Q. Are what strides have you seen Jordan Davis make week-to-week?
NICK SIRIANNI: I just think he's getting a little bit better each week. He's a big man who had learned to play in the NFL against other big men and so he's getting bet everybody each week. He's doing a good job. He had his best game to date last game, and again he's just in that mindset, the growth mindset of how he gets better every day. He's got the strength and the athleticism and the size to be really good.
It's him learning, like we talk about Jalen all the time of hey, where do you see his strides. Well he's getting accumulated reps, right and figuring out how to play and that's what you're saying with Jordan. I was thinking, you were pretty close to me right there.
Q. In what ways have Jalen's responsibilities grown?
NICK SIRIANNI: I would say, you know, it's been similar throughout the past year. You know, obviously we try to do our best as coaches to make it simple for him to look for things and so he can go out there and execute and play. But you know, I think it's pretty similar. You might give him one or two more checks or opportunities to maybe last year we built things in for him a little bit more and now we are saying this year, if you see this, get to that.
There's definitely growth in it but similar, because it's similar, I think it's similar if you go back to when we had Philip Rivers or Andrew Luck or like you know, we don't try to put too much on these guys because we want them to be able to play fast and play free. So it's the same thing. It's the same thing there.
So you might have a little bit more here and there but again you have to be careful of that and you have to guard yourself on that, when you let your quarterback try to put you in a perfect play each time. That doesn't work either. Sometimes you do that you get down to the one-second on the play clock and you're clapping for the ball. There's a balance in it and he's definitely had some more growth with that but again the more he can handle, the more we have to guard ourselves on how much you still give him.
Q. You said that when there were some blitzes -- seemed like a few times you guys didn't have numbers there. What kind of answers do you give him when there are free men blitzing from the inside?
NICK SIRIANNI: That's a scheme thing that I think our opponents would want as well so I'm going to keep some of that in-house. But everything we do is try to have ab answer to take a hit off him or everything we do is going to try to have an answer -- every time you think about game planning a defense, you have to think about the unique defenses they do and how those can cause issues for and have an answer for that.
The answer could be different every time, and I'm kind of answering your question -- I'm trying to answer your question as best I possibly can without giving too much information. The answer is going to be a little bit -- sometimes it's going to be an inside thing and sometimes it's going to be an outside thing and sometimes it's going to be a shot down the field and sometimes it's going to be a screen like we had some last week. It's never the same against the blitzes that they bring, right. It's always going to be a little different because when you're the same, it's the same thing we always talk about, right. You give tells to the defense, right. And so if it was always a short thing, then they are going to play off of that as well. So there's got to be variety to it. And we are very conscious of that, and we're thinking about that a lot.
Q. What have you seen overall from him in terms of -- Jalen in handling the blitz?
NICK SIRIANNI: I think really well. I think that you're seeing -- I think last year, you saw -- doing things like even when he scrambles, right, you're seeing him chunk it down the field. Like it's not -- and I've read something, a player on the Cardinals said last week every time he goes right he throws it, and every time he goes left, he runs it, but he could throw it. Well, I don't think that's true. I've actually seen him growing there that he's breaking out-of-the-pocket and he's making plays with both his feet or his arm to the right or to the left.
They brought one more than we could protect on the third and 12 last week, right, the big play of the game, right, the one we talked so much about. The one to Dallas on the last drive, they brought one more than we can block. They brought one right off the edge. Kenny free release right there, we kind of blocked the free safety because they brought six, we had five, boom, and now, did he run there? No. He stood in there, threw a bullet to Dallas for one of the biggest conversions we've had had this year and the biggest play of that game.
The answer is, to me, like he's got more variety to his game in that.
Q. Thinking about guys that have run the ball well in the red zone, where do you feel like the passing game is in the red zone and is that an area you'd like to see sharper?
NICK SIRIANNI: No, I look at always where we are in the red zone, you want to score touchdowns every single time you get down in there. The reality; that's our goal, we have a certain goal and you know, I think we are a little short of what our goal is, right. You always want to be in the Top-5, Top-10 and we are in the top, I think we are eighth in red zone. A.
But you know, we are a little short of what our goal is. So you're looking for ways to improve it. We know that we have ability to run the ball down there but again, you don't want to be too predictable, either. Sour looking to Murray things. You're looking to mesh things together.
