The Eagles are 2-5 and heading into a game against a winless Detroit Lions team that could potentially end their season if they lose.
Speaking Wednesday, head coach Nick Sirianni shared the message he gave the team to inspire them to stick together through these tough times — and it involved an analogy of a growing flower.
Here is how Sirianni described what he said to his team:
"I said that the results aren’t there right now. But what is going on is that there is growth under the soil. I put a picture of a flower up, and it’s coming through the ground, and the roots are growing out, and the roots are continuing to grow out.
"Everyone wants to see results. Shoot, nobody wants to see results more than us. We want to see results, too. But it is really important that the foundation is being built and the roots are growing out. The only way the roots are growing out every single day and they grow stronger and they grow better is if we all water. We all fertilize. We all do our part. Each individual coach, each individual player, everybody in the building. That we do our part to water, so to make sure that when it does pop out, it really pops out and it grows.
So that was my message today. I am always thinking of different messages to give to the team. Either messages that I think really fit to the situation, that I have gotten before in a situation from another head coach or from my dad or whoever. So that was my message today, because we are going through tough times. And everyone wants to see results.
But just keep doing what we are doing, keep watering and look at yourself first and ask, 'Are you watering and are you fertilizing every day, so when it is time to pop, it will pop?'"
Sirianni isn’t wrong. The Eagles are in a rebuilding year and, in theory, are laying the foundation for what they want to become. He is also correct that, if they keep putting in good work, eventually the results will come.
The problem is that, with the team looking even worse than their 2-5 record indicates, you have to wonder how the flower analogy was received by players.
The Eagles do have some youth on the roster but they also have a pretty large collection of veterans. Some of those veterans have already not-so-subtly indicated some skepticism in the coaching staff. Is a picture of a flower growing in a team meeting going to inspire them to keep going — or make them even more skeptical of a young coaching staff?
We’ll start to find out this Sunday in Detroit.
You can reach Eliot Shorr-Parks on Twitter at @EliotShorrParks or email him at esp@94wip.com.