Nick Sirianni says he’s not taking play-calling away from Kevin Patullo

Nick Sirianni says he’s not taking play-calling away from Kevin Patullo originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Eagles’ offense looked completely lost on Friday afternoon, but Nick Sirianni is still not ready to make a change.

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He’s sticking with Kevin Patullo.

At least that’s what Sirianni said after the Eagles’ 24-15 loss to the Chicago Bears on Black Friday. While Sirianni claimed the Eagles will evaluate everything, that apparently doesn’t extend to the offensive coordinator/play caller.

“No, we’re not changing the play caller, but we will evaluate everything,” Sirianni said. “This weekend, we’ll have another little mini-bye. Another short week that leads to a long weekend where we’ll evaluate everything. But again, like I said after that, it’s never just about one person. You win as a team, you lose as a team, and you try to evaluate everything, win, lose or draw and get better from it.”

The Eagles’ offense continued to struggle mightily on Friday afternoon. They scored just 15 points against the Bears and had just 9 until late in the fourth quarter. They were out-gained on Friday 425-317 and the Bears doubled them up in first downs, 28-14.

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Patullo is in his first year as the Eagles’ offensive coordinator and play caller and demoting him seems like an obvious button the Eagles could potentially push to get their offense into gear.

But Sirianni on Friday claimed he isn’t ready to do it.

“When you win, when you lose, it’s never about one person,” Sirianni said. “We all collectively have to do a better job and that’s going to be starting with us as coaches, starting with me as head coach, finding solutions to get the offense going, and so I’ll put that on us as a staff and put that on me most individually there to help get this thing pointed in the right direction.”

It is worth noting that the last time Sirianni made a major coaching change came in December of 2023, when he demoted Sean Desai and replaced him with Matt Patricia. During that week, Sirianni flatly said “no” when asked if he was making any coaching changes and the Eagles even paraded Desai in front of reporters for his weekly press conference as if he was still the DC.

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So … we’ll see.

Patullo spent the last four seasons with the Eagles as their passing game coordinator. He was promoted this past offseason when Kellen Moore left for the Saints’ head coaching job after just one season that ended in a parade down Broad Street.

Sirianni and Patullo arrived from Indianapolis together on the same plane and Patullo is considered by many to be Sirianni’s right-hand man.

“I have confidence in the entire group,” Sirianni said. “I know it will keep coming back to Kevin, but again, if I thought it was one thing, then you make those changes. Obviously, it’s a lot of different things, but I don’t think it is Kevin. Now, we all have a part in it. Kevin has a part of it. I have a part of it. All the coaches have a part of it. All the players have a part of it. Again, you win and lose as a team. It’s never on one thing.”

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As reporters were let into the Eagles’ locker room on Friday evening, Patullo was in the very corner, chatting with quarterback Jalen Hurts. It was a lengthy conversation of which Hurts declined to divulge the content, other than to say, “We’re all pressing forward trying to improve and make the most of the opportunity we have.”

While the Eagles’ offense showed some signs of life before their bye week, they have regressed over the last four weeks. The Eagles were able to squeak out wins against the Packers and Lions but managed to score a combined 26 points. They scored 21 points early against the Cowboys and then fell apart. And on Friday, they were even worse.

The Eagles in their four games since the bye week are 2-2 and have averaged just 15.5 points per game.

Does Hurts still have confidence in Patullo?

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“Yeah, I have confidence in him,” Hurts said. “I have confidence in this team. I have confidence in us when we’re collaborative. I have a lot of confidence when we have an identity, so I think that’s the first thing that we have to establish that we’ve talked about.”