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Spadaro: Nick Sirianni reveals the secret to team success

The head coach is relentless in developing this aspect of the team, understanding that it is the common thread to winning seasons.

Nick Sirianni
Nick Sirianni

Nick Sirianni is in a relaxed state of mind as his Philadelphia Eagles wrap up their offseason program. He is in the Jefferson Health Training Complex auditorium answering questions from reporters who cover the team every day, who have been dug in with the Eagles for each of Sirianni's five seasons here.

Sirianni's core, what he's all about and what he cares about the most, is the requested topic here: How to win big in the NFL. How to win it all. Sirianni has won big – postseason appearances in each of his five seasons – and he has won it all – an NFC Championship in the 2022 season and a win in Super Bowl LIX in the 2024 campaign – and he knows the most important component and it is the piece that he works on every ... single ... day.

"How do you come together as a team? You come together as a football team through shared hardships. So, you get that, right, through the offseason," Sirianni said, gaining passion. "You come together as a football team through building trust of consistently doing what you're supposed to do. Consistently on a daily basis. And you come together as a football team through the time that you put in with each other. And that time, sometimes it feels like it's invisible progress. It's like, am I really making progress here, but you have to keep putting it in, knowing that at some point it's going to show itself up. Guys are working really, really, really hard to come together as a team because we know how important that is at the end of the day."

Sound similar to a 2021 Sirianni analogy that was once ridiculed but actually launched the team into the most successful stretch in franchise history? Flowers anyone?

"And, it's no secret," Sirianni continued. "Our best teams since I've been here have been the closest. They've been the closest teams. We believe in that very, very much."

With his sixth Training Camp only days away, Sirianni understands the task – and the expectations. The Eagles have undergone change from the 2025 season and, as is the case every year in the shifting sands that is the NFL, there are some challenges to navigate. The offense has a new coordinator in Sean Mannion, a new line coach in Chris Kuper, a new run game coordinator in Ryan Mahaffey. The wide receiver room is infused with change – No. 1 draft pick Makai Lemon, free-agent signees Hollywood Brown and Elijah Moore, namely, and Dontayvion Wicks via trade. The defense is dotted with new faces, notably outside linebacker Jonathan Greenard and cornerback Riq Woolen.

And yet this is truly nothing unusual for Sirianni, who has had change as a year-to-year constant in his extremely successful time in Philadelphia.

"That's football. You have to adapt in-game, you have to adapt in-season, you have to adapt to all different styles of how you coach different people and what's great about this world is no two people are alike, perfectly alike," Sirianni said. "We may have similar traits or whatever, but everyone's different, and you have to adapt to everybody, how you coach them and that's this game, too. You have to adapt to – 'Hey, we thought this team was going to do this defensively, offensively, whatever, special teams-wise.'

"I think it's constant growth. I think there are some stories that tell the story that I want to be able to tell. You're always Tough, Detailed, Together. I always tell these guys like, 'Hey, me showing you what it looks like and telling you what it is in this aspect. That's the easy part. Being relentless with the monotony of it and consistent every single day, that's the hard part.' And so you do that through film, but also you do that through practice and their actions and our habits. But then you also try to find stories that paint your picture. And so, you try to keep that as fresh as possible."

Sirianni is relentless in his approach – one of the many reasons Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Lurie hired him in 2021. "Obsessed," is the word Lurie often uses in describing Sirianni, who sets the culture, who makes sure the daily tone is right, who evaluates where the team is, and how the coaches are prepared as it relates to September 13 when Washington visits Lincoln Financial Field to open the regular season.

It is all about preparing the Philadelphia Eagles, from the tippy top to the very bottom, for the opener and everything that happens in the 17 weeks to follow. Seventeen games. Eighteen weeks. That's the regular season.

At times it seems September is so far away. At times it feels like there aren't enough seconds in an hour to accomplish what needs to be done.

"Expectations are high," Sirianni said. "I like that. I can't control what I can't control – what anybody thinks or feels and that's OK. Like, does that really matter? It doesn't really matter, you know? If even a second of my time is (spent) being worried about, 'Hey, I wish they appreciated this more,' then I just lost a little bit of time that I could be doing with something else that really matters.

"I think there's this growth in finding yourself through the journey that you've (taken) to get to a point where like, yeah, should we be appreciated more? I don't know. That's out of my control. So, what is in my control? The daily habits that we go about to put the best product that we can on the field to ultimately do the best things that we can do. And we've done a good job and we want to continue to do a good job, but it's all part of the journey of becoming who you are."

And who are the 2026 Philadelphia Eagles? Sirianni has a sense, but he needs to see more, see how it all comes together, see what it looks like in September, and every day hereafter. The journey, the one that ratchets up in tempo and purpose in a handful of days, is never ending.

Images from Tuesday and Wednesday's minicamp practices.

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