Thanks to a 40-22 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs at Super Bowl LIX, the Philadelphia Eagles have rewarded their head coach, Nick Sirianni, with a multi-year contract extension. While the play caller has declined to share or comment on the particulars of the deal itself, its value is rumored to be more than enough to see him earn top-tier money.
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In light of Sirianni’s newfound payday, the founder of ProFootballTalk, Mike Florio, is advocating for the Chiefs’ head coach, Andy Reid, to receive the same favor. During his most recent broadcast on NFL on NBC, Florio asserted that Reid is worth at least $30 million per year.
Going as far as to suggest that his system alone is more valuable than some players including former Chiefs WR and now with the Dolphins, Tyreek Hill, the veteran analyst explained that,
“Amon-Ra St. Brown, Derrick Stingley Jr., Tyreek Hill, Brandon Aiyuk. $30 million per year. There’s no way you’d rather have any of those players vs Andy Reid. You want Reid, and it’s nothing against the players. The point is Reid should be making $30 million per year.”
According to Florio, the prestige and power that comes with being the head coach of an NFL franchise isn’t reflected in the bottom line for the league’s various play callers. Given the amount of money that winning football games can produce any given team, it’s fair to say that Reid is due for an increase in pay.
Unfortunately, if Florio’s suspicion is correct, then that payday likely won’t be coming anytime soon. In referencing the Minnesota Vikings’ dealings with Kevin O’Connell, Florio suggests that there are behind the scene factors that are disincentivizing coaches from asking for more money.
“There’s something wrong with the system that is born out of decades of collusion among the owners that has held down what they make… You never see an NFL head coach become a free agent with the intent of saying to his current team, ‘I’m out of here.’ …And I think it doesn’t happen because the coaches have been close enough to the centers of powers to understand ‘You better not do that,” Florio added.
According to Florio, the state of the head coaching market is indicative of a “gentleman’s agreement” among NFL owners to not “stab each other in the back” in bidding wars over play callers. An arrangement that he believes is “textbook collusion.”
Reid is currently the highest-paid head coach in the NFL today, netting himself an annual salary of $20 million. Flanked by the Denver Broncos’ Sean Payton and the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Mike Tomlin, the Chiefs’ play caller is currently the only coach to surpass the $20-million threshold.
Seeing as everything from viewership and salary cap totals to the number of international games continues to grow with each passing season, it seems inevitable that the head coaching market will eventually command more dollars. Nevertheless, both the league and its owners are expected to delay that reality for as long as possible.
After all, the NFL is a business, first and foremost.
