Rumor of Season-Long Rift Between Jalen Hurts, Brian Johnson Emerges

The longer the Philadelphia Eagles wait to decide on head coach Nick Sirianni’s future, the more rumors will continue to leak out about what took place in Philadelphia this season.

There were a lot of reasons why the Eagles faltered down the stretch. Some of the blame goes to the defensive coordinator situation and the playcalling of first-year offensive coordinator Brian Johnson.

Johnson took over as the Eagles offensive coordinator this season after spending the previous two years developing star quarterback Jalen Hurts as the quarterbacks coach. However, there have been some noticeable growing pains for Johnson and some frustration shown by Hurts throughout the season.

Ralph Vacchiano of FOX Sports wrote an interesting story earlier this week asking the question of should Nick Sirianni take the fall for the Eagles’ collapse.

Vacchiano mentioned how the star quarterback has reportedly been unhappy with the offense all season and noted how there’s been frustration with Johnson’s play-calling late in the season. 

Vacchiano noted that the 36-year-old Johnson was Hurts’ choice to replace Shane Steichen, who became the Indianapolis Colts head coach. He added, “There’s some speculation that relationship has soured too.”

The NFC East wrote a pretty damning statement that said, “One team source said Hurts audibled and freelanced more frequently late in the season, and that he and Johnson rarely seemed to be on the same page.”

If this is the case, it doesn’t spell good news for Johnson or Sirianni. Now granted, Philly’s offense finished seventh in scoring this season (25.5 points per game). However, you could tell the Eagles' offense didn’t have the same rhythm that they had last season. 

Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see how everything plays out, as the Eagles haven’t formally announced that Sirianni will be back. However, if Sirianni stays, it wouldn’t be shocking to see Philly make drastic changes to both coordinators.