Q. Couple injury things. How did Jason Kelce come out? What do you know about his status? Are you confident Jordan Howard will be available? You didn't put him on IR. Are you confident you'll have him when you get back, and the weekly anything new with Brandon Brooks question, do you anticipate having him when you get back?
COACH SIRIANNI: Jason, you know, obviously everybody holds their breath when something like that happens to Jason. Got good, positive news back on him today. So I'm not going to put a timetable on anybody, as you guys know, but we're hopeful after the bye he'll be ready to go.
Same thing with Jordan Howard. Same thing, not going to put a timetable on anything, but we're hopeful. We know that his rehab is progressing and he's doing better each day.
And, again, I'll have more information after the bye week with Brandin Brooks.
Q. Couple other guys got nicked up I guess as well. Steve Nelson, Patrick Johnson; any updates on those guys? And also, Stout, if you have anything you can add or where Stout is right now?
COACH SIRIANNI: Yeah, Patrick and Steve, they should be good after the bye. With Stout, yeah, he was in today. He was in just like normal today, so seems like completely back to himself.
I'll let him answer those questions about anything. When you guys talk to him you can ask him those. I don't want put his business out there.
But he was back on the sideline for the second half. He was sure glad to see him, and he was back at work today rearing and ready to go.
He's really important to this coaching staff and this team. He's the best offensive line coach I've ever been around. Just excited that he's here and he's healthy and he's on this staff.
Q. With all the Gardner Minshew questions yesterday we didn't get a chance to ask you about the defense. What kind of changed in the second half? Do you think a lot of it was a result of the fact that the offense just had the ball for so long and kept them off the field? I think it was like 22 to 8 as far as time of possession was concerned.
COACH SIRIANNI: Yeah, that time of possession thing goes both ways. Yeah, it's won because of how the offense is playing, but also the defense is forcing three and outs. I thought -- or forcing them to punt.
I thought the defense did a really nice job. After that third possession where they went down and scored I thought they did a really good job ever adjusting. Adjusting what they needed to adjust to put our guys in position to succeed, and the guys did a good job handling the adjustments and going from there.
So, again, like the first three series didn't go at all how we wanted it to go, but they really had that dog mentality that, Hey, brush it off and just play the next play. They really played awesome defense from there on out.
So that's sometimes it's like that, right? You never want to be like that, I get it, but sometimes it is, and you want to be able to win every different way in this league.
So we were able to start slow on defense yesterday and finish fast. That was good to see.
Q. After watching the tape, obviously saw that Dallas was super productive yesterday. What do you think made him so effective, and how did he step up from a leadership standpoint with Jalen sidelined?
COACH SIRIANNI: Yeah, you know, what Dallas -- you know, the big long play you just saw his speed going through the middle, and sometimes you get him matched up on those linebackers or safeties on the inside and he is fast. He can really, really run.
You saw what he did when he got matched up with Mosley there yesterday on the vertical route. So that was really good to see.
And then just be able to get the ball in his hands on some screens, some easy touches. This guy is a monster when he gets the ball in his hands. He's big, he's strong, he's hard to tackle.
So if we can get the ball -- and I think our guys, our offensive linemen are good in the screen game, so if we can get those guys out in front of him and back these defensive backs tackle him in space, that's what we wanted to do.
Any time you have a guy down it's like, Who is going to step up? Obviously Gardner did a great job of stepping up and in when Jalen was down, especially at that quarterback spot.
You want everybody to step up around it, too. You want the offensive line to play good, you want the defense to play good, special -- you know, and that's where I saw his leadership abilities.
Like he stepped up and made plays for a guy that was starting his first game for the year.
Q. DeVonta Smith took his lowest percentage of snaps this season and he took the third most of wide receivers; why was that?
COACH SIRIANNI: You know, with a couple of the things we had in that game, we were in 13 personnel and we were running some good things out of 13 personnel and we were having some success in the run game and in the play-action game, and with who we wanted in there on 13 personnel with what we were asking them to do, that was Raegor. That's where Reagor got a lot of the those snaps.
