The good news for Nick Sirianni is the Eagles are 1-0 in international games and don’t have a trip scheduled for London. But after another crooked loss at Tampa Bay entering their Week 5 bye, Philadelphia is 3-8 over its past 11 games and good news is tough to find on streetcorners in the land of brotherly love.
New York Jets owner Woody Johnson didn’t help Sirianni this week. By terminating Robert Saleh, the Jets cranked up the stove in Philadelphia, where patience is a four-letter word. Nonetheless, Sirianni isn’t worried about those using the Jets’ move to fan flames underneath his seat.
“No,” he said Wednesday. “I obviously wish him nothing but the best. I had a good working relationship with Coach Saleh, being able to practice against those guys. I’ve got a lot of respect for him. … I think he’s a really good football coach, but my mind is set on only: ‘How do we get better?’”
Getting better is as simple as finishing with one-or-more points than the reeling Browns (1-4) on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, FOX). And if Sirianni can steer the Eagles (2-2) to a win, he might do more than just buy time.
Each of their next four games is against a team currently in last place. What’s more, six NFL teams are 1-4 and the Eagles have three of them over their next four games. After Cleveland this week, Philadelphia is on the road against the Giants (2-3), at Cincinnati (1-4) and then home against Jacksonville (1-4).
Plus, no player has a status on Philadelphia’s final Week 6 injury report, meaning wide receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith will join tackle Lane Johnson back in the starting lineup.
And when the Eagles line up against the Browns, expect Sirianni to have them focused on what’s within their grasp.
“Anything out of your control or anything that consumes your mind that’s not focused on not getting better is a waste of time,” Sirianni said. “It only clouds the process. … If you’re focused on things that you can’t control, then that’s going to cloud that hunger and that drive to get better.
“So, that’s all that we think about. The hunger, drive to get better. You probably can say, ‘Oh, well, that’s coach talk.’ I’m not bulls**tting you. That’s how I live, that’s how I’ve operated for. You are who your habits are and that’s how I’ve been operating for a big portion of my life.”
Life for Sirianni’s running back has been going well. Since signing with the Eagles this offseason, Saquon Barkley leads the league in scrimmage yards (130.0 per game), having eclipsed 115 in each of Philadelphia’s first four contests. Per the NFL, if he can hit 115 again on Sunday, Barkley will become the second player in league annals to reach that number in each of his first five games with a team. Adrian Peterson did it in 2007 over his first five games with the Vikings.
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