I thought in the Jacksonville game, we had some opportunities to make some plays there in the pass game on that just because that was the way it was going, and we missed a couple of those opportunities, whether it was a coaching thing or whether it was an execution thing, this or that. Obviously we always want it improve there and that's always a focus for how we are going to improve passing the ball in there and using our play-makers down there.
Q. In the 2021 draft what was your view of Parsons coming out and how did you expect him to be used in in the NFL.
NICK SIRIANNI: I thought obviously he was a really outstanding player. I remember that Bowl game he had against Memphis because I think we were watching, actually, was Kenny in that game, too? I think he was. I remember that Bowl game that he had, I think it was the year before it and just thinking how much of a dynamic playmaker he is. To say that I remember the plan that we had if we were going to draft him, I don't remember. I think I was lobbying pretty hard for DeVonta. So I was thinking more about that.
But yeah, I just remember just how much of a playmaker he is and he was, and being at Penn State, so a lot of respect for him. He's doing the same things he was doing at Penn State and he's doing it at a high level in the NFL.
Q. Speaking of play-makers, Diggs, a corner who maybe gambles a little more. Not everybody does that. As an offensive guy, how do you approach that when you're talking to the quarterback because it can work both ways?
NICK SIRIANNI: Sure we were upstairs talking about it just now, you have to be alert for where Parsons is, you have to be alert for where Lawrence is and you have to be alert for where he is. I was with Hooker in Indy and he has got great ball skills. You have to be alert where he is because he can turn the ball over.
As far as Diggs goes, you've just got to be alert for where he is and understand the routes against him. He's a really good playmaker. He's the guy that he reminds me of just because being in the division, you think about all the guys you play, he reminds me of a Marcus Peters type, that you make a mistake with him, so if you make a mistake, he'll make you pay, and that's the sign of a good corner. He'll make you pay if you make a mistake. So we've got to be on our fundamentals. We have to be on our details and we have be on our reads and because we know they have the play-makers over there on defense to make you pay if you're not.
Q. McCarthy just said that Cooper rush is starting. What do you know about him and are you surprised? A lot of us are, at the level of success they have enjoyed with him at quarterback?
NICK SIRIANNI: Hats off to Dallas that they have done such a great job. They lost one of their best players and one of the better players in the league and they keep rolling. They have won four in a row without Dak, and to me, the play-makers that they have around Dak and Cooper, and it's also coaching. They have done a really good job. We definitely know more about Cooper rush than we did last year at this time because there's more games on him. We'll study the crap out of those games and have a plan for it, and I know we already do have a plan for it. But he's doing a nice job.
Yeah, I have to give credit to Cooper rush, too, right. He's going out there and he's executing and he's putting them in a position to help them win. And so a lot of respect there, but you know, like I said, we do have more tape on him than the Rams did or than the Giants did or than the -- I don't remember that order that they played. But good job to these guys of putting them in position to succeed.
Q. Walk throughs today, were you leaning on player data, sports science stuff?
NICK SIRIANNI: A little bit of both. It's how our guys are feeling, where we are at right now. You know, coming off the rest, what the data was on some of their workouts, so it's a little bit of everything.
Again, I have to get all the information that I can from every different department, and then I have to do what's best for the football team, right. So I have to take the data. I have to take the trainers, I've got to take the trainers and all the different -- the elements and what great resources we have here at the Philadelphia Eagles, unlike any organization I've ever been at, the resources that we have. But at the end of the day I have to make a decision on what's best for the football team and this is what I thought it was today.
Q. Is there a conversation with the captains, too?
NICK SIRIANNI: You know, I think they are going to always want to practice. They are always going to want to go. But I discuss with them, I always have a leadership council meeting every Saturday. I'm going to discuss everything with them.
So they are definitely kept in the loop.
Q. Last year, I know 51 came against your backups. Do you use that?
NICK SIRIANNI: Last year was last year and we are in a new year. Somebody asked me something about that. Like you know, because we got new players, right. Like Chauncey doesn't care that he scored 96 last game. AJ doesn't care they scored 96 last time. We are here. We can't control that, right. We can only control where we are at today. We are not looking behind us. We are not looking ahead of us. We are looking at what we have to do to go 1-0 today so we can go 1-0 this weekend.
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