Q. Did you go to -- you didn't go to Zach Wilson's workout, but who did and what kind of reports did you get on him?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I may not have been at that workout. I can't remember off the top of my head. Did Shane go or did Brian go? I can't remember. But obviously, we did a lot -- yeah. Obviously, we did a lot of work on him and a lot of study on him. We thought he was a really good player.
He did a lot of good things in college. He was able to throw the ball from different arm levels. He was athletic. Yeah, we were fans of him coming out of college at BYU.
Q. As far as the quarterback on your team, what's Jalen Hurts' status?
NICK SIRIANNI: We're hopeful. We're feeling good. He's feeling better every day. We're excited that we're going to have him out there at walk-through today. So really hopeful for him.
Q. Is he going to practice today?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, he'll be out there at walk-through, and he'll be taking reps at walk-through.
Q. Do you have to adjust anything from a typical week as a contingency just in case with Gardner?
NICK SIRIANNI: Every week you have a contingency. Every week you go in there with a backup plan of, hey, what is the backup quarterback like? You don't want to think about those scenarios, but you have to. You've got to put yourself in those scenarios.
That's something we talk about each week at every position. What are you going to do with this guy? What happens if this guy goes down? What happens if this guy goes down? What happens if this guy goes down -- and that's not just on offense and defense, that's on special teams.
Will Jalen take every rep this week? I don't know how that's going to play itself out yet. We'll see how that goes throughout the week, but when he's not in there, Gardner will be in there.
Q. What about conversations with Jalen, knowing that he's a guy that's going to want to be out there?
NICK SIRIANNI: He's tough. He's as tough as they get. Obviously, you want that out of your quarterback. So, yeah, in his mind -- I mean, in my mind, he's playing, right? We're -- again, like I said, we're hopeful. I think in his and my mind, we're both saying, yeah, he's going.
Q. Do you create two game plans, one for Jalen and one for Gardner? What have you seen from Gardner?
NICK SIRIANNI: Again, you know what your backup likes, and you know what he does well. So I don't -- there's going to still be the plays that you do well as a team, but, again, it makes no difference if Shane and I and Brian and Kevin like a play, the quarterback who's out there playing has to be the one that executes it.
So you go through different things like that. I don't want to say it's different game plans. It's different styles a little bit because you tweak everything for each individual player. So it is, but again, we're playing a certain style of defense. So there will be some similarities regardless of who's playing quarterback.
Q. What about if Jalen isn't as mobile as he normally would be, obviously with the ankle issue?
NICK SIRIANNI: That's something that we monitor throughout the week, and we plan accordingly as we continue to go on. So, again, there is a lot of scenarios that we have to play ourselves through. Again, we don't live in hypotheticals, but we know this is a real thing that we got to handle if he can't go or if he can't go a hundred percent or whatever it is.
We have to be here a little bit later taking care of our business and making sure everybody's in the right spot to make plays.
Q. What are the organizational conversations, and when do you have them, about weighing short term versus the long term in terms of Jalen and how you use him and some of the younger guys on this team?
NICK SIRIANNI: As far as with his ankle being dinged up?
Q. No, just in terms of his usage. Like having a run heavy offense and maybe not -- it shows what he can do as a passer.
NICK SIRIANNI: Everything we're doing is to win that football game, period. And as far as long term, I think I've said this before, I'm completely focused on one week at a time. I can't focus on what's going to happen in the future.
Whatever we're doing in a week is solely to win that football game and really I'm not focused on anything else. Do you want to be able to see him in different scenarios? Of course you do, like in two-minute scenarios and third and long and third and short and red zone. You want to put him in every position so they continue to develop. But as far as just long term, I mean, it's whatever we got to do to win this week.
That's with every single player, not just Jalen.
Q. Just a follow-up on that, and what is the messaging from the front office in regards to that?
NICK SIRIANNI: Do what you got to do to win each week. That's what I was brought here for, and I got great support from everybody in this building. That's all that matters is winning and losing, and I know that's my job is to win as many games as we possibly can, and that's been -- I've had nothing but support from the front office on that.
Q. Nick, once you said Jalen Hurts doesn't make the same mistake twice. After the game on Sunday, what has he been like as far as coming back and watching the film, moving on to the Jets and his frame of mind this week?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I think he's hungry to get out again and to redeem himself from a performance that wasn't up to his standard. That's the competitor in him. That's the football character in him, that he wants to get back and work and get ripping again.
Q. What's your confidence level in him if he's healthy enough to play but maybe the ankle is 75 percent, 80 percent, and he can't run like he normally can? Do you have confidence he'll be able to be a guy who can be in the pocket and kind of change the way he plays and still make enough plays?
NICK SIRIANNI: I do. Again, I think he's -- there's been times in the year where I feel like he's probably -- this happens with quarterbacks a lot, like they might have a long run or they take a hit. You got to adjust how you play that next one. We have to see that as coaches and adjust how we call that for the next one. I think I learned a lot of that from Frank of, hey, see how that quarterback just responded to that and do this after he's tired or he took a hit.
So I've seen him do that throughout the year. Obviously, in different spurts of maybe being tired or after taking a hit or whatever it is. So, yeah, I'm confident in that, that he can do that.
Q. Nick, what were your main teaching points for him coming off of last week's performance?
NICK SIRIANNI: The big thing was obviously taking care of the football. As you go -- the biggest stat that we look at, again, are explosive plays and turnover differential. Those are the ones that we just really hang our hat on because those are the ones you say the odds are the best that, if you win those two things, you're going to win the game.
So the big one, just taking care of the football. Again, there's different things that happen for quarterbacks of why interceptions happen. The one at the end of the half, obviously, we wanted him not to do that, to take the points there.
Then the first one, though, like again interceptions for different reasons. That can be blamed on a lot of different things for how that went down. I'm not going to go more into that, but you guys will probably know what I'm talking about. But, again, take care of the football. That always starts with him each and every week.
Q. What simply is Jalen's injury?
NICK SIRIANNI: Ankle.
Q. Is it a sprain?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, it's a sprained ankle.
Q. When you ultimately make the decision on Jalen, do you factor at all the bye week and how that factors in?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, again, what we're trying to do is focus on how we're winning this football game. So, yeah, you look forward to the bye week because we're late in the season now. So you look forward to the bye week for, not just Jalen, but all the guys who have some bumps and bruises. I think pretty much everyone is going to have some bumps and bruises at this point in the season with this many games in a row.
You think about that with everybody. Again, what are we doing to get Jalen ready to play this week? That's what we're focused on.
Q. Updates on Miles, Jordan, and Kelce?
NICK SIRIANNI: Updates on them?
Q. Yeah.
NICK SIRIANNI: Miles, he's continuing to progress. Jordan, we've got to find a little bit more out as the day goes on. We'll get more on him tomorrow. Do we have him out today or limited? One of the two. He's limited today. Again, we're hopeful.
And Kelce, I believe he's out today, but again, he's doing good and he's progressing.
Q. (Indiscernible).
NICK SIRIANNI: Again, we don't have to make that decision right now, but Herbig will be the first one out there. But we have some good options out there.
Q. Can you talk about what your conversation is like with Jason Kelce on the sideline as he was lobbying to go back in? And what that whole act was like and what it meant to your team -- him going into the locker room, disappearing for a while, jockeying to get back in and then going back in and playing at a high level. Boston Scott was almost moved to tears.
NICK SIRIANNI: It was unbelievable. My text message to Jason after the game is you're the toughest guy I know. We appreciate the heck out of you coming back in. That's what you want from your leaders, a guy that's just going to do everything he can do to give of himself to his teammates, and I think that's the selflessness of Jason Kelce, the toughness of Jason Kelce.
I can't say enough good things about him. Not only do I think he's one of the best offensive linemen that I've ever been around -- and I've been around some good offensive linemen -- I also think he's the toughest guy I've ever been around.
Q. What was he saying to you? What was that interaction like?
NICK SIRIANNI: I didn't have a lot of interactions with him because I was obviously focused on the game. I was getting updates from the trainer. What I saw was a guy like sprinting, trying to see if he could go, and continuing to do it. It was just awesome. It was just an unbelievable -- I got chills thinking about how -- like how much it means to him to be out there and fight through things that he fights through.
They should do a case study on him to see what makes him this tough. It's just I can't say enough good things about Jason Kelce. He's so tough, and our team feeds off that. I think we have a tough team. And why do you have a tough team? You have a tough team because the leadership of the main guys on your team, and it starts with him.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports