The Eagles turned in an excellent second season under head coach Nick Sirianni, with the team advancing to Super Bowl LViI before falling to the Chiefs.
While Philadelphia has gone through some significant changes — its offensive and defensive coordinators departed the organization for head coaching jobs — Sirianni is expecting the team to compete for a championship again in 2023.
Part of that is Sirianni not feeling like the club will go through the proverbial Super Bowl hangover after losing in the biggest game of the season.
“What it does, you get close and it just fuels your hunger,” Sirianni said at the annual league meeting, via Dave Zangaro of NBCSportsPhiladelphia.com. “You know the steps that you had to take to get there and you know every detail matters and you’re going to try to recapture everything you can as far as the work to put in. It just makes you more hungry.
“There’s that thing that Jalen [Hurts says], ‘I’m not hungry, I’m starving.’ You guys all saw that. ‘I’m starving for this shit.’ I think that just makes you more hungry, makes you more starving. I know that’s the sentiment of the guys we have in that locker room. I know it’s the sentiment of the coaches and I sure know it’s the sentiment of me. Just more determined than ever.”
And Sirianni knows that just because the Eagles made it to the NFL’s final weekend last year doesn’t mean they’re guaranteed even a playoff berth.
“I don’t care what happened last year,” Sirianni said. “I don’t care that we went this record and played in the Super Bowl or anything like that. We don’t give a crap about what the numbers say about who was able to get back to the Super Bowl. … It’s going to take day-in and day-out work.
“And I know that’s cliche but when you can set your sights narrow as far as here’s what we’re focusing on today, it helps you stay focused on that day and continuing to build and build and build.”
Sirianni feels like the team’s leaders will have Philadelphia in a good spot when it comes to the consistency needed from the offseason program through training camp.
“It doesn’t matter who you assemble, it’s about the work that we have to put in to get ready to play our first game and our second game and our third game and so on and so forth,” Sirianni said. “I think that we’ll bank on that too next year.”
