Eagles coach Nick Sirianni was blamed for the final kickoff of Sunday’s game in London against the Jaguars failing to reach the end zone. And yes, it would have made sense to leave the Jaguars alone at 35 with no timeouts and eight seconds left.
The other part of Sirianni’s admission is that he knew he shouldn’t have trusted his kick coverage unit to make a tackle. Indeed, the game began with a 90-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by the Jaguars which was canceled by compensatory penalties.
As former Steelers coach (and possibly future NFL coach) Mike Tomlin said during Sunday night’s Ravens-Falcons coverage, a coach has to be able to trust players on the back end of the roster to play on special teams. Sirianni’s certainty that he should have called for a kickoff in the end zone contains an implicit concession that he should not have trusted his kick coverage unit to do so at that time.
Which raises a real question about the overall quality of the roster. Do they have enough players that can be counted on to make a tackle on a big play on special teams? Based on what happened on Sunday, that’s not the case.
Complicating matters is the fact that they apparently plan to dedicate one of their 53 spots, for the remainder of the season, to retired right tackle Lane Johnson as part of a strategy to carry over the bulk of his cap charge into 2028. That makes it harder, not easier, to have enough competent players to make the play that didn’t get made on Sunday.
Which brings it all back to the kickoff decision. Sirianni is convinced he made the wrong choice. And the result proves his point.
Gn sports
