Q. Who is your quarterback on Sunday?
NICK SIRIANNI: You know, we're still sorting through that. Obviously Jalen had a good practice yesterday and went out and looked like he did some things really well.
So still going to sort through all those things. Haven't deciding anything yet. Shoot, got a couple days. Still got time.
Q. Does it matter how he responds to that?
NICK SIRIANNI: Of course. Yeah, everything matters with how he's feeling and what we feel like the timetable is and what the doctors are saying. Everything matters. Everything is in play.
Obviously the first and foremost thing that's most important thing for Jalen is that his health is taken into consideration first and if it's safe for him to be out there.
Then from there, then you do what's best for the team. You first do what's best for the individual.
Q. How did you divvy up team snaps?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I'll keep in-house business in-house. Jalen was out there and did some good things at practice.
Q. What stood out about... (indiscernible.)
NICK SIRIANNI: That it wasn't -- I just didn't feel like it was affected. The velocity of the ball was good, the accuracy was good, that he felt good. So those were the main things, and that's what you want to see.
Q. What else do you need to see from him?
NICK SIRIANNI: I think you guys ask me that question to me quite often, and just always going to go back to what the doctors are saying, what Jalen is saying, and where we think he is at that time. I don't think it's a, hey, I got to see him through it 57 yards on the left-hand side.
It's not ever going to be anything like that. It's just going to always be about the information I get from a Jalen and knowing how badly he wants to play, that I got to listen it the doctors as well. So it's both, and then obviously we got to make a decision that's best for Jalen.
Q. (Indiscernible.) (Regarding contact.)
NICK SIRIANNI: Like I said, everything is in consideration, yeah. Yeah, so it's got to be everything. He's got to be okay to throw. He's got to be -- he ain't wearing a red jersey on Sunday and we wouldn't ask to do that.
Q. You could.
NICK SIRIANNI: You could. I don't think they'd oblige. Yeah, so it makes me think of a funny story between my head coach in college Larry Kehres and my brother's team always at scrimmages against Mt. Union. There was an argument one year, we'll take off the red jerseys if you want. That was Coach Kehres yelling that to my brother.
Obviously that's not the case here.
Q. Nick, when you have a quarterback who you said is the toughest player you've ever been around, how difficult is that conversation to get a read on what he's telling you?
NICK SIRIANNI: That's why it can't just be him. He's naturally going to -- he's going to want to be out there no matter what, so he's going to say -- in my opinion, he's going to say what he needs to say to play.
But that's why it's a group effort to figure it out, right? Again, you have to -- Jalen's health is the first thing you think of. We all got to be responsible for that. Like Jalen, and we urge him to be as truthful as he possibly can in that scenario. Hey, I know you're feeling good. Just be truthful, but also what the doctors are feeling, what they're seeing, all the different things.
So that's why it's not just one guy's decision. If it was just Jalen's decision on this, of course he would go out and play. He would go out and play with way worse things maybe just because we now how tough is.
Q. What about replacing Lane Johnson?
NICK SIRIANNI: You're going to try that again, huh? I'll say the exact same thing I said two days ago: We have some options. That's a good thing, right?
So you have really three good options. You can move Jordan over to right side; you can put Andre to the right side; you could Jack Driscoll to the right side. That's a good thing that we have options, and credit to Howie and his staff that we do have options and the depth that we have.
Q. With Jalen and Gardner, obviously have to get Gardner ready if needed. Do you want to make a decision at a certain point because of the value of that position and Gardner has to be ready, or can you take it up to Game Day?
NICK SIRIANNI: I think you can take it up to Game Day. Again, the body is still healing. He is still going through these enthusiasm things, so two days from now he's going to be healthier than what he is today.
Gardner has been in this position where he has to do everything he has to do to prepare, unlimited reps, on a lot of reps, like all the different things, and that's why Gardner is a great pro. We got a lot of confidence in him that he's going to be ready no matter what the scenario is.
Whether he's the back up; whether he's the starter, whether he's right now the starter but turns into the backup, whether right now he's the backup and turns into the starter, Gardner will make sure he's ready because that's the type of guy he is and that's the role that he has to play in that position.
Q. (Indiscernible.)
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, you always look at your last game plans, but we also know they're looking at their last game plans, and you always look at your last game films, and you know they're looking at it. You do that. That's just part of your process. I think that's part of every coach's process, to look at the last time you played them.
I think sometimes even goes back to, okay, what about two times ago when we played them? What about three times ago when we played them? What about for times ago when we played them? What about those preseason practices we had with them when Shane and I were in San Diego and Dennis Allen was the defensive coordinator for New Orleans in 2017? Do we have that tape? Probably. Does he have that tape? Probably.
And so you think about everything, and so you just try not to leave any stone unturned and you're trying to put your guys in position to succeed as much as you can, and that's our job, is to turn every stone over to look for any answer we can.
Q. What did you think of the response to how the team, defense specifically and those individually impacted by third and 30 responded this week?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I think it's just been the response of the team any time we've been down this year, whether it's in the midst of a game or after a loss. Just feel like we came back to work and fixed the mistakes, took accountability for the mistakes. We own the mistakes, we fixed the mistakes with great detail, and then we try to have a dog mentality about it and we try to do all that together.
That's been what we've tried all week. We put ourselves in this scenario. Own it, fix it with great detail, dog mentality, move on the next one, and let's lock arms and do it together.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports