Despite Not Being Nominated for Coach of the Year — Nick Sirianni Has Positioned the Eagles to Win A Super Bowl.
When the Eagles arrive in New Orleans this week after a gruling three-game NFC Playoffs and a seventeen game regular season — Philadelphia is relatively healthy. Being this healthy in February is a rarity in the NFL.
For nearly fifty years since 1966 — the NFL Playoff system was relatively simple. Six teams from each conference made the playoffs — with the top two seeds getting bye weeks during the Wildcard Round. The only way that the #2 seed would need to travel would be if the top seed advanced to host the conference championship game. This benefitted the Eagles several times during the Andy Reid era — including in 2003–2004 when the Eagles took advantage of a late-season St. Louis Rams loss to secure the #1 seed.
Then in 2020 — the NFL expanded the playoffs to allow seven teams to make the playoffs from each conference. The Eagles — as the #2 seed in these NFC Playoffs — had to play an extra round to get to next week’s Super Bowl. In one of his best moves of the season — Eagles Head Coach Nick Sirianni sat his starters in week eighteen — casting aside an enticing opportunity for his offense and his All-Pro running back to capture a place in the NFL record books.
The genius of this move isn’t just that the Eagles will arrive in New Orleans for Super Bowl week healthy — which is also a credit to the Eagles training staff — but also that it allowed the Eagles to be fresh for the Packers, Rams, and Commanders. By creating his own bye week — is just another brilliant move for man who should be NFL Coach of the Year.
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