The Athletic story. “There was no future there. I wasn’t going to let it affect my coaching career.”

Sirianni said in a 2018 (Jamestown) Post-Journal article that he went to college to study education but left with a “Ph.D. in football coaching.”

Where he’s coached: Sirianni’s coaching career started at his alma mater, where he worked with the defensive backs from 2004 to 2005 and won another national championship. That was the only time in his career Sirianni was assigned to the defense. He coached wide receivers at Indiana University of Pennsylvania from 2006-08 before his big break came and he joined the Kansas City Chiefs as a quality control coach.

Quality control coach is the bottom of the NFL coaching ladder. Sirianni served in that capacity from 2009-11 before the Chiefs promoted him to wide receivers coach in 2012. It lasted one season. The staff was fired when Andy Reid took over as head coach in 2013, and Sirianni found a landing spot as a quality control coach in San Diego. That turned into coaching quarterbacks from 2014-15 as Frank Reich was promoted from quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator.

Sirianni worked with Reich and coached Philip Rivers. The Chargers shook up their staff before the 2016 season, firing Reich (he landed with the Eagles) and moving Sirianni back to wide receivers coach. He survived a coaching change and a franchise relocation in 2017, continuing to coach the team’s wide receivers in Los Angeles during the season the Eagles won the Super Bowl. Reich was then hired as the head coach in Indianapolis and made it a priority to bring Sirianni with him.

“When I got here, the first thing I said to (Colts general manager) Chris Ballard was ‘there is one guy we have to get on this staff, and that is Nick Sirianni,’” Reich said on a conference call with Cleveland reporters this season. “I think the world of Nick. I think he is a brilliant offensive mind. He is a tireless worker. He pays attention to detail. I think he has a dynamic coaching personality. I think he is going to be a great head coach in this league sooner rather than later. It is hard for me to have a higher opinion of Nick than I already do. I just think so much of him.”

Sirianni hasn’t been shy about sharing how much he embraces the coaching life. He said in the Post-Journal article that it’s a perk to get paid to watch film and help players improve while wearing sweatpants and sweatshirts and seldom seeking a comb or a razor. He embraced the cliché of a coach sleeping in the office, noting that he left his suburban Indianapolis home on a Tuesday and wasn’t going to return until Thursday night.

“I’ve got a nice couch in my office,” he said to his local newspaper.

Who he’s coached and with whom he’s coached: The Reich connection is the most discussed. Sirianni spent six years with Reich. But Sirianni’s various stops exposed him to different leaders and systems. In college, he played and worked for Larry Kehres, who won 11 Division III national championships, went unbeaten in 21 regular seasons and won 92.9 percent of his games. Sirianni’s boss at IUP was Lou Tepper, who coached Illinois in the early ’90s.

On Todd Haley’s staffs in Kansas City, Sirianni worked with Romeo Crennel, Charlie Weis and Jim Zorn — all former head coaches — and his offensive coordinator in 2012 while on Crennell’s staff was current Bills play caller and offensive coordinator Brian Daboll. In San Diego under Mike McCoy, Sirianni worked with former NFL head coaches Ken Whisenhunt and Mike Nolan. Anthony Lynn’s Chargers staff in 2017 included former Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley, who was an assistant alongside Sirianni.

As a wide receivers coach, Sirianni’s most productive players were Dwayne Bowe, Keenan Allen, Tyrell Williams, Dontrelle Inman and Travis Benjamin. In two seasons with Sirianni as quarterbacks coach (2014-15), Rivers completed 66.3 percent of his pass attempts for 9,078 yards, 60 touchdowns and 31 interceptions. Rivers didn’t make the Pro Bowl in either season, but he made it the year before and the two years after.

