note – I accidentally published this story before it was done, so here’s the finished version:

National NFL Insiders reported this weekend that the Eagles and DB coach Dennard Wilson were mutually parting ways after Wilson was passed over for the defensive coordinator position that went to Sean Desai.

Not so fast my friends, says Lee Corso Marcus Hayes at the Inquirer, who reports via sources that Wilson did not want to leave and was actually fired:

After an acrimonious meeting this weekend, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni fired popular and productive defensive backs coach Dennard Wilson on Saturday, two league sources confirmed. Sirianni passed over Wilson in his exhaustive search to replace Gannon and hired Seattle Seahawks defensive assistant Sean Desai instead.

Wilson was, understandably, disappointed that he did not get the DC job. Sirianni knew this.

Sources said Sirianni met with Wilson over the weekend looking for — and receiving — assurances that Wilson would cooperate with Desai. Yet Sirianni nevertheless was convinced that Wilson would not work well with Desai. This, despite Wilson working well with Gannon, even though they never were kindred spirits before Gannon got the head coach job in Arizona.

The Eagles are trying to paint this as an amicable split. Untrue, according to sources. Wilson wanted to stay.

Hayes says that Jeffrey Lurie and Howie Roseman really liked Wilson, also citing league sources.

For what it’s worth, it looks like Hayes is the only one reporting this. We know that Howie has the ear of the most of the big national people, who are using language like “mutually parting ways.” That’s the terminology shared by Hayes’ Inquirer colleague, Josh Tolentino:

As for the “mutiny” portion of the story, Marcus drops in a couple of tweets in which the defensive backs showed their support for Wilson to get a DC job in the NFL, so he’s essentially linking the promotion snub and firing to the possibility of angering guys like Darius Slay and CJ Gardner-Johnson, who liked their DB coach. The word “mutiny” first appears in the headline, which was likely written by someone else, but Marcus mentions it once early in the story, the thought being that Sirianni is risking or inviting pushback due to the dismissal.

This is an interesting story. Worth keeping an eye on. Maybe one of the big national guys follows up with something different. I see people on Twitter crapping on this report, but remember, Joe Santoliquito was lambasted for the Carson Wentz story of a few years ago, and we all saw how that turned out. Gotta keep an open mind with this stuff.