Nick Sirianni knew this was a possibility.
So when asked on Sunday night if he regretted his decision to rest the Eagles’ starters in their regular season finale, the head coach said he didn’t.
“No,” Sirianni said after the Eagles’ loss to the Commanders. “Again, you go through your process, you make what you think it the best decision for the football team and that’s what we did. I knew this was an outcome, that these things could happen.
“Like I said to you guys, one thing I could guarantee was giving them rest. I couldn’t guarantee anything else. And us being healthy and going into the playoffs healthy, is a big deal for us. That’s served us well in the past. So, again, I know there will be debate on that. I have to do what I think is best for the football team moving forward. And that’s what I did.”
The Eagles entered Week 18 with a real chance to get the No. 2 seed in the NFC. They needed to beat the Commanders and they needed the Lions to beat the Bears. Only half of those things happened.
The Lions did their part. They went to Chicago and beat the Bears 19-16 on a last-second field goal. But the Eagles played their backups and came up short in a 24-17 loss to the Commanders.
So now the Eagles are the No. 3 seed in the NFC and will host the No. 6-seeded 49ers at Lincoln Financial Field next week.
Had the Eagles played their starters on Sunday, they almost certainly would have been able to beat the Commanders. But Sirianni wanted to give most of his key players rest and wanted to eliminate the potential for further injury.
During the week, his players who were getting the rest seemed to appreciate the decision.
“I’m going to talk to everybody and gather information but at the end of the day, I have to make the decision that I think is best for the football team,” Sirianni said. “That’s part of being the head coach. You always talk through it with everybody. At the end of the day, you’ve got to make the decision that you feel is best and that’s what I did.”
The Eagles were in a close battle with the Commanders for most of Sunday’s game and they did have many of their starters active. But even given the situation, Sirianni said there wasn’t consideration of putting starters into the game late.
There were some injury concerns about putting cold players on the field after sitting through the first two or three quarters.
“With the guys that haven’t been going all game and then to throw them in there in the third or fourth quarter, I don’t think that’s fair to them,” Sirianni said. “You make a decision early in the week and that’s what you go with. Now, guys would have had to be ready if people were going down. With what happened at safety, Reed (Blankenship) was ready to go in if there was something else that was going to happen.
“But, again, you make decisions and that’s your job as a head coach. You have to make tough decisions. Half the people are going to agree with it, half aren’t. Half of you guys are going to agree with it and half of you aren’t. That’s OK. But you have to do what you think is best for the football team. So if you make that decision and you’re convicted on it and then change course in the middle, I think that puts the guys in a tough spot. I knew that this could be the outcome. I didn’t know the outcome of the other game. It ended up going the way we wanted it to go but, again, did what I did because I did what I felt was good for the football team.”
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