And so that's just the way it went. Not going to apologize. We didn't punt until the last series of the game and so that's just the way it went that game and that's the flow sometimes.
So that's kind of why it went that way, though, Zach.
Q. So no injury with him?
COACH SIRIANNI: No. Yeah, he's good. He's feeling good. Be good to get a bye week there to get him more rested and see him be even faster coming back off the bye.
Q. Zach took my question so I'll adjust here. What's the schedule going to be like this week for your coaching staff and for the players and then next week when you guys reconvene?
COACH SIRIANNI: Yeah, players, we work today. Brought them in today. Going to let them be off the rest of the week. Again, we're in a late bye here so I think it's really important that they step away, get their -- especially get they're bodies right.
But I know a lot of their minds are going to be thinking about coming back and playing.
I think all of us, I'm going to do the same thing for the coaches. We're gone work tomorrow for the coaches and Wednesday will be up in the air about what we are going to do, but I want our coaches to get away so we're fresh and ready to go and rearing to go when we get back in.
But at the end of the day, we're going to be away but I know, like I said, we're football guys. We're going to think about football. We're going to watch football when we're away. I'm going to go to my son's flag football game on Wednesday and watch some football there. I am going to watch the Thursday night game with the Steelers and the Vikings. I'm going to watch football all week. I am going to watch the Army-Navy game on Saturday. That's who I am and that's what I like to do.
And so we'll be away and recharging, but I know our guys, we'll be on the group text with the coaches or the players and talking about plays that are happening in the games that we're watching that week. I don't know how many coaching points I'll have from my six year old's flag football game, but if there is something to learn, we'll learn from it.
Q. You have a bunch rookies contributing this year. How real is the rookie wall, and how do you try to prevent that and make sure they're productive down the stretch?
COACH SIRIANNI: Yeah, that's a good question. You know, I think the rookie wall is usually happening -- has happened a little bit earlier if it would've happened, so I don't put much into it.
I know things like that if you talk about more I think you kind of bring it to fruition a little bit more, so we don't really do a lot of talking about it.
But I feel like the way we are handling our guys as the year -- not just the rookies but everybody -- as we are handling guys throughout the year, we've went to walk-throughs on Wednesday, right, that way we can have our Thursday and Friday practice the same way.
And so I know that helps us in a long season. So it's not just about the rookies. It's about helping all of them. But we know we're getting really good contribution from our rookies, so we want to continue that.
We're always thinking about the player's health first and foremost and how we can keep them fast and physical and aggressive throughout the entire year. Obviously that's a group effort with myself, the strength and conditioning staff, and our training staff and doctors. And Howie.
Q. In 2018 when you were with the Indianapolis Colts you guys started off really slow and then you went on that run and be able to make the playoffs. You guys are in a similar situation now. Do you take anything away from that scenario to use for this year? How similar are the teams, not just like personnel, but on and off the field?
COACH SIRIANNI: Yeah, you know what you take from it is that you can't win all your games in one week. We had that 1-0 mentality in Indy, and I'm going to think the same way here. What are we going to do to beat the Washington Football Team? That's our first and foremost goal.
Obviously get your bodies right here, but what are you going to do to be 1-0? That's kind of the mentality we have about our process, about how we go through the week, how we put ourselves in position to go 1-0 each week. Not thinking too far ahead. Learning from your past mistakes, past successes, but not thinking about those but being completely in the moment.
That's been the similarity I believe is just staying in the moment of one game at a time, one game at a time, one play at a time over and over and over again.
So that's the major similarities. I felt like we were a team that was tough in Indianapolis. I felt like that was kind of like we became tough in Indianapolis. That's how I felt in that 2018 season. We became tough.
I believe this team was tough from the beginning because of leaders we have on this team and the guys that have been here in the past. I just think that's showing up over and over again that we're a tough, hard-nosed football team that is winning games up front on the offensive and defensive line.
