Jeffrey Lurie, at least, seems to get it

The annual NFL Meeting is held every March, the site alternating between Florida and Arizona. This is because the owners are required to attend; you’re not gonna see them directing their private jets to Cleveland or Detroit in the early spring.

This year the meeting was held at the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando. Presumably the Days Inn had no availability.

For me, the main event was Eagles chairman Jeffrey Lurie’s Tuesday afternoon address, in which he became the first and only member of the Eagles’ braintrust to really grapple with the unprecedented collapse that took the team from 10-1 to 11-7, including that horrendous 32-9 Wild Card playoff loss at Tampa.

Asked about the decision to retain head coach Nick Sirianni, Lurie talked about the coach’s impressive plan to regroup, but he also allowed that his review of the situation entailed “a hard look at the disappointment and frustration as (the season) ended. I don’t mean to diminish that in the slightest, because I don’t. I live that. I care.”

Lurie then delved into the fact that “Kansas City and San Francisco … had really rough stretches, and yet, they were able to come out of it in time for the playoffs. … We were not able to.”

Lurie said examining why the Eagles just kept getting worse, instead of snapping back to form, “was a key focal point of the analysis.”

Maybe you’re thinking, yeah, no kidding, we figured that. But juxtaposed with Sirianni and general manager Howie Roseman this offseason, Lurie stands out. All we have gotten from those two is blah-blah-blah like “the end of the season didn’t go the way we wanted.” No acknowledgement of the scope of the disaster, or that moving on from it might be a wee bit complicated.

Lurie can ramble on a bit, and his professorial demeanor occasionally causes him to drift toward locutions the likes of “in any losing streak, it’s multi-factoral.” But sometimes, you walk away from hearing him with a sense that you know how he actually feels about something, not just what he thinks he should project to the public.

Tuesday, Lurie gave an unambiguous endorsement to Jalen Hurts — not just as a quarterback, but as a leader. We keep hearing that management wants Hurts to be more vocal, less reserved, even though when he was leading the Eagles to the Super Bowl at the end of the 2022 season, Hurts was portrayed as having the perfect demeanor and temperament. Lurie emphasized that Hurts is “authentic,” which did not sound like a plea for the QB to put on a lot of rah-rah posturing.

Overall, for a reporter, the annual meeting is must-attend, and not just because there’s a lavish party — this year it was held on Monday night — with an open bar and lots of food, of a much better grade than the last wedding reception you attended. My former colleague Rich Hofmann used to refer to “shrimp the size of handguns” at these events.

We were talking a few paragraphs back about trying to find out what people in charge really think. The real benefit for the media folk attending the party is the rare chance to wander over to Sirianni, Roseman or Lurie and speak casually, with no cameras or team public relations execs present. Even if nothing valuable is conveyed, you can get a sense of mood, mindset, that sort of thing. Maybe even an “on background” assessment of, say, whether there is any chance whatsoever that the Eagles will sign Haason Reddick to a new deal with his hometown team. (Obviously, I wasn’t in Orlando, but my sense is, we’re looking at a trade and you’re not going to be overjoyed by the return.)

There also might be an opportunity to sidle up to Andy Reid or Joe Douglas or Doug Pederson to get their private assessment of what’s up in their old NovaCare stomping grounds. Theoretically. Don’t want to imply that anything of this nature actually occurred.

The party isn’t the only reason to attend the annual meeting. Sirianni, Roseman and Lurie all speak on the record over a period of a few days. There is no other time on the NFL calendar when this happens.

Sirianni spoke Tuesday at the annual NFC coaches’ breakfast, held the day after the AFC coaches’ breakfast. These breakfasts are also a unique part of the NFL year. You have rules changes happening at the meeting, such as abolishing the hip-drop tackle, or outlining a new kickoff format, and there you have every coach in the league available to give their thoughts, on successive mornings.

Each coach is seated at a banquet table with maybe eight or 10 chairs. Eagles media folk know to get there early or you’ll be standing, leaning around cameras and over someone’s shoulder to hear what’s being said. Of course, with some of the smaller markets, it’s just a coach and a reporter or two, and you know they must eventually run out of things to talk about.

Sirianni was pressed Tuesday for details about how the offensive structure and the offense will look, now that he’s working with new offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. He didn’t offer a lot of clarity, talked about “meshing” and blending similar concepts.

Sirianni wouldn’t even confirm that Cam Jurgens will open OTAs as the starting center, in the wake of Jason Kelce’s retirement. I didn’t read anything into that, just the usual NFL silliness of trying to guard even the most obvious answers from the eyes of opponents.

Sirianni compared the addition of Saquon Barkley to getting A.J. Brown two years ago, which wasn’t surprising, but probably did indicate that designing plays for Barkley is a big part of whatever attack Moore and Sirianni are fashioning.