Joe Santoliquito wrote a story for Bleeding Green Nation titled “A closer look at the 2023 Eagles’ historic collapse | NFL sources dish on why Philadelphia’s season went wrong.”

Yes, that Joe Santoliquito, the guy who wrote the Carson Wentz story. Everybody wanted to kill Joe back then (figuratively, not literally… I think) then it turned out he was not making things up and the rest is history.

But anyway, some key passages from this story:

“There are two versions of Jalen Hurts. The one the public sees, and the one behind closed doors at the NovaCare Complex that the Eagles protect—as they tried to do with Carson Wentz. The public, well, some of the fanbase, sees a leader. His teammates may not. Sources close to and around the team say Hurts should have been a better leader—and is capable of being a better leader. He shuts himself off from others and he defers to A.J. Brown, who has a great reputation among his teammates as a “family guy” and will hold himself and his teammates “accountable.”’

There’s been chatter about this all season long. Hurts is a quiet guy, more of “lead by example” type. He’s also in his mid-twenties and can grow in this area.

One source on the team described Hurts as a “good dude” who sometimes does not realize the times he’s acting like a prima-donna “expletive” (we’ll use the word “jerk”). Multiple sources close to and inside the Eagles confirmed this. Teammates wanted to include him in functions. Hurts would wave them off. He’s been described as “detached,” “stoic,” “isolated,” “unapproachable.”

It was emphatically stated, according to numerous sources, that Hurts is NOT “like the other guy (Carson Wentz).”

“He is not exactly ‘Mr. Personality,’ but he’s someone who will get up when he’s knocked down, get up stronger and he will do it on his own,” one source said about Hurts. “He won’t ask for help. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. From what I know of the other guy, he wouldn’t get up at all, or blame someone else why he got knocked down.”

All good and well, but it’s in his best interest, and everyone’s best interest, to make an effort to participate in team things and care about what his teammates are doing. He has a specific type of personality, which is understood.


When (Jonathan) Gannon left, Roseman wanted someone similar in place as defensive coordinator. Sean Desai was his choice. He came from the Vic Fangio mentality, as did Gannon.

I’m not sure we’ve had any concrete reporting on who wanted Sean Desai, have we? I know we’re all in the mindset that Howie Roseman and Jeffrey Lurie’s fingerprints are all over everything, but I don’t recall hearing straight-up that Desai was Howie’s guy. We know about the Vic Fangio thing, of course, and based on how things have gone in the past, this is certainly a plausible explanation.

According to those who have worked with Sirianni, and two former NFL personnel people who know him, Sirianni’s “histrionic pandering” are unbecoming for an NFL head coach. But each one also stated emphatically, almost verbatim, Sirianni is a “coach’s coach,” who lives by a coach’s credo. He holds deep respect for the profession.

They doubt Sirianni would have made the late-season move to demote Desai in place of Patricia without being told from above to do it, regardless of what Sirianni has said publicly. One source who knows Sirianni well said, “It’s not in his nature to do that to another coach” on his own.

….

Desai was a Roseman choice, not a Sirianni choice, numerous sources in and around the team stated. And Sirianni, it was learned, was incrementally giving more and more responsibility to Patricia before the defensive damn (sic) broke in consecutive losses to San Francisco and Dallas.

That’s a new nugget at the end there, the idea that Patricia was given a more prominent role before Desai’s demotion. Turns out they both kinda stunk.

Anyway, here’s the full story. It’s not as deep as the Wentz one, but there are some interesting passages in here: