Eagles Quarterback Coach Leaving; Is Nick Sirianni’s Influence Waning?
Alex Tanney, the QB coach for the Philadelphia Eagles and a favorite of Nick Sirianni, will not return.
The environment around quarterback Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles will be very different in the next campaign.
The Eagles swiftly parted ways with first-year offensive coordinator Brian Johnson after his 10-1 start turned into a downward spiral, and it has now been verified that quarterbacks coach Alex Tanney will also be leaving.
An NFL source verified to SI.com’s Eagles Today that Tanney has been granted freedom “to explore other coaching opportunities” by the Eagles. This is a good spin on the fact that Philadelphia does not want Tanney back, as reported by ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.
None of this should be a surprise after head coach Nick Sirianni essentially explained his marching orders from owner Jeffrey Lurie earlier this week.
“I just think that right now we just need to bring some ideas in from the outside,” Sirianni claimed. “We need to bring a guy in with new ideas that’s not part of this family of coaches. I think that’s an important thing. Or even if it is from the family of coaches that has been somewhere else — it could be any of that.
“That’s important. That’s important because that’s important that you’re making sure you always evolve.”
It’s conceivable that Sirianni had a personal epiphany regarding that evolution. Still, it’s not exactly the betting favorite for an offensive-minded head coach originally hired for that expertise to figuratively throw up his hands and admit he needs “fresh ideas.”
To anyone who knows Sirianni, it’s not even reasonable to claim anything other than the current path forward being a directive from Lurie.
In fact, Sirianni took immense pride in his fledgling coaching tree after both 2022 coordinators got head-coaching jobs, Shane Steichen in Indianapolis and Jonathan Gannon in Arizona.
The Eagles coach’s plan, particularly on the offensive side, was to coach his coaches and create a self-sustaining pipeline for promotion. Sirianni often cited Tanney, 36, as a rising star on his staff, who first joined Sirianni in 2021 as a quality control coach fresh off a decade in the league and his final season with the New York Giants.
By 2022, Tanney was the assistant quarterbacks coach under Johnson, working day-to-day with Hurts, and then took over the positional coach role when Johnson was promoted to replace Steichen.
Life moves fast in the NFL.
The Eagles’ offense was so good in 2022 that many saw Johnson as a potential one-and-done candidate at OC and leaving for a head-coaching position. In that world, it’s not farfetched to think Tanney may have been the OC by Year 4 of his coaching career.
Now both are unemployed, although the expectations are that will change soon.
“The feeling I’m getting [from the Eagles] is that Tanney and Brian didn’t adjust to the leadership part of it after being elevated,” a league source from outside the NovaCare Complex told SI.com’s Eagles Today.
In the rush to perhaps shield Hurts’ regression the word “disaster” was directed at Tanney, a 180 from the way Sirianni has always spoken about his padawan.
“He is really clever and smart. In the spring of 2023, Sirianni stated of Tanney, “He connects with the players.” “He has this instant connection there, having played in the NFL for ten years. He put a lot of effort into obtaining what he owns. I truly respect that quality in Alex.
According to early reports in the league, Tanney is expected to join Steichen’s staff with the Colts if no other options present themselves in the upcoming weeks. This suggests that Tanney is still valued by “the family” and that those outside the family are exaggerating their roles in criticizing Tanney.
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