PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Eagles had one last day as a team before heading into the offseason.
Eagles center Jason Kelce was among those cleaning out his locker Wednesday and he made one thing clear. “Before we start, I'm not addressing any retirement questions today,” he told the press, referencing reports he announced his retirement to teammates.
He did talk about a bunch of other topics, however, including his thoughts on head coach Nick SIrianni, who is under fire after the way the Birds’ season ended Monday night in Tampa Bay, in a disappointing 32-9 first round playoff loss.
“I think Nick's a great coach. I really do,” said Kelce. “I think he's a great head coach. Obviously, you know, nobody was good enough this year. I wasn't, none of the players, none of the coaches were good enough down the stretch. That’s the reality of this business.”
Defensive tackle Fletcher Cox echoed his teammate’s words of support, calling Sirianni a “winning head coach.”
“Did we have some bumps this year? Yeah. But every team, every organization, everybody goes through it,” Cox said.
“But we don't look at firing a man who, you know, obviously has won 10-plus games, two years in a row, that took his organization to three playoff appearances, three years in a row. You know, have some respect, he's a good leader for this team.”
Speculation abounds over Sirianni’s future, after the Eagles followed this season’s 10-1 start by losing five of their last six games. But Kelce says there’s plenty of blame to go around.
“You know, when you're that bad, it's a collective thing. But, you know, I'll always have faith in Nick Sirianni. I think he does a lot of things structurally and organizationally that I think are really well done. Obviously we got a lot of things to fix to improve the outcomes and, you know, the offense in general, from my perspective for next year. But, I think very, very highly of Nick Sirianni.”
As for next year, Kelce said on his “New Heights” podcast that despite reports, he hasn’t made a decision yet on his future in the NFL. The 36-year-old center has spent his entire 13-year career with the Eagles