Sirianni’s offenses in Indianapolis had a different starting quarterback each season: Andrew Luck in 2018, Jacoby Brissett in 2019 and Rivers in 2020. His leading rushers were Marlon Mack in 2018 and 2019 and Jonathan Taylor in 2020. T.Y Hilton led the Colts in receiving yards in 2018 and 2020; Zach Paschal led the team in 2019. Luck, offensive lineman Quinton Nelson and tight end Eric Ebron made the Pro Bowl during Sirianni’s tenure.

What he’s accomplished: Sirianni’s college championships were his last taste of that type of success. The Chiefs had one winning season during his four years in Kansas City, and it ended with a loss in the wild-card round. The Chargers went 9-7 in three of his five years with the franchise, which included one postseason appearance (and one postseason victory). The Colts made the postseason in two of his three seasons in Indianapolis, but they’ve won only one playoff game.

Sirianni didn’t call plays in Indianapolis, although he did help with game planning and overseeing the offense. The Colts finished 10th in offensive DVOA in 2018 with Luck at quarterback (11th in passing, 13th in rushing), 19th in 2019 with Brissett at quarterback (25th in passing, eighth in rushing) and 12th in 2020 with Rivers at quarterback (16th in passing, 12th in rushing).

What his offenses look like: Sirianni has never called plays in the NFL and he’s worked in different schemes, so it’s hard to pinpoint what he would run with Philadelphia. In a 2018 video on the Colts’ website, Sirianni broke down film from Reich’s time with the Eagles while discussing the Colts offense. He talked about the merits of 12 personnel and said the Colts exploit the mismatches with two tight ends on the field. He then analyzed film from their time with the Chargers and mentioned how they like to get the ball to their players “within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage running.” That required an effective short passing game that focused on getting the ball to players in space. The third concept he illustrated was isolating a running back on a linebacker in the passing game, showing an example of Darren Sproles in a mismatch from Reich’s time with the Eagles.

So, what did the Colts offense show in these areas during Sirianni’s three seasons in Indianapolis?

From 2018-20, the Colts played 12 personnel on 19.4 percent of their offensive snaps, which ranked 12th in the NFL. (They ranked fifth in 13 personnel, using it on 6.9 percent of the snaps.) By comparison, the Eagles led the league in 12 personnel usage during that period at 38.1 percent. The Colts went with 11 personnel most frequently, using that alignment on 63.5 percent of their offensive snaps.

The Colts have been among the best teams in yards after the catch. They ranked 11th in average yards after the catch during Sirianni’s three seasons. (They were third in 2020.)

The Colts’ screen game was particularly effective. They led the NFL with 450 yards on underneath screens and wide receiver screens in 2020; they ranked 13th during Sirianni’s three seasons in Indianapolis.

The Colts offense ranked sixth in third-down percentage and seventh in red-zone offense during Sirianni’s tenure.

What’s he like away from football: Sirianni is married with three kids. He met his wife in Kansas City, according to a story on the Colts’ website. She was a teacher who lived in the same apartment complex. She didn’t follow football and was unmoved when he shared that he worked for the Chiefs. Her sister needed to convince her to agree to a date. Similar to the Eagles’ experience with Sirianni, he won her over once she gave him a chance.

They were married during summer 2013, his first year with the Chargers. After five years in Southern California and three in the Indianapolis area, the family is moving to the Philadelphia area.

In 2018, Sirianni answered 44 seconds worth of get-to-know-you questions for the Colts website. What did he share?

The first concert he attended was a DMX show in Buffalo. His biggest mentor is his father. His favorite football memory was winning the 2002 national championship at Mount Union. He wanted to be a pro football player but “wasn’t quite good enough.”

Sirianni said he’s not superstitious. His favorite book is “Fearless” by Max Lucado. (Not the book by Doug Pederson with the same title.) He prefers nights to mornings. He prefers texts to phone calls. He likes Batman more than Superman. He’ll take romantic comedies over suspense films. He considers his family the most important part of his life and his 2018 goal was to “be the best husband and father I can be.”

(Photo: Scott Winters / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)