“I’m not afraid of you”
“Because you think you got nothing to lose, but you haven’t thought it through.”
I always loved the Carmine Falcone speech from Batman Begins when he explains to a young and naive Bruce Wayne the real stakes he’s playing with. He has plenty to lose including his friends. This is what I think when I hear people yell out FIRE KEVIN PATULLO! Don’t get me wrong, I am not defending him. We simply haven’t thought it through.
What happens if Patullo is fired?
For anyone thinking a new name is going to magically appear in the building, it’s not happening. Do you think the Eagles are going to be quick to hire Doug Pederson to come in and run the offense? The same Doug Pederson they fired not long after winning the franchise’s first Super Bowl? That’s not going to happen. First, he would be considered an adversary and a threat to the head coach. Do you want your current companion to start going to their ex for advice? Whether Doug could be objective or not is immaterial, human nature does not allow for this kind of relationship.
Second, it would be a mid-season, 3rd party hire which comes with its own set of problems. No matter what someone like Doug or let’s say Bobby Slowik brings to the table it would necessarily be completely different from the current system. As much as you are nodding your head with a “fantastic, sign me up” look on your face, anyone new would not know the current personnel. With 6 weeks left to go in the season, there probably is not enough time to learn it all either.
So that means another in-house promotion. Wonderful. Who from our crack squad of offensive minds do you want ascending to the position? How about current Passing Game Coordinator Parks Frazier?1 His professional career consists of several middling positions within the Colts organization. He has at least called plays before though. Remember that time the Colts decided to hire their former center to be their head coach mid season and proceeded to go 1-7? Frazier was his offensive coordinator those 8 terrible games. That’s it. So, just a shade less that Patullo.
There is also Quarterbacks coach Scot Loeffler. After 25 years in the college ranks, Loeffler joined the Eagles this past offseason. Loeffler bounced around 5 different programs in the 2010s before landing the head coach job for Bowling Green where he went 27-41 and probably would have been fired had he not joined the Eagles. He’s probably better than Frazier, but I say that with no confidence.
What if Patullo is Stripped of Play Calling Duties?
Whether he is replaced by one of the internal options above or relieved of play calling duties, that would likely leave Nick Sirianni back in charge of the offense. While it can’t get much worse than the offense Patullo is running…well, it might.
When he was hired in Philly, Sirianni started out calling the plays. It didn’t go well. After all, Nick had no previous experience calling plays at any level. Jumping into NFL play calling is simply not an easy task, especially for someone in charge of the whole team. I honestly believe Nick is a great coach for the attitude and energy he brings to the team, but calling plays was not one of his virtues. How could it be? It would be like asking even the best civil attorney to go defend a federal murder trial when they have no trial experience. It wouldn’t go well. Unfortunately, this is exactly what we did with Patullo too.
Are we really ready for Nick Sirianni calling plays Part 2? Based on his comments in the media this week, we are probably going to get this. He said he has not even considered taking away play calling duties from Patullo at this time. Nick is a lot of things, and a liar is definitely one of them.2 Internally, this has clearly been discussed between Nick, GM Howie Roseman, and owner Jeffrey Lurie. This organization is too well run and too successful to continue to ignore such a big issue on a clear championship level team. Things have been masked because of wins against good teams lately, but what happened in Dallas was too much. Another bad performance against Chicago and changes will be made.
What About Nick Sirianni?
As previously mentioned, this is a team that fired their Super Bowl winning coach when he refused to fire his Offensive Coordinator Press Taylor. Something similar was brewing before last season after the brutal 2023 collapse. Coaches usually have the authority to name their staff, but that honor was stripped from Sirianni before last season and Kellen Moore was hired. Sirianni chose to stay as head coach but with no authority on his own staff.
So how did we get to Kevin Patullo, Nick’s right hand man? Well, a funny thing happened last year. Nick was a lame duck going into the season. He may have made it to a Super Bowl, but the team could not ignore what happened the previous season. Then he went and won the Super Bowl. From a negotiation standpoint, he had the Eagles by the balls. What, were they just going to let him go after laying waste to the league? Not a chance. Sirianni didn’t just get a new contract, but he had the juice to regain control of his staff as well. So, when Moore was hired to coach the Saints, Nick jumped in with the promotion of his friend Patullo. Despite a previous issue with this type of nepo-hire, the Eagles went down that road again. It has been a disaster.
Nick clearly still has pull within the organization. Details of his new contract have not been disclosed, but you can imagine he is in the upper echelon of head coaching salaries (I made my best guess here). The Eagles are not just going to cut him loose in a power struggle. Nick needs to be convinced that Patullo is hurting the team. Since Nick is a pretty loyal guy, but not loyal enough to give up his own job like Doug Pederson once did, he is going to fight until the last minute for Patullo. One more bad loss might be the last minute. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee it will help.
Final Thought
Imagine making a mistake on your first day at a new job that even though you have confidence about you do not have experience to fall back on. You are nervous. Now imagine millions of people are looking at you doing that job. Now imagine a mega phone is at your head telling you how bad you are every minute. This is not me telling anyone to stop, it is me saying that Patullo is already dead. There is no way he can recover from this. Eagles Offensive Coordinator is one of the highest pressure jobs in sports. You are under a constant microscope. It is simply not a place to learn a job on the fly. Patullo needs to go, it just won’t be until the offseason.
Philly Front Office 
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