Eagles’ Nick Sirianni goes to bat for Jonathan Gannon on WIP Morning Show after dominating defensive performance against New York
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni is a pretty fiery guy. That much has been clear since he became the Eagles head man, but it was even more evident during his team’s 38-7 demolition of the New York Giants on Saturday.
He carried that passion over to his postgame press conference as well, calling out SportsRadio 94WIP for their constant slander against his defensive coordinator, Jonathan Gannon. More specifically, he singled out the 94WIP Morning Show host, Angelo Cataldi.
The Eagles HC was on a tear Saturday night
Angelo heard Sirianni’s call-out loud and clear. When the Eagles head coach hopped on the WIP Morning Show for his weekly conversation with Cataldi, the host dove right into the Gannon discussion.
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Sirianni was completely prepared for the question. Following this opening snippet, the Eagles head coach broke out the stat sheet and listed off upwards of 16 individual stats to prove just how good Gannon is at his job.
“First in sacks. This is in the NFL ranking,” Sirianni said. “First in pressure rate. First in yards per play. First in passing defense. First in yards per pass attempt. First in tackles for loss. First in opponent negative plays. Second in total defense. Third in games allowing 17 or fewer points. Third in opponent passer rating. Third in quarterback hits. Fourth in takeaways. Fourth in interceptions. Seventh in explosive plays allowed. Seventh in force fumbles. Eighth in defensive points allowed per game.”
I’m no expert, but all of those statistics would lead me to believe Gannon is a pretty solid defensive coordinator.
For whatever reason, Philly fans always seem to scapegoat the current defensive coordinator for all of the team’s problems. The late Jim Johnson was an exception because he fed Eagles fans’ insatiable hunger for blitzing the quarterback. Ever since then, every single defensive coordinator the Eagles have had has faced the wrath of 94WIP and the fanbase at large.
Sirianni went on to discuss Gannon’s potential departure this offseason to become a head coach. Once again. the Eagles HC had nothing but great things to say.
“He does deserve it, I will say that. I don’t want him to go, but he does deserve it,” Sirianni said of Gannon potentially becoming a head coach. “And sometimes too, when you’re kind of getting on Gannon about the completions or something like that. I want you to get on me, is what I want you to do, too. My whole thing that I preach here is about winning the double positive. And what does that mean? Winning the turnover battle while also winning the explosive play battle…That’s been our organizational philosophy for these past few years, is winning that. And so Gannon is influenced by me. So I want some heat, I want some smoke, when you guys are getting on Gannon too.”
In the end, it probably won’t matter what Gannon is able to accomplish as a defensive coordinator while he’s in Philly. He’ll always have his detractors. Nevertheless, he’s one of the better d-coordinators in the business. He’s a head coaching candidate for a reason and will more than likely be gone this offseason.
Hopefully, the Eagles will send Gannon off on a high note following the Super Bowl.
