Rams Rival Receives Baffling Ranking

In that time, McVay and the Rams have captured two NFC titles, Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers have captured two NFC titles, the Eagles have captured three with one under Doug Pederson and two under Nick Sirianni, while Bruce Arians owns one via his victory over Green Bay back in the 2021 playoffs.

Out of those five head coaches, four of them went on to win at least one Super Bowl, with Shanahan being the odd man out. In fact, in the past three seasons, Sirianni's Eagles have been one of the primier teams in the NFL but Shanahan and the 49ers own two victories over Sirianni compared to Sirianni's one.

With that being said, Sirianni's win came in a blowout victory over the 49ers in the 2023 NFC Championship game after Haason Reddick destroyed the remainder of San Francisco's injured quarterback room.

Despite all of this, Pro Football Focus' Daltom Wasserman named Shanahan the seventh best returning head coach in the NFL while Super Bowl winning head coach Nick Sirianni sits at eight.

"Sirianni is often the target of criticism when the Eagles lose, but credit needs to be given when it’s due," wrote Wasserman. He’s an outstanding 48-20 in the regular season as Philadelphia's head coach and has made the playoffs in each of his first four seasons. The Eagles emphatically proved they were the best team in football last season. They were the NFL’s highest-graded team and lost just one game after Week 4."

"Philadelphia’s commitment to the run game in 2024 was its biggest adjustment from a confounding 2023. The offense ranked just 13th in run-play percentage in 2023 but led the NFL with a 51.2% clip last season. The Eagles were the only team to run the ball more than throw it. Of course, it helps to have Saquon Barkley, who racked up more than 2,500 rushing yards last year, including the postseason. Sirianni and the Eagles committed to an old-school style of football, and it paid off with a championship."

This isn't a criticism of Shanahan but instead a defense of Sirianni. Sirianni is one of the premier coaches in the NFL, and the Eagles are not defending champions in spite of Sirianni, they are because of him.

In four years, Sirianni has made the playoffs every year, taken Jalen Hurts to an MVP level, made the decision to not let Saquon Barkley break Eric Dickerson's record but instead keep him healthy for the playoffs, a decision that clearly paid off, while putting up video game numbers in his two Super Bowl appearances.

If Jonathan Gannon was more worried about stopping Patrick Mahomes instead of becoming the Cardinals head coach, Sirianni might have two rings.

For those who said Shane Steichen was the reason the Eagles were successful, how's that train of thought working out for the Colts?

The entirety of football needs to stop pushing this untrue narrative that Sirianni is a product of his environment, because the environment he inherited was a 4-11-1 team with Nate Sudfeld taking the final snaps of the 2020 season and all of Philadelphia wanting Howie Roseman's head on a stake. Now look at them.

Give the man his flowers because his journey pretty much mirrors Sean McVay's and no one is saying Sean McVay isn't a top-five coach.