PHILADELPHIA -- And then there were two.
With the New York Jets firing Robert Saleh on Tuesday, Nick Sirianni and Dan Campbell are the only two coaches remaining from the 2021 coaching cycle who are still employed with their current team. Sirianni is the only one that's been to a Super Bowl, yet his seat is suddenly warm after the Philadelphia Eagles' 2-2 start.
This on the heels of a 1-7 collapse last season after a 10-1 start that saw the Eagles lose in the wild-card round. Sirianni has won a lot of games, but the Eagles are 3-8 in their last 11 regular-season games and have shown little signs the problems from last season are behind them.
The hot seat could be next for Sirianni, but it won't be getting warmer because the Jets fired Saleh.
"I obviously wish him nothing but the best. I had a good working relationship with Coach Saleh, got a lost of respect for him," Sirianni said. "I think he's a really good football coach, but my mind is set on only how do we get better?"
The Eagles have an opportunity to cool down Sirianni's hot seat for a few weeks. Their next four games are against teams currently with losing records, a combined 5-15 mark over the next month. This starts Sunday against the Cleveland Browns, who are averaging an NFL-low 3.8 yards per play and are the only team in the NFL without a 20-point game this season.
Of course Philadelphia has problems of its own, having just two takeaways and 13 quarterback hits -- tied for the fewest in the NFL. Jalen Hurts also have 27 giveaways since the start of last season, the most in the NFL. If there's any week for the Eagles to "get right," this is the time coming off the bye.
Beating the Browns could go a long way toward dimming the questions of Sirianni's job status. Win or lose, that's outside noise.
"Anything out of your control or anything that consumes your mind that's not focused on not getting better is a waste of time," Sirianni said. "It only clouds the process driven of. ... If you're focused on things that you can't control, that's gonna cloud that hunger and drive to get better.
"So that's all that we think about. You probably can say 'Oh, well that's coach talk.' I'm not bullshitting you. That's how I lived, that's how I've operated for. You are who your habits are and that's how I've been operating for a big portion of my life."