Q. The team put out a video of you giving a team meeting. You said: Sometimes you, sometimes me, always us. Why did you decide this week was the week to deliver that message?
NICK SIRIANNI: I think in football, one thing I talked about on Saturday was, like, Hey, there's always going to be these keys. But in football, it's always going to come down to who's the toughest, who is most detailed. It's always going to come down to who has the best team. I don't mean players, I mean team, right? That's just never going to change in football.
That was just one of the things I used to talk about team. I talked a little bit about detail. I talked a little bit about toughness. That was one thing you used there team. I actually got that from Johnny Wilson. He had a shirt on that said that. I thought that was pretty cool.
Q. How do you teach your receivers to not put themselves in a situation where maybe they get hurt or lose the ball by continuing their runs after the catch?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, you want to be physically tough in everything that you do. There's a time and place to step out of bounds, there's a time and place to put your head down and finish the run.
When you do put your head down and finish the run, it brings a lot of energy to the sideline, it brings a lot of energy to the game, just like a big-time catch would, the energy that happens on the sideline.
We show those. We actually show those. Here's a standard of how we finish on the sideline. I've had receivers that were smaller receivers that I didn't want them to do that at all times. DeVonta is so tough, A.J. is tough, Saquon is tough. Dallas, I think if you go back and look at all his clips, when he has an opportunity to go out of bounds or be violent on the sidelines, he's choosing to be violent. It sparks your team, it's like a big hit.
I think a similar question would be how do you teach a guy to knock the crap out of somebody or just get him down, right? It's the same deal.
As far as the ball security goes, you're always thinking about how you have the ball on your outside arm. That way you can do what you need to do on the sideline. Like if you have the ball on your inside arm, it's hard to play pound on the sideline, hard to use your stiff arm on the sideline. We always teach the ball security of having it on your outside arm that. That way if you do have a fumbling issue, something that pops out, at least it pops out to the side, to where the out of bounds is.
Q. You mentioned on the radio that Doug was helpful to you during your transition to head coach. Can you expand on that a little bit. In what ways was he helpful?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, again, I always want to keep conversations that I have with other people private. I just felt like it was helpful with people on the roster, how the building is, just everything.
I just felt like, again, just something that I always admired, always try to put myself in that scenario. I'm like, Would I help? I don't know. I just don't know if I have that in me to do that. I admire people that do. I'm teasing when I say that. Hopefully can I pay that back for other coaches.
I think that's what's cool with the coaching fraternity is, like, we all got here because of other coaches. The time that they put into us, to help us get better, we need to pay that forward.
I always admired Doug for that. I'll try to do the same.
Q. You talk about the physicality of your team. Does that come from an emphasis on it or just having players who are physical?
NICK SIRIANNI: Both. Definitely both. I think it starts for sure, like, with having players that are physical. But everything you want to be has to be emphasized. If you want to be a team that protects the ball well, you have to emphasize it.
Just like I'm talking about with the clips on the sideline. I'm going to show Smitty lowering his head on the sideline. Lowering his head, he can't do that. But lowering his shoulder on the sideline, finishing the run. I know that's just one piece of it. Like we're talking about Jeff asked me about the finishing on the sideline. That's just one piece of it.
The slice block where you come across the line of scrimmage, you have to throw your body, the tight end has to throw his body into a defensive end. That's part of it. It's hard to turn it off and say, On this I'm going to be super tough, on this I'm not.
I have the picture of Grant in my office now of the New Orleans game where he came across and threw his body into the defensive end to allow Saquon to score the touchdown that helped put us up. You talk about that with the way you're physical as blockers, the way you tackle, the way you get off blocks.
Getting off blocks is never going to be -- it's not a way that... It's a football thing, right? It's something that is designed. You have to strike somebody in the chest. And not only that, you have to take your hands and throw 'em off you and finish with an arm rip, whatever you need to do, hand swipes to finish, to be able to go tackle the ball carrier. Everything in football has to do with this.
Again, if I talk about football and it's always about team, it's always about physicality, it's always about detail, then I have to emphasize that.
Again, make no mistake about it, we look for that. Howie and I talk about that all the time. We're looking for players that are physical football players because we know this is a physical game.
I think that I always feel like when we've played our best here is when we've really set the tone physically. But you can't do that without the players that we have. I do think it's a both-and. All the credit goes to the players because they're the ones out there doing that with their body.
Q. You suffered when Dallas went down receiving yards-wise. Was there something you saw from Grant from training camp or the off-season that has led him to be able to contribute that way?
NICK SIRIANNI: I think it all started with Grant when we first got him, what we liked so much about him. I remember the rookie mini camp, Grant made some unbelievable plays in rookie mini camp. We got something here. That's obviously why we drafted him from his tape.
In opportunities that he's had here and there, he's made the most of them. I think he just had an outstanding off-season. The OTAs portion of it, I think we've started to have more and more faith in Grant because of the work he put in, the development he had done. Jason Michaels has done a great job of helping him develop. Grant has done a great job of developing himself. Dallas takes a big pride in helping his teammates become better.
He had a good training camp. Now he has this opportunity. He had this opportunity with Dallas down to have some balls thrown to him. He's done a really nice job.
Again, guys taking advantage of their opportunities is huge. Like, not only for your football team, right, because guys are going to go down, like Fred stepped in, done a nice job, Tyler Steen stepped in and did a nice job, Grant, Isaiah. It's huge for your football team, but it's also huge for these guys and their careers moving forward.
Q. (Question about right guard.)
NICK SIRIANNI: We have great depth. Again, credit to Howie and his stuff for the guys they brought in here. Credit to Coach Stout helping develop that talent, Kellen. Credit to the guys being ready to step in.
I think Tyler played a really good game. Mekhi played a really game. Tyler played a good game last year when he stepped in and helped us win a divisional game last year.
But yeah, I have a lot of faith in both of them. Those guys having those combo blocks with Lane has been exciting to watch. When they have combo blocks with Cam, they've been exciting to watch, again going back to the physicality of how those guys play.
Q. You mentioned all the backups who had to play bigger roles. How do you get guys to buy in to being backups like they're going to play?
NICK SIRIANNI: You talk about it. I think first and foremost you tell everybody what their role is. I think that's just the honesty of being, Here is what your role is, but understanding in this game at any moment, at any time your role can change. You could have an elevated role or decreased role if you're not performing the way you need to at practice.
We talk a lot about practice, how you get better, that high intensity of practice. For instance, Tyler is going against Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, Milton Williams in practice frequently on the scout team to help them get ready, but also to help himself get better.
Then you really celebrate it when the guys do come in and they perform. Like, I think back a long time, Jack Driscoll stepped in and played some meaningful games for us that helped us win a lot of football games. Nate Herbig, a name from the past, that helped us. The list goes... Landon wasn't starting right away, right? He came in and he ran with that. Cam, right? The stories are endless.
Again, you talk a lot about controlling what you can control. You didn't win this starting job, but now control what you can control, continue to get better. When your number is called, you have to take advantage of that by the preparation.
You never really know when that's going to happen. You always have to be prepared. That's why every week is so critical of putting your head down and working and not worrying about anything else other than the things you can control.
Shoot, I think if you talk to other players, I think they're going to say that. That's something they would say a bunch. You create a culture and you create a mindset of all these things that are important. I think that's one thing that's been real important.
Q. We saw Jalen late into some of his progressions maybe more so this past week.
NICK SIRIANNI: Say that one more time.
Q. Some of Jalen's completions were late into his progressions. Did you notice that?
NICK SIRIANNI: Like number two, three, four receiver?
Q. Yes. You guys been working on helping him?
NICK SIRIANNI: That is just him getting through his read and getting to the guy that's open. You always want to be on attack and you always want to go to where you want to throw the ball, but that's not the reality of playing quarterback.
I thought it was really good. Like, I thought what he did really well particularly in this game is when he had that time. I think there's one that he hit A.J. over the middle. He had to hold onto and let the second window clear. That doesn't happen without the protection of the offensive line and the run action of the running back and the quarterback.
Then just from that, we've seen him do it, particularly in practice. I know last week he got down to his check-down multiple times. It's awesome when it shows up in the game.
Again, he's playing quarterback at a high level. Playing quarterback at a high level is not just throwing the ball accurately, it's going to the right place with the ball. The right place with the ball could be the third or fourth read.
Q. Where is Jahan Dotson's role?
NICK SIRIANNI: Again, I don't get into with you guys as far as this is this person's role. That's something that I kind of have with your team is, This is what your role is, this is what your job description is, this is what we need you to do.
What I will say, though, is that I know the ball didn't come to Jahan on Sunday, but I did notice him blocking his butt off, helping our run game. There's a play on Saquon's bubble that we threw to him, he got a block, played tough and strong, was able to get that block.
I see him improving every day just being around the guys that he's around. Aaron Moorehead is doing a good job. He's doing a good job of getting better.
Q. When Doug was helping you out with the roster, did you get a sense of how excited he was about Jalen's future?
NICK SIRIANNI: Again, that's a long time ago. I don't want to get too much into the conversation.
Again, Doug just helped me, talked through things. Other coaches, everything. I don't want to get too much into that conversation.
But I know, yeah, that Doug -- you'll have to ask Doug. I think he thought Jalen is pretty darn good, though.
Q. Last year you said point differential is not something to pay as much attention to. These double-digit wins, does that matter? Does that say something about a team?
NICK SIRIANNI: I think we look a lot at things. Man, that team won a really gritty game. We celebrate that. I think we celebrate at times when you win by a couple scores and you're able to get your starters out.
A win is a win. They're hard to come by in this league. Right now we got five of 'em. We got two non-wins. We're going to continue to try to work this week to get the sixth one.
Q. You mentioned Cam a couple times. Somewhat large sample size now. He had big shoes to fill. We don't even talk about him now because he's playing so well. Anything surprise you about Cam and his ability to step into that role?
NICK SIRIANNI: I think there were questions. They weren't questions on Cam being able to do that role 'cause we got to see him play last year.
Really unique thing that Cam was able to go through of being Jason's backup for a year, then playing alongside Jason, then taking Jason's spot when Jason retired.
I think we all expected Cam to do this because we've seen him play at a high level. It was going to be a little different that he's playing a different position.
Yeah, no surprises on our end. Really pumped how Cam is playing. Just got to keep going.
Q. After the Bengals game, Jalen talked about the desire to have more of an imposing mentality. What is an example of how he's pushed for that?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, 'imposing'. We've talked a lot about that with our physicality, how we go about trying to win games. Like I said, every time we've been good here, played at our best, we've been a physical football team 'cause of the men in the room.
We're always constantly talking to Jalen, and Jalen is always constantly talking to us, about what he's comfortable with, what he feels good about. You're just always trying to put him in positions to succeed.
I think it's just the conversations you have throughout the week with the quarterbacks and coaches.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports