Q. As far as Damar Hamlin, have you talk to the team? What kind of conversations have you had about what went down Monday night?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, any time there's a situation outside of our building that requires discussion, we definitely do that. That's kind of our standard operating procedure here, and we did the same thing today.
I won't get into the conversation and the major specifics, but really just want everyone to know that they have a lot of people that care for them in this building and that the relationships, this is one of the reasons why you build the relationships, so the people that are hurting from this can come talk to the people they need to.
Then, obviously, we just all feel for Damar and his family and just praying for his speedy recovery.
Q. Where do you stand in terms of Jalen's readiness for Sunday?
NICK SIRIANNI: We'll have to keep that day-by-day. We don't have to make a decision yet, and we're going to see how this week goes, and we'll see how today's walk-through goes of everything.
And then tomorrow we'll see a little bit more because we'll be more than a walk-through. We'll be practicing. So we'll get a better idea here within the next couple of days.
Q. When you see something like that happen that happened Monday night, how do you -- I mean, it reminded all of us, I think, of just our own mortality, and it is truly a life-or-death situation. How do you handle that with talking to guys who might be slightly skittish when they need to dress for this weekend?
NICK SIRIANNI: Sure. The first thing you do when you see that, it's just shock. You know, you don't see that very often, so it just shocks you.
A lot of emotions and things are going through your mind. My first was as a football coach and as a former football player what was going through my mind. And then it turned into -- my thought process turned into how do I mentor 80 guys through a tough situation like this? And then it turned into, well, my son plays football.
There's just a lot of emotions that you have to go through, but to me it's not -- to me it is just the support aspect of it. It's not how do I -- the last thing on my mind is how do I convince them that -- how did you kind of say it? You said, like, they have to go out and play.
It's just we're just here for them right now and trying to just be there for them, and this is an opportunity for us to practice what we preach. Do we really believe the connecting thing, or is it all just BS? This is our opportunity to not only say we're there for you guys, but also be there for them.
So that's all we care about is that they know that they've got a lot of people. All the guys, anybody that's suffering through this mentally, knows that they have people in this building that care -- first of all, they have the resources in this building to be able to talk through thing if they need to talk through things and then with all the different people that we, but then also they have their teammates and their coaches that deeply -- and front office that deeply care about these guys.
Just like we do anything, just do it together and get through this tough time. You know, there's been other things that we've had these things in the past couple of years as well that you just go through, you have tough conversations, and you go through it, but at the end of the day you just want them to know that you're there for them and that you'll do anything you can do to...
And then one thing that we talked about was, hey, there's a lot of perks to this game. This game gives us a lot of different things, and we're completely grateful for those things, but the best perk it gives us is the relationships. If you ask somebody -- if you ask a player or a coach who is no longer involved in the game, what did you -- of course, we'll be able to rattle off some wins or some plays or whatever, some cool restaurant in Philly that we ate at or anything like that, but the first thing that's going to come to everybody's mind is the relationships.
So that's what you have hoped you've built to this point so you can help guys through a tough time.
Q. After speaking with the players are you sensing any hesitancy among any of them about returning to play?
NICK SIRIANNI: Not the sense that I've gotten, but, again, that's not been the -- for the past couple of days when I've talked to guys on the phone or seen them in person, that's not been the focus of the conversation. The focus of the conversations is how can we be there for you? So we're not even to that point yet.
We might not ever get to that point, right? It's just we want to be there for these guys in a tough time, and that's where we are reason.
Q. How do you balance those conversations with also trying to refocus for a game on Sunday?
NICK SIRIANNI: You know, you just do. You go from one to the next, and you try to make the transition there because you talk about the tough things that are happening, and you have that conversation and then you transition.
It's not easy, and it's not from going from, like, meetings to walk-through. That's not what we're talking about here, so you just try to move on. It's a tough balance, but you just try to move on to the next thing and be where you are at that time, but also understanding that guys' minds could be in other places at that time as well.
Q. Have you met with Josh Sweat, and is he back with the team?
NICK SIRIANNI: Josh is back here today. No update as far as where he is as far as anything there. We'll just continue to take it day-by-day.
Obviously we all know what happened to him on Sunday, but it was good to see him back in here today and a smile on his face. Probably going to be bugging me to play. We'll see, but we'll take that day-by-day. I'm glad he is back in the building with his teammates.
Q. Do you anticipate opening the practice window for Chauncey Gardner-Johnson or Robert Quinn? And also Avonte, is there any update on how is he doing? Do you had a chance to get him back?
NICK SIRIANNI: With Avonte, again, we're just taking that day-by-day as well, right, and we'll see when -- like, I'm not going to put a time table on him. I know he is getting better as it goes.
I know he has been in there every day rehabbing and so not sure when we'll get Avonte back. We're hopeful that we get him back, but not sure when that's going to happen.
With Chauncey and with Robert, we'll open their window today and open they are practice window today.