Q. Hey Nick, you're going to come back from the bye no worse than a game out of a wildcard spot and possible even tied for the sixth seed in the NFC. How far ahead of schedule are you guys from when you came in here and essentially took over a team that was rebuilding. I know you like to use the word retooling, but how far ahead of schedule are you?
COACH SIRIANNI: You know, I think obviously I would like to be in better shape. There are some games out there that we feel like we could have got earlier in the year that we didn't.
But our job is to try to win every single game, so my mind is in a mindset of whatever we got to do to win each and every game, that's what we're going to do. And so I don't want to look atmosphere it as ahead of schedule. All I really care about is getting a little bit better each day.
I know you're not going to go like this each day where you're just shooting up the charts, but can we just do this each day.
I think the teams that do just get a little bit better every day, and we have a formula of how we want to do that. It's not like a blind statements of, Hey, get a little bit better every day and we leave it at that.
We have a formula of how we want to do this, and for the teams that do that, that he puts you on schedule of being the best team that you can be that year with the guys and the coaches and the players that you have on that team.
And so I like the progression we're on, because I do believe that that's what we've done each year -- or pardon me, each day, is just getting a little bit better.
That's been the message, and we got some great leaders on this team that enforce that message.
Q. Two questions: What did you think of CJ Mosley's comments that you guys disrespected them, and did you see the video of Gardner celebrating? (Audio distorted.) What was your reaction to that?
COACH SIRIANNI: Yeah, I got a little bit of that. I think you broke off a little bit. I think I heard both of them. Obviously I'm really close with my dad, and so to see Gardner be able to celebrate with his dad like that after a game, that hit me. That was kind of special to me just because I know how close I am with my dad. That was a really cool video.
I really like seeing stuff like that. Sometimes you feel like you see too much of the negative stuff and you don't see stuff like that. To be able to see that and have that moment with his dad, that's pretty cool. That's pretty special.
And as far as CJ Mosley's comments, obviously we just want to be respectful to our opponents. I did like Fletch's response to that they didn't shake hands, well at least they hugged before the game. So I thought that was clever by Fletch.
But we respect the Jets. I do believe we respect every opponent we play. You know, I have a ton of respect for Coach Saleh and the job he's doing. I want to continue to have that relationship with him. We know similar people.
Because I want to continue to practice against them in training camp. I think that was good for both sides to be able to do that, and so just want to keep that relationship going.
But I understand that frustrations happen out there. You know, no other comments than that right there.
Q. Seems like Landon Dickerson has been playing at a pretty high level. Curious what you've seen out of him of late, and if there is any kind of comp from an offensive lineman you've watched or been around for Landon?
COACH SIRIANNI: Yeah, you know, Landon, I think you see him kind of getting a little bit better each week. That happens. Like when you're a young player particularly you can make some big strides there. You kind of look at it like he's not really a rookie anymore because we're almost past ten games that he's played. And so, he's just continuing to get better.
I think there is some -- I know this is high praise, but I do see some of the physical movements that kind of like Quenton Nelson had. There are some things that I see and I'm like, that looked like Quenton right there. Obviously I think Quenton is a great football player, so that's a high praise, because Quenton has done a lot for me in my career in the teams that I've been on.
But I do see that every once in a while where I'm like, Hey, that movement looked like Quenton right there as comp goes. I just see Landon playing tough and playing physical and playing nasty, right? Which is what you want out of your offensive line. So he's getting more confident, more comfortable being on that offensive line, and he's got one of the best centers to ever play this game next to him helping him through it. What an opportunity for him to play alongside Jason Kelce and help him through that first year and forward.
And then also the being able to have combination blocks with Jordyn Mailata. He's huge, and so now you get these two huge bodes on the left side working combination blocks, whether that's on the front side of a run, which you saw on the touchdown run by Kenny working a combination block into the linebacker, or whether that's on the backside of a run where they're working that combination block.
So he's got two good guys to work with alongside him, too, and obviously Coach Stout is a great coach that is continuing to develop him along.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports