Nick Sirianni

Q. Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio had mentioned that this is a really good offense for Saints QB Derek Carr. Do you see that that same way as him? (John McMullen)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, they’ve been explosive. They’ve got good playmakers. [Saints QB] Derek [Carr] is playing really good. Again, a lot of respect for this offense and what they’ve done, you know, these last two weeks.

So definitely going to be a challenge.

Q. What happened to S