The Nick Sirianni “Hot Seat” Story is Manufactured Media Nonsense

Kevin Kinkead | October 18, 2021

Is Nick Sirianni on the hot seat?

No, of course not. He’s coached six games in Philadelphia. Anybody with half a brain knows that the Eagles aren’t putting their new head coach on the “hot seat” less than 50% of the way through his first NFL season.

But there are some people out there who do not possess half a brain, and so they ask dumb questions like this. Then some media outlets run with it, fostering the non-story and packaging it into a product that looks like this:

The story is written by, guess who? ESP! Doing the Lord’s work over there.

He writes:

The Eagles are 2-4 and have been a frustrating team to watch so far this season, leading many to wonder if rookie head coach Nick Sirianni could be one-and-done in Philadelphia.

FOX NFL Insider Jay Glazer, however, seems to think there is no chance Sirianni is fired.

Here is what Glazer had to say when asked if Sirianni is on the hot seat during a segment called “#AskGlazer”:

“No. No. Not at all,” Glazer said. “Look, he is a first-year head coach there, and I know Philadelphia is tough, but no. He is not on the heat seat this early on.”

It’s not a story. Not after six games. If the Eagles were 2-10, then you’d lend some credence to the idea, but they’re not 2-10. They’re 2-4 in a year when they were not expected to do anything in the first place. This has always been a rebuilding, transitional, fact-finding mission. Nick Sirianni didn’t inherit the 2001 St. Louis Rams; he inherited a patchwork, post-Super Bowl squad that might not even have a bona fide NFL QB1 on the roster.

There’s a predictable pattern that some media outlets will follow, and it goes like this:

  1. breathe life into a non-story (Sirianni on the hot seat)
  2. NFL insider is asked about the non-story
  3. NFL insider refutes the non-story
  4. write an article about the insider’s refutation of the nothing burger

This technique works because people are gullible, and ESPN is guilty of doing this all the time. One of their folks will report something, and then Stephen A Smith will spend the next two hours talking about it. Then it’ll be the lead story on NFL Live, and a panel will discuss it on Get Up the following morning. It’s like their own narrative biome. It’s a self-sufficient ecosystem that provides sun and water to a burgeoning and flimsy narrative.

The truth is that there haven’t been a ton of one-and-done coaches in the NFL. Most are total disasters, like Chip Kelly, who only won two games during his San Francisco stint. Steve Wilks and Freddie Kitchens were the most recent, and they went 3-13 and 6-10, respectively. Those are the only one-and-done coaches in the last five NFL seasons.

Here’s the rest of the list going back to 2000, courtesy of ArizonaSports.com:

  • 2015 – Jim Tomsula, San Francisco 49ers
  • 2013 – Rob Chudzinski, Cleveland Browns
  • 2012 – Mike Mularkey, Jacksonville Jaguars
  • 2011 – Hue Jackson, Oakland Raiders
  • 2009 – Jim Mora, Seattle Seahawks
  • 2007 – Cam Cameron, Miami Dolphins
  • 2006 – Art Shell, Oakland Raiders
  • 2001 – Marty Schottenheimer, Washington Redskins
  • 2000 – Al Groh, New York Jets

Add it all up, and that’s 12 one and done NFL coaches dating back to the year 2000. That’s a very small amount, considering the fact that there have been more than 150 head coaching hires in that same time period. You have to be a complete dumpster fire to get canned after one season, and that’s not Nick Sirianni right now.

Plus, Jeffrey Lurie and Howie Roseman firing a guy after one year would reflect pretty poorly on them, and that’s something they don’t want.

Let’s circle back to this topic if it’s December and the Eagles still only have two wins.