Q. Being a few months into the off-season, obviously you've gotten a chance to watch some film. Have you analyzed the dropoff that happened midseason?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, that's what this early parts are for, these early -- you get a little bit of time to get away. You hire new coaches. You get a little time to get away, and then you start to analyze your season and watch draft prospects, watch free agencies.
So that's what we're in the process of right now. What happened -- what we did well, what we didn't do well. Obviously there was a dropoff of how we played down the stretch and how we coached down the stretch.
Again, these are still in the early stages of us kind of identifying those things. Don't want to give you a premature answer.
But, yeah, that's what we're in the process of doing right now, and we're committed obviously to getting it better and to taking a good step forward next year.
Q. Do you think Jalen needs to be more of a vocal leader next season, and how do you think he did last year at leading the team?
NICK SIRIANNI: Everybody -- there's not a book written on this is how you lead. People lead in different ways. One thing I learned early in leadership is you have to be yourself, because if you lead and you're trying to be somebody you're not when you lead, that gets seen through.
That's the same scenario I was put in when I became the head coach or an offensive coordinator or whatever it was.
Everybody has to lead their way, and Jalen has special qualities that people will follow and people will want to follow. And he's got to do what he needs to do to lead in that way. Some people's leadership style is loud and aggressive; some people's leadership style is by example; and some it's a mixture of both.
So Jalen needs to lead how he needs to lead, right? And A.J. needs to lead how he needs to lead. Whoever it is, Slay's got to lead how he needs to lead. Because that's leadership, right, is being who you are and leading by example. At the end of the day, if you're leading by example, that's a great style of leadership.
So Jalen needs to lead how he needs to lead, and I think he's done a great job of doing so. And he'll get, just like he has done in other things, he'll get better at that part of his game, and he'll get better, just because I know he'll continue to work on getting better no matter what part of the game he needs to work at.
Q. With the way you did things last year, how much are you hoping to change the way you communicate with players? Is that under consideration? Are you planning on changing the way you communicate with the players a little?
NICK SIRIANNI: Any time you go through a season, whether it's successful in your eyes or whether it's not successful in your eyes, you look at ways and opportunities to get better. My job is to talk to every single player, and I've done that, talked to every single coach, what went right, what went wrong.
When you take that into account, you take everything into account, and you try to get better at doing those things. I think connection is our number one core value, and there were things that we as a team, myself, didn't do a good enough job of last year.
Maybe we leaned a little bit more into one category of our core values -- connect, compete, accountability, football IQ, and fundamentals. At times I felt I leaned a little bit more into one and not into the other.
So those are all things that you evaluate at the end of the year. I look forward to getting better, and like I said to you guys before, we're not that far removed from having one of the best cultures that any of us had ever been around. Our players would say that. Our coaches would say that. It's just some tweaks that we need to do.
But make no mistake about it, the things that -- you can change how you communicate with your culture, you can change what you do with it, but at the forefront, we're never going to change what the culture is: Connect, compete, accountability, football IQ, and football fundamentals. We have the right coaches in here, and we have the right players in here to do it because we have good people in this building.
Q. What parts of Kellen Moore's scheme will complement most with yours?
NICK SIRIANNI: Good question. Obviously I hired Kellen because I felt like he was the best guy for the job, and Kellen's been successful in every place that he's been. I know it's relative, really a young career, but he's been successful as a player. He's been successful as a coach.
I like the way he thinks about football and the way he takes everything in and is able to make decisions off of that. So it's been fun getting to know him. Obviously I've always had respect for him from afar, and it's been fun getting to know him and work through these things together to build our offense for next season.
He's been highly successful, and we've been highly successful, and I think that I'm really looking forward to meshing the things -- meshing what he's done really well together with the things that we've done really well. Again, I think it's going to be a really good match, and Kellen's track record speaks for itself.
Q. How can you make Jalen better as a quarterback this coming year?
NICK SIRIANNI: Jalen's obviously had high moments of success. Last year in 2022 a runner-up for -- obviously up there for the MVP award. And through the first 11 games, the same thing here.
Then we had a falloff as a team. It's not Jalen. It's not just me. It's our team that we had a falloff as a team those last six weeks that we all need to get better from.
But Jalen's played some really outstanding football. Here's what I know about Jalen, like whatever he needs -- whatever we see that he needs to work on or he sees that he needs to work on, he's going to get better at that because he puts everything he has into it, and that's a form of leadership too.
Like Jalen sees something that he feels is a weakness of his or we feel like is a weakness of his, he's going to dive everything that he has and pour everything that he has into it to get better from that. Like that's leadership. That's a form of leadership.
So again, obviously I'll keep some of the things we all talked about, what I need to get better at, what he needs to get better at, to ourselves. But I know this. He'll put everything he has into getting better as a football player, being better as a quarterback so we can win more games as a team.
Q. What's the core DNA of your Bulldog players, and what does Kirby do so well to get his guys ready?
NICK SIRIANNI: Toughness. Toughness. Obviously the guys we've drafted and have on our team from Georgia are highly talented, right? We have two first round guys in Jordan and then Jalen. Another first round guy in Nolan. A third round guy in Nakobe. A fourth round guy in Kelee. They're tough. They're physical. They know how to win. And on top of that, they're really good football players.
So we look forward to continuing to develop those guys. You look at it from afar and say, hey, these guys know how to work, these guys know how to practice, and these guys are tough. I think any time you can say that about another coach, hopefully you understand that's the highest praise that I have for Coach Smart and what he's done at that program. Obviously grateful for that because we have some of those really good players on our team.
Q. You talk about not being afraid to play young players. What's been your philosophy on that your first three years in the league, and how do you see that evolving?
NICK SIRIANNI: My philosophy has always been play the guys that are going to help you win the game every week. Regardless of whether you talk about scheme, whether you talk about players, you're trying to do whatever you can to win the game, because that's the bottom line, is to win football games.
So whoever gives us the best chance to win a football game, that's what we'll do. Young, old, middle -- it doesn't matter. We're going to do what we need to do. I owe that to our team and our coaches and our players and our fans to play the best player that's going to help us win that week. So we don't care who that is.
Q. A.J. has been pretty publically frustrated with some of the outside noise. What's been your reaction? Did you talk to him about handling that kind of stuff?
NICK SIRIANNI: A.J., like I've been telling you guys for a long time, not only is he one of the best players I've ever been around, he's also one of the best leaders, and he's going to do anything he can do to stick up for his teammates. That's why he wears a C on his chest.
I think that, if you're speculating, hey, what does it mean if he's yelling, like everybody doesn't -- there's some people that, when you're leading them, you yell at them. There's some people, when you're leading them, you put your arm around them. There's some people that are somewhere in the middle.
That's leadership also is figuring out what buttons to press with different guys. Not every person -- you don't treat everybody the exact same. The standard is what it is, and you hold everybody to that standard, but you don't treat everybody exactly the same of how you get to that standard, how you correct that standard, or how you praise that standard. Everybody's a little bit different.
I think A.J. understands that. Like I said, just a great teammate, a great person. In my opinion, the best receiver that's been in Philadelphia, and I grew up a Terrell Owens fan, and I grew up -- Howie says I'm too young to like Mike Quick, but I was a huge Mike Quick fan, and it's pretty cool that I get to do some interviews with him every once in a while.
But you look at the stats and you look at what A.J.'s done in a two-year span, he's had the two most productive years ever as an Eagle wide receiver. Man, like when you have one of your best players being also one of your best leaders, that's special.
Q. Where do you land on Haason Reddick's future with the Eagles knowing there's going to be a business decision that has to be made this off-season?
NICK SIRIANNI: Obviously we'll see how that plays out. I don't know how that will play out. Obviously Haason's been awesome for us these last two years. Big reason why we've been to the playoffs the last two years is the contributions of Haason. He's played really, really outstanding football.
We'll see how that plays out, and hopefully he's an Eagle.
Q. Coach, (indiscernible) staff experienced this year rather than last year. A, was that intentional? And B, why did you turn over the defensive staff and not the offensive staff?
NICK SIRIANNI: Again, it was about getting the right guys for the job, and I'm excited to have the experience of Vic here. He's obviously been an outstanding coordinator for a long time, a very long time in this league.
Shoot, he was telling me the other day when we were driving up here that the combine, when he first started, was in New Orleans. I can't even fathom how -- so he's been in this league for so long, been successful for so long, and I'm really looking forward to that.
As well as we've done on defense in the past, dating back to Jonathan, Jonathan was a first-year coordinator as I was a first-year head coach. Sean was early on in his -- I think it was his second year as a coordinator. So I'm really looking forward to that experience that Vic will provide. Vic's a great play caller.
Again, like I said, he's done it for a very long time at a high level. I'm really excited for that experience we have.
I think it's important that Vic had some of his guys that he's worked with before and that know his system and know the things that he requires. So there's a reason why there's some change there on the defensive side, because he needed some guys that were familiar with that, which Sean didn't have last year. So I thought that was important.
As far as us kind of creating our Philadelphia Eagles offense going into 2024, that will be thoughts that we've done in the past really well. That will be thoughts that Kellen's done in the past really well. So we look forward to building that together. Kellen has -- we brought in Doug to be the quarterback coach, and then we kept -- stayed pat in a lot of different areas as well with Kevin and with Jason and Stout. Obviously we know those are really good coaches. I have a lot of faith in them.
And it's meshing of two systems to grow in both systems so we can put the best product on the field. So that's why that's kind of stayed similar is because we're going to be doing a lot of different -- we're going to be doing different things, but also we're going to be doing things that we've been successful with as well. Obviously those guys that I just mentioned on offense have been here through the success and look forward to growing from that.
Q. What do you think of Shane Steichen in his first year in Indianapolis and seeing him grow in his role the first year?
NICK SIRIANNI: I obviously didn't get a chance to watch too many of Shane's games. Obviously we were busy doing our own thing, but always rooting for Shane. I'm happy for him that it was a success. He had to go through some ups and downs with some guys getting injured, and he continued to coach really good football from afar.
Q. Personality-wise, what sticks out about him that makes him ready for that opportunity?
NICK SIRIANNI: He's had a lot of good experiences. I think he's all football at all times, and that's what he's interested in. I think there's not a lot of -- obviously I feel like I have a good friendship with Shane and really value that friendship.
But I can't tell you that when my wife and his wife and myself and our kids, we all went out to dinner, there was much other conversations going on besides football, and that's Shane.
I value that relationship, and I'm really happy that he -- obviously I didn't get a chance to watch a lot of his stuff, but happy how they -- that they had a successful season. I'm really excited for them, and I'm not surprised that they did because Shane is a great football coach, he's a great leader, and a great person, and I'm happy for the success he's having.
Q. How do you see the running back room shaping out now that D'Andre is heading to free agency and Kenny is the only one under contract next year? Do you need to change that room around?
NICK SIRIANNI: No. Again, I think last year we ended up -- you guys would know better than me. We were in the top ten in rushing, and that's been kind of a staple here the last three years, and we've done it with different pieces. You always can do it with different pieces.
Obviously you get attached to the things -- D'Andre had a great year. He did a lot of really, really great things, and we'll see how that plays out. There's a lot to play out, right? There's free agency. There's the draft. Then there's college free agency. Then there's more guys that are still left out. There's so many things that can play out.
You're trying to fill -- just like you are in a receiver room, trying to fill different roles. You're trying to do the same thing at the running back position, trying to do the same thing at the tight end position, of making sure you have the right guys to fill the roles that you want to do as an offense.
And maybe one guy can fill three roles, and maybe one guy can fill the other two. So you never know how that plays out and what players you have in place. We obviously value the contributions that D'Andre made. He's a great football player. We'll see how that goes with where we are, but there's so many things to play out.
You know, I know what we're looking for as far as that position and the roles that we want to fill with that position. And having Kenny, he fills some of those roles, and we're excited to have him and look forward to see what the future has for the other guys.
Q. What's one thing you learned last year from the end of the season that you think next year can help you if you are in a similar situation and you lose a game or two? What was one takeaway you got?
NICK SIRIANNI: We went through, early here in 2021 we went through a really tough stretch, right, and we doubled down on the things we knew to be true, our culture, our core values.
I wouldn't say -- we went through a tough stretch here too. Even though we said to ourselves, hey, we're doubling down on this, in 2021 it worked. In 2023 it didn't work.
I think it's, again, being in this constant growth mindset of things that just always trying to get better at every style of football that you're trying to do. I do think, though, with those core values, you always double down on those because to me it wasn't the core values, we didn't just make them up and say connect, compete, accountability, football IQ, and fundamentals are what's important. That was years and years of coaching and playing that we thought to ourselves and I thought to myself these are the common denominators of good football teams. That's not changing off of a bad spurt, right?
So it is a true double down on those from day one. You know, doubling down on the connection, doubling down on the accountability. I really look at those two, the connect and the accountability -- even though I say connect, compete, those two C's kind of go together, so they stay together. But connect and accountability are the two, I would say, cornerstones of our program that those are the ones that, when I really take away -- hey, these are important, that we play with good football IQ, that we play with good fundamentals, and that we compete our ass off, those are important, but everything starts with the accountability and the connecting.
So it's almost a double down and triple down on those core values, and I look forward to, when the players get back, to do that. As you see, we've been kind of doing it as coaches with our cheesesteak tour.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports