How Eagles HC Nick Sirianni compares to other coaching greats

Since 2021, the 43-year-old head coach has a 48-20 record (.706) in the regular season and a 5-3 record (.625) in playoff games including Sunday’s 55-23 victory over Washington in the NFC Championship game. Few coaches can match those numbers, not even his next opponent.

Andy Reid

Reid’s 273 wins are most among active coaches and fourth-most by any coach in NFL history. He’s made the playoffs 20 times in his 26-year career as head coach of the Eagles and Chiefs and has three Super Bowl championships, all with Kansas City including one against the Eagles two years ago.

Sirianni can’t match those numbers but one could argue that he’s off to a better start. From 1999-2002, Reid went 39-25 in regular season games (.609) and 4-3 in the playoffs (.571). It also took him six years to win a conference championship, something Sirianni has already done twice.

Bill Belichick

Belichick’s 302 wins are third-most in NFL history, 16 shy of legendary Bears coach George Halas. He went 266-121 (including playoffs) in 24 years with the Patriots but started his career slowly as head coach of the Browns from 1991-95.

Cleveland made the playoffs just once under Belichick, going 1-1 in 1994 whereas Sirianni’s teams haven’t missed the playoffs since he arrived, not even after a dismal 1-5 finish to the 2023 regular season. 

Belichick also took seven years to reach the Super Bowl while Sirianni needed only two. Of course, Belichick prevailed in his first trip to the big game, something Sirianni failed to do two seasons ago.

Don Shula

Shula is better known as head coach of the Miami Dolphins from 1970-95 but he served as head coach of the Baltimore Colts from 1963-68. His 328 career wins are more than any head coach in NFL history.

Like Sirianni, Shula won early, starting his NFL career with 13 straight winning seasons that included an NFL championship with the Colts in 1968 and a perfect 14-0 season in 1972 that led to the first of back-to-back Super Bowl championships for the Dolphins.

Sirianni certainly hasn’t done that but his early record compares favorably to the Hall of Fame coach. In his first four years with the Colts, Shula went 39-16-1 (.696) in regular season games and 0-2 in the playoffs.

So while Sirianni won’t be fitted for a gold jacket anytime soon, his record suggests he’s on the right track. And as long as Eagles ownership keeps giving him running backs like Saquon Barkley, wide receivers like A.J. Brown and quarterbacks like Jalen Hurts, he could ultimately cement his legacy as one of Philadelphia’s greatest coaches.

Of course, a win over Reid’s Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX wouldn’t hurt, either.