Philadelphia Eagles Media Conference

Saturday, September 14, 2024

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Nick Sirianni

Weekday Press Conference


Q. What happened with A.J.?

NICK SIRIANNI: Just got a little tight in practice yesterday. We'll see how that goes.

Q. Precautionary to back him off a little bit?

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah. Again, tight in practice. We just took a little bit cautionary yesterday. Bob will get you the injury report.

Q. How about Jahan Dotson? Is he ready for more of a role?

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, yeah, he's worked his butt off. He's obviously a very talented player. We'll see. Again, we'll see how that goes.

But I know that the guys are ready when they need to be, when they're called on.

Q. You didn't coach Nick Foles. Knowing the Eagles' history, what perspective do you have on his career?

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, obviously a ton of respect for his career. Frank would always talk so highly of him. Got a chance to just talk to him a little bit. Never had a chance to coach him or anything.

Just what everybody says about him. Ultimately he did the biggest thing in this city by winning the Super Bowl, so... Yeah, a lot of respect. Great career. Been fun to watch. Was fun to watch his career.

Like I said, when you kind of hear about a guy secondhand and it's always the same thing over and over again, before you even talk about the play, but about the person, that just gives you so much respect for the person in itself. From Marcus Brady to Frank Wright to the people in this building of what they thought of him, a lot of respect.

Q. (Question about Johnny Wilson.)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, you guys are saying 'limited'. You guys got to do your job as far as that goes. But we'll see how it goes. Like I said, everybody from Jahan to Johnny to Covey will be ready to go if need be.

Q. Generally speaking, that third wide receiver, outside wide receiver spot, has been in flux since you got here. How much of a priority was it? You had some different guys in that role. How much of a priority was it to get somebody like Jahan who you felt really comfortable?

NICK SIRIANNI: I felt good with the guys that have been here. Everyone's played their role really well as far as that room goes.

What I think's going to be unfair to that third guy is, like, the pass game runs through A.J. and DeVonta. I don't know how many times I've said the same thing over and over again: the pass game runs through DeVonta, A.J. and Dallas. The pass game runs through DeVonta, A.J. and Dallas. Sometimes that guy gets unfairly judged because he doesn't have the opportunities that other people get.

Q. Playoff game, you didn't have A.J...

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I feel really good about Jahan. I feel really good about Jahan. First-round pick. Obviously we traded for him and feel really good about him. He's a smooth route runner. Everything like that.

I just think sometimes that position is unfairly judged at times just because they don't get the opportunities that these other guys are going to get because when you have players like A.J., DeVonta and Dallas on your team, that's just the way it goes sometimes.

But if say he has to step up and play more meaningful snaps, I got a lot of confidence in him because he's done a nice job. He's done a nice job. We can only judge him on the things he's done since he's been here. He's done a really good job since he's been here. Really good practices.

Excited for his opportunity as the third receiver, second receiver, whatever it may be for each week. I'm excited for him when he's going to get his opportunity because he's going to make some big plays that's going to help us win some games.

Q. I know John made a big play late in the game. In light of what happened with Tua, do you feel it necessary to kind of have a conversation with him again about...

NICK SIRIANNI: First and foremost, always we want him to protect himself in all scenarios. He's got a really good feel of how to do that, right? And we'll protect him on called runs. We want him to protect himself in certain scenarios, in every scenario really. His health is more important than anything. So, yeah, we'll always have that discussion. He knows how we feel about that.

If he goes out of bounds there, or slides there because it was in a four-minute drill, I want him to do that, in which case his instincts took over and he went and got it, which was a heck of a play by him. Yeah, always on the forefront of our mind that he does that.

Prayers go out to Tua. Really got a lot of respect for him. Just hope he's going to come out of this okay.

Q. Several position battles in training camp. As the season progresses, whether it's linebacker or edge or nickel, how do you manage with the players knowing where they stand with communication?

NICK SIRIANNI: I'm sorry, say that one more time.

Q. How do you manage communication with players, them knowing where they stand?

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, we have our roles talk every year. Hey, this is your role. This is your role. We kind of go through it in front of entire team of what's expected out of everybody.

If the role changes, you communicate the role that changed. If not, their job is to dominate their role 'cause that's what good teams do in hopes that it will change. When it changes, you communicate that with them. That's something I think that's unique that we do, the communication of what the role is.

Then, yeah, as far as throughout the week, sometimes through the game plan, for instance, Moro last week, when we were reviewing the tape of the game, Moro had 14 plays or something like that. I just said, Hey, Moro, this is exactly what we're talking about. You're the fourth guy in, so you have to make sure that you take advantage of the reps you're getting and look at this play that he makes on a third down where Jordan Love has to throw it high because Moro is in his face making that play.

You solidify the roles throughout the week as far as things that happen in practice, things that happen in the game. Obviously every game has the game plan of, hey, these players have to carry out this role, whether it's a role that you're going to play 50 plays or 14 plays. It's kind of done throughout the week after that initial roles conversation.

Q. You mentioned Thursday the turnover ratio being not sustainable. You said it was an anomaly. Can't continue. You always stress ball security. How do you emphasize that more?

NICK SIRIANNI: Man, you can ask our guys. I'm not sure how much we can emphasize this. About going and doing it now, right? I think sometimes after every practice, after every game, we're in here and we have ball security clips, right? We show those clips, whether it was good enough or whether it wasn't good enough. Was it to the standard or was it not to the standard? There's also clips of us trying to take the ball away. What is up to our standard or was it not up to our standard?

We have drills that not only are the position coaches doing but that we're doing also as a group. We want to make sure those drills are done full speed, as fast as we possibly can to make sure we're emphasizing that. You see us go through those.

Like, it's going to pay off. I know it's going to pay off. There's some that you can't obviously control at times. It's those ones where you're running with the football that we really spend the most time on. When you have the football in your hands and you're running with that football. Obviously, too, you talk about that with the different things of off the catch, with the read and everything like that.

It's on our mind. It's on the forefront of our mind. Gosh, we talk about it a lot. It's about our actions. We talk about it a lot, and our actions suggest we do it a lot. Then we just got to go execute it as we go.

It will continue. I don't care if we were plus three, right now, plus 10, minus 10, we'd be attacking it as well. It's one of those stats, one of the few stats, that matter, right? I know there's a million stats. It's cool to read the stats. But one of the few stats that matter is that turnover differential if you look across the league. Especially here. Like I told you guys, we were 20-1 when we win the turnover battle over the past three years. That's pretty incredible.

We were the one time, one in 10 this last week, that won. We know how much that is going to mean to us moving forward.

Q. (Question about Cooper DeJean.)

NICK SIRIANNI: That's a good question.

Just a feel of when it's, like, okay, he's ready to go. He's done a nice job. But so many things are being on the same page both offensively and defensively, right? We talk about detail a lot, right. The detail that we talk a lot about is situational football. Our detail that we talk about is fundamentals as far as tackling, ball security, all those things.

The final portion of our detail is that we're all on the same page, right? The quickest way to give up an explosive, the quickest way to have a negative happen to you offensively if you're not on the same page.

There's a lot of that goes into it that, right? It's not just knowing what to do when you're sitting here, it's knowing what to do with the picture is changing. If they come out in this formation, that formation.

There's more to it than just say, Hey, what do you do on this coverage? Boom. What did the receiver do? What is the formation? What was the motion? Is there a shift? There's so many things in there. So it's so important that we're all on the same page.

He's getting there. He's getting close. We'll see how this game plays out this week. But he's stringing together some nice practices in a row.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
148237-1-1004 2024-09-14 16:08:00 GMT

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