Philadelphia Eagles Media Conference

Tuesday, December 7, 2021

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Shane Steichen

Weekday Press Conference


SHANE STEICHEN: I just want to start off real quick, I just want to say I think Jason Kelce being nominated for Walter Payton man of the year, I think that's a tremendous honor to be nominated for that prestigious award. That's one of the biggest awards, I think, in all of sports. Tremendous honor. Hat's off to him for what he does for this league.

Q. Just wanted to get your perspective on Gardner and what went right with the passing game, the efficiency of the passing game, especially in the first half there when he was really cooking.

SHANE STEICHEN: I thought he played a heck of a game. He was efficient getting the ball out of his hands, getting completions, and moving the chains. I think that's a tribute to his preparation that he puts in every week and also the guys. It was a team win.

Miles went for over 100 yards. Dallas had a big game. Offensive line blocked their tails off. So it was a complete effort by everyone in getting it going.

Q. I wanted to ask you about Dallas Goedert. I think he was targeted on the first four throws from Gardner. Was that kind of a concerted effort to get him the ball early on coming out of a game a week ago where he didn't have any yards receiving?

SHANE STEICHEN: I think with any game plan -- I know I've said this before, but we always want to get our guys the ball. We always have targets up for those guys, and when you hit the right coverages on a few of those things, they hit for big plays. We hit the big touchdown to him on the third down. We got the coverage we wanted and hit the big play to him there.

Obviously, some of those screens, we got those things going early, so it was good to see.

Q. Curious what the biggest area of growth you've seen out of Devonta Smith you've seen.

SHANE STEICHEN: He's such a talented player in general, and his route running is really good. He sees the game really well, and when the coverages change, he knows how to adjust his route. And when there's zone coverage, he knows how to sit in the dead spots. At the line of scrimmage, his first step off the line of scrimmage continues to improve, and he can create that separation to win the one-on-ones.

Q. Kenny Gainwell got to see some action on Sunday. After looking at the film, how would you assess the way he played after being inactive the previous week?

SHANE STEICHEN: He was great. He did a good job. Obviously he hit the big touchdown run, that third touchdown run. It was a great job by the offensive line on the double-team, on the three technique, and him hitting it and seeing. Reagor making the block for him. It was one-on-one with the corner. He did a heck of a job there.

Coming out of the backfield catching those footballs and hitting it. He's an explosive player. We're glad we have him on our team. Again, he saw the holes well. He hit it well. He had a good game.

Q. I want to ask you about like the rookies in general on offense who are getting a chance to play a lot. Obviously, Devonta and Landon and Kenny. How much does this experience kind of help them knowing that you guys are going for a playoff berth and everything like that, playing these critical games and having a large role in that?

Obviously, Devonta and Landon have done this at Alabama and stuff, but I'm sure it's different in the NFL.

SHANE STEICHEN: No question. It's a tremendous opportunity for all three of those guys. Again, it was a great job of drafting those guys by Howie and his staff. Those are three really good players that are going to have a good future in this league for a long time. You can see the growth they've made throughout the weeks, and they continue to get better. It's a tribute to them putting the effort in and also their position coaches for working with them day in and day out to get those guys better.

So we just want to continue to improve right on their performances every week and continue to get better every day.

Q. Could you tell us what Jalen was like during the game on Sunday? How involved was he on the head set and stuff like that? What was your perspective of what he did?

SHANE STEICHEN: He was great. He was very involved, obviously, on the sidelines when we were talking through things, looking at certain -- the pictures, looking at the next series, the drive, having good conversations on the sidelines with myself, Gardner, Brian, all those guys. So it was good to see him. He was very involved, and he was in tune.

Q. I was just curious, what does Jalen Reagor do well that complements their team personnel?

SHANE STEICHEN: He's got really good speed. He's got really good speed, so a lot of that stuff with him in there, obviously, we ran it pretty good in those situations, but he's got speed to take the top off. If we ever want to take shots in this personnel group, he has the speed to do it.

Q. Shane, what can Jalen Hurts learn or apply to his next start from watching Gardner?

SHANE STEICHEN: I think with anything everyone learns from everybody, right? Just like Gardner learns from Jalen. There's a lot of things unique about both of those guys. They're their own player. But I think with any position, you learn from each other, right?

So like, for instance, like Miles learned something from Kenny, Kenny learned something from Miles or Dallas learns something from Zach. All those different things. I think everyone learns from each other. Coaches learn from each other. And then anything you can take from one another, you take it and apply it to your game.

Q. Nick was asked the other day about snap counts and DeVonta Smith not getting as many snaps as questions or Reagor, and he said 13 personnel was one of the reasons why. What was it about 13 personnel that you guys liked about this Jets defense?

SHANE STEICHEN: I think in general it's week to week, right? It's week to week. Not getting into too much scheme stuff about the Jets and what they do defensively, that's more so what it is than anything. What are we going to the game plan with that personnel group? Who's going to be that receiver and 13 personnel, and it just happened to be Reagor this week. And that could change.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
115394-1-1182 2021-12-07 17:51:00 GMT

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