NICK SIRIANNI: All right.
Q. Got a piece of paper there?
NICK SIRIANNI: I do.
Q. Can you confirm that Bryce Huff is getting surgery?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah. Yeah, he will be. He's really done a good job of battling through. This will help him get some more -- hopefully help him get some more function in that hand.
We'll see as the season continues, but just can't say enough of how he battled through and tried to keep going through it. Hopefully this helps him.
Q. How long had he been playing through the injury?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, just exactly when we talked about it last. He was battling through all those different things. I really admire the way he did battle through it and played with that cast on. So, again, hats off to him.
Q. You mean two games -- that was the...
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, yeah.
Q. Does that mean Jalyx Hunt takes on a bigger role here?
NICK SIRIANNI: We'll see how that goes? We got some guys obviously with all these guys. Really like our room. They've been playing at a really high level. We think Jalyx, obviously drafted him because we liked his skillset. Been doing a lot of good things on special teams.
So, yeah, see how those reps get divvied up and this week with tell a lot in practice.
Q. ...on IR possibly or is it too soon?
NICK SIRIANNI: We'll see. We'll see how that goes. See where we are as we continue on through the week and after everything goes on.
Q. Is this possibly one of the scenarios when you're on an active trade deadline that this could be a result and was that something you had in mind?
NICK SIRIANNI: Again, we talk about everything and every situation. Like I said, we really like this room and the guys. We love Bryce and the way he's battled through and the things he's done.
But we feel good about the depth we have here and some of the young guys. Nolan has done a really good job. Jalyx, see where he is as we continue on here.
But Jalyx keeps getting better as a football player.
Sweat has played a really good, has had some really good games and is playing at a top notch level.
BG has continued to be steady throughout like his entire career.
Q. Any concern? Obviously BG has played at high level, but he is 36. Josh last year sort of had the quick start; played a lot of snaps and then maybe tailed off. That sort of workload, increased workload to keep an eye on?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, we focus on everything. I think the last couple games they played in a sweet spot where we anticipate them playing.
That fluctuates week in, week out depending how the game is going, doing what we need to do to win the game. But like I said to you guys about everything, the management that you do with your players is done more Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and then you do what you got to do to win the game.
Yes, you're trying to have rotations to keep guys fresh throughout the year, but we owe it to ourselves, the team, and our fans and everybody to do everything we need to do to win the game.
I know that's always a popular question of do you have to manage this and manage that? Yeah, we do, but we're also thinking what we need to do in that time frame to win the football game.
Again, we can take care of their bodies on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday as much as we possibly can. Don't think it's not on our mind on Sunday; it is. We'll do it as much as we possibly can on Sunday.
That number of plays, touches, anything, you go with our number in mind. You try to hit within five of that. Sometimes it's five higher, sometimes it's five lower.
That's the way it goes.
Q. What stands out to you about Nolan's development? How big is he going to be over the stretch?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, what a guy that's been able to handle the ups and downs not getting a lot of reps early on in his career because of the depth we had at that position, to now really being a big time contributor.
Patience. Patience of everybody. Just, hey, it takes time. It takes time. If you got the right people, like Nolan, Nolan deeply cares about being good at football. Nolan loves football. Nolan is as tough as we got, one of the toughest guys we got on this football team. He plays as hard as anybody in the National Football League.
So when you have those characteristics -- and he's got great skill, right? When you have those characteristics as a person, God willing, you'll reach your ceiling. I think he keeps getting better because of who he is, the skill he has, and who he is as a person.
I think we want things to happen right away at all times. I'm guilty of that. I think we all are. But development and getting better every day, there is a process and it takes time.
I think what you've seen is just him putting his head down, working every day, regardless of what the circumstances are. You've seen him get better. Now he's contributing big time to our success.
Q. Along the lines of Georgia guys, Jordan Davis is a guy that hasn't made the splash plays. What have you seen from him since the bye week?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, sometimes D tackles aren't the going to have the splash plays at times, because sometimes they're eating up the double team. Sometimes there is no space in there and other guys are contributing because it's taking two guys it block them. Zack Baun or Nakobe can run around and make the play.
Jordan continues to get better. He has strung together a couple nice games together by our accounts as in did we grade him out as a positive. I don't get into the grades much, but Jordan has been playing well and doing what we asked him to do.
So, you know, again, sometimes at that position it's not always -- sometimes it's like the offensive line. Might not notice everything that's happening from the stat sheet or from anything else, but we sure as heck do, and I know his linebackers behind him do.
He's doing some nice things the way he's taking on blocks, getting off blocks, and being able to finish when he has opportunities to finish.
Q. We talked to Vic yesterday about the defense being so young, yet you have Brandon and Slay. How valuable have they been to have on that side of the ball?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, big time. I think those two guys are phenomenal leaders that could lead any time, lead any business. Like just great, great leaders. We talked about Slay today, kind of the topic of our team meeting today, just being able to overcome adversity, right?
So you have to overcome adversity in-game, and DBs have to go through that quite a bit. And you have to overcome adversity through your career, you know.
So I talk to Slay quite a bit and we just talked about how he's had to overcome early adversity in his career and now he's on year 12. So if bad things happen and you can't overcome them, maybe you don't deserve to be in year 12, and he has. Bad things happen and you don't overcome them, maybe you don't deserve to continue to win games.
That was our talking point today, being mentally tough because of how long the season is and how grueling it is. There will be ups and downs, and really handling that.
When you're able to use one of your players, like it's always great to like pull a video and show, hey, watch Michael Jordan talk about this or Tiger Woods talk about this. Roger Federer, whoever it is.
It's so much better when you're able to put your own guys up there that can kind of lead into questions that the other guys have for Slay.
So when we were able to do that and kind of take his progression of his first year when he was wearing number 30 through everything, it was really awesome story about how he's persevered and yes where he is. That's what I want to accomplish for the entire time.
Again, just can't say enough about the leaders we have on this football team. Particularly the two you asked about. Man, big time leaders. That's important for any team, any organization.
Q. How different is the self-scout process coming off six wins than it was early in the year?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, you try not to let it be any different, right? You may have more to watch at certain points, you know, because there is more to fix or -- but even then, look, okay, here is what we need to fix based off our studies. Let's watch this.
Then when you feel like you're playing good football but we have a lot of the things to correct, when you feel like you're doing some good things you're like what can complement this?
You don't have the same amount of time as you normally do in a bye week. It's a shorter process. It's still the same process with little tweaks because of the amount.
As far as the wins and losses or what your record is, it just takes different shapes and forms. Again, sometimes, bam, we need to improve this and it's very clear. Sometimes you have to search for the answer of what you need to improve. Sometimes when you're playing well and doing a lot of good things, you still have things that you got to correct.
Then it's like what can complement this and that? It's always about not skipping steps and being diligent in your work of your bye week. I think we've had some good success after bye weeks. This isn't exactly the same thing.
We feel like we have a good formula in bye weeks that we use on Thursday night games and we'll use continuing moving forward.
Q. (Regarding pass game.)
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, again, keep a lot of that in-house because obviously if I share it with you guys and share with everybody, giving some information to the opposing teams. All I can say is for every part of our game it was productive. Now it's our chance as coaches to build on that and put them in positions to succeed, and our guys to go execute.
Again, self-scout, any time you have self-scouts and have the time to be able to do it, and you simulate time also even on a regular week to do it as well, so you're always thinking about it.
Any time you have extra time to do it it's going to be helpful.
Q. A lot was made last year about the culture and chemistry towards the end of the season wasn't where you guys wanted it to be. Anything this year that you can point to and say, yeah, I know it's right because I saw this?
NICK SIRIANNI: Again, I just think, again, always comes back down to the connection. We talk about our core values. There are always these truths. Football changes. Scheme changing, ebbs and flows of the way the game is being played changes.
But at the end of the day it's always going to be do you play with detail, right? Did you play with detail? Did you play with fundamentals? That is what I mean, detail, football IQ, all those things. Did you play tough and did you play together?
Those things don't change. So one thing I've noticed is just -- so we always kind of talk about that. But I really feel like this team, I think we got some really good teammates and coaches. Everyone is just so locked in to becoming better.
I do feel like that, that everyone is locked in to becoming better. I felt that way last year, too. Don't get me wrong.
It didn't work. There were things that happened last year that we feel like we've corrected that we're on the right track. We've made those corrections so you don't focus too much on that. You work on what you can build each day.
I really feel like this team continues to grow closer each day. We got great teammates, leaders. Winning is contagious. You build on the success you've had.
But I think the other thing I see is just the hunger of everyone to get better. And that's all I can point out from though year's team. Forget last year's team. We've learned from those mistakes that we made from last year. Myself, the team, everybody.
I really notice this year's team that we're getting closer as a football team and have that hunger to get better every day.
Q. As an offensive minded head coach, when you look at Sean McVay, what do you see? What do you like?
NICK SIRIANNI: I think Sean has done an unbelievable job there for a long time; seven, eight years for him as the head football coach.
He's had a great run to date and been at the top of the mountain. I just have a lot of respect for his scheme. One thing I always want guys to respect on our team is that we play with great fundamentals. We put a lot of time into that.
I always see that from his guys and have always, even dating back to when I knew he was a wide out guy at Washington. Man, his wide receivers play the game the way I envision receivers playing the game.
So I've always respected that about him. Looking from afar, you always study guys. I got so much respect for his leadership. We have some of the strength guys that were here with him and I've been very curious, Hey, what would Sean do in this situation? What would Sean do in that situation? You always try to learn from people.
Again when you watch the tape it's obvious he's a great football coach with the details and fundamentals and obviously the scheme. I think he gets talked a lot about with his scheme, but you see it in his players have how good they play the game.
That's a tribute to his players and to the coach as well. And then like I said, I just admire his leadership from afar. I don't know him well. I really admire his leadership from afar and how he's been through -- talk about a guy who has had up seasons and some slight down seasons and recovers back.
Man, can't say enough good things about him and what I think of him as a football coach and a person.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports