For a few moments Thursday afternoon, Matt Patricia appeared to have landed a new coaching gig outside of New England.
Then, the uncertainty surrounding the embattled Patriots assistant returned.
Tim McManus, who covers the Eagles for ESPN, on Thursday tweeted: “According to the team’s site, Matt Patricia has been named (Philadelphia’s) senior defensive assistant.”
But within a matter of minutes, that mention of Patricia — a “blurb,” McManus called it — vanished. His name was nowhere to be found on the Eagles’ official online coaching roster, nor in the team’s announcement of new hires and promotions.
“The blurb on Patricia has since been deleted,” McManus tweeted.
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni offered some clarity in a press conference about an hour later.
“We’re trending in that direction,” Sirianni said when asked about hiring Patricia. “Nothing’s final yet. We’re trending in that direction, so we’ll see how that progresses. But it’s trending in that direction, yes.”
Patricia, who won two Super Bowls as the Patriots’ defensive coordinator before flopping as head coach of the Detroit Lions, was tasked with running New England’s offense last season despite having no prior offensive play-calling experience. The results were disastrous, and he and quarterbacks coach Joe Judge swiftly were removed from their posts after the season, with Bill O’Brien coming aboard to replace them.
The Patriots retained Judge and moved him to a different role — he’ll work with the special teams this season, his area of expertise — but Patricia’s future remains in flux. He reportedly was up for defensive positions with the Eagles and Denver Broncos but remained a coaching free agent as of Thursday.
Patricia has a checkered history with one of Philadelphia’s best defensive players, cornerback Darius Slay, who’s publicly criticized the 48-year-old after playing for him in Detroit. Sirianni said he “of course” spoke with Slay before deciding to add Patricia to his staff — which, based on his comments sounds like a foregone conclusion at this point.
“Like you do with anything, you go through and you talk to guys and make sure everybody’s comfortable with it,” he told reporters. “I had conversations with Slay. Obviously, I had conversations with Coach Patricia, and I know that it’ll be a good working relationship for us when that happens.”
Sirianni, who led Philadelphia to an NFC championship in his second season as head coach, pointed to Patricia’s track record when asked how he can help the Eagles.
“Obviously, his résumé speaks for itself,” he told reporters. “He gives you a great mind in there that’s done it at the highest level. It gives you great ability to bounce ideas off of with the defensive staff, and then obviously it gives me another former head coach that I can bounce ideas off of, as well, with things, which I think will be very helpful.”
UPDATE: The Eagles officially hired Patricia as a senior defensive assistant, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