Q. Jalen, will he be taking part in the walk-through today?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yes.
Q. Last year you ran a quarterback sneak 14 times. This year 30 times, which no other team is doing. My data goes back to 2000, and nobody has run a quarterback sneak 30 times since 2000. The highest is 20. You are running at an unprecedented rate here. What goes into that decision? Why is it working for you, and why is that part of your strategy this year?
NICK SIRIANNI: Good question. Man, yeah, we lead the league in that. Good, yes.
What goes behind the decision is execution breeds confidence, and it's probably not the right time to say this because we didn't get the one done on Sunday, but we really just trust those guys in that scenario.
I think somebody asked me if I had to do it again, and I would. The answer is I would do it because I have so much confidence that our guys will get it done and really the confidence really starts in those first three guys right there. It's Jason Kelce, it's Isaac, and it's Landon and them pushing the way right there.
Then it's the quarterback getting through it, and then there's a lot of different elements to it. So, you know, we have confidence in the play. We've scored a bunch of touchdowns on it. We've got a lot of third-and-short yardage conversions on it, so that's where the execution breeds our confidence and why we like to call it.
You know, as far as the pure sure number of it as we've been in a lot of -- we've been pretty good on first and second downs, obviously with the exception of the last game, but we've been pretty good on first and second down where we're putting ourselves in positions to run these plays because we have a lot of short yardage plays.
So the sheer number of it of why they're so high is because we've been in a lot of goal-to-goal situations. We've been in a lot of short-yardage situations, and that's where we've been comfortable running those plays. So that's a credit to the guys of what they've done on first and second down is why the sheer number of it.
Q. You joked with Kelce about his 92% stat on that. Did he actually -- like, did you guys actually have a conversation about it, or was that --
NICK SIRIANNI: Say that one more time.
Q. Kelce talked about on the podcast about the 92%.
NICK SIRIANNI: Oh, the 92%. We have a lot of confidence in the play. He is one of the reasons why. I don't know the exact number of what it was.
Q. Did he lobby you for doing it more or no?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah. Yeah, I actually can't quite remember all that, but we do it because of him because he is so good at it. So maybe subconsciously he did lobby just because of how good of a player he is and how good he is at that.
Like I said, we've had confidence in the play. We've done a good job with the play, and the players have done a great job, and the coaches have done a good job of coaching the detail of the play.
You would be surprised how much detail goes into just that play. Like, well, they just get down low and push, right? There's so much detail that goes well they into the play and the different things we've had conversations with. We've done a nice job with that play because of the guys.
Q. You guys have players in those plays mostly -- Jalen will get pushed by a couple of players behind him. There's different formations that you use. That's kind of the feature of it. Talking to people around the league, that seems to be kind of a new aspect of the QB sneak is actually pushing the quarterback, having guys do that. Have you talked to any defensive guys around the league who are annoyed with you for --
NICK SIRIANNI: I'm sure. Yeah, I'm sure they are. Until they say that we can't do that, it's legal. There's a lot of things that -- as an offensive coach there's a lot of things that defensive coaches do that annoy us as well on the opposite end.
So, you know, we're doing what we can do to put our guys in position to succeed, and then our guys are going out and doing it.
Q. If I could go back to Josh Sweat. Obviously what happened on the field Sunday was kind of traumatic and then to have Damar Hamlin the next night. Do you think that makes it even more difficult for your guys seeing this two days in a row basically?
NICK SIRIANNI: Again, I'm not trying to go there. I'm just, again, being there for them to talk through things. Like I said, I've had a bunch of conversations with guys.
But, of course, there's a human side to this too of they see those things and, of course, it's going to affect us in different ways. Not everybody is going to be affected the same way on it.
Josh Sweat's situation was scary. I think having to watch him lay there before he -- and not getting up right away, that's a scary thing too. So the guys have to deal with and have to maneuver. That's tough.
That's the tough part of this game. I mean, the injuries happen in this game. Again, you just try to be there for the guys, and that's all you're trying to do, and everybody's situation and everybody's thought process is a little bit different, but that's why you have the relationships so you can help because not everybody's case is the same.
Q. Six sacks. People might say, oh, Lane is not there or Garner held the ball too long. What was your take on that, and how do you think Jack Driscoll did coming in at right tackle?
NICK SIRIANNI: Obviously, you never want to give up that many sacks because they put you behind. It's worse than an incomplete pass, right, because you're losing yards on it.
So there's are plenty of blame to go around for those sacks, right? Whether we didn't put the player at -- first and foremost, we didn't put the players in a couple of the sacks. Like, man, there wasn't anybody open on that, and we just didn't do a good job helping the guys get open. Or whether a receiver didn't get open on a play or a tight end didn't get open on a play or running back missed the block.
It is a true 11 -- it's the best team game there is, and so it truly takes all 11 to do it, and it takes us as coaches too to put them in the right spot. So a ton of blame to go around for that, and it starts with us as coaches to make sure that we get guys -- help guys get open in those senses.
I thought Jack did a nice job coming in and playing against a player that's a good player, and he fought, and he is going to get better from this, so no complaints there with Jack.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports