Owner Jeffrey Lurie and top football executive Howie Roseman "encouraged" head coach Nick Sirianni to sit all of his starters during essentially the entire preseason, according to a report from Marcus Hayes of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Hayes writes:
"The NFL preseason always existed, foremost, to prepare a team's best players to play. Sirianni, 40 — encouraged by bosses Howie Roseman and Jeffrey Lurie, according to league sources — is ignoring this truism, which was always embraced by the NFL's Lombardis and Browns and Belichicks and Reids"
The Eagles starters getting basically no reps (they saw the field for just two short series) during the team's first two preseason games has been a much debated topic over the last few weeks in Philadelphia. It is expected than none of the starters will play in the Eagles' preseason finale this Friday against the New York Jets. Even if they do, it is unlikely they play more than a handful of plays.
Lurie and Roseman reportedly being involved in the decision to not play starters during the preseason, if true, isn't overly surprising.
Roseman has been involved in pretty much every major decision with the Eagles since he took over the football operations in 2016. Lurie has always been a very involved owner, including football decisions. Both of those are pretty well known facts, and there has been extensive reporting this offseason about just how involved the two are. Sirianni himself has pretty much said that all football decisions are a collaborative effort between himself, the coaching staff, the trainers and the front office.
The question isn't whether Roseman and Lurie should be involved in this decision — it is whether they should override Sirianni if he wants to play the starters.
Whether or not it is the right decision won't be known until the season begins. If the Eagles come out flat against the Atlanta Falcons, and then look better as the weeks go on, it will be fair to wonder if more playing time in the pre-season would have helped them be more prepared to hit the ground running from the start. If they come out flat it could also be that they just aren't a good team, and no amount of preseason reps would have helped, but that is a debate for a different day.
Considering the team's injury history, however, it is understandable why they would want to take the cautious approach.
The Eagles have been decimated by injuries over the last few seasons, but especially last year, when they missed multiple starters at basically every position. Not wanting to risk injury to any starter during a preseason game is understandable. The team has made it through 17 practices, including four joint practices, without suffering a major injury. With just one more preseason game between now and the regular season, sitting the starters isn't just understandable, it is probably the right decision and one lots of teams around the NFL will make.
As to how the decision was made?
It should be up to Sirianni whether he feels his team is ready for Week 1. If Sirianni feels the month of training camp and joint practices have his team ready, and he doesn't want to risk injury, than it should be his decision on if they play. There is no problem with Roseman and Lurie being involved in the discussion on what to do and offering their opinion.
The problem would be if Sirianni does want to play them, but is being told he can't as the report seems to indicate. Roseman and Lurie telling him he can't, or "encouraging" him not to, certainly isn't a good way to go about making football decisions — even if it is the right one.
You can reach Eliot Shorr-Parks on Twitter at @EliotShorrParks or email him at esp@94wip.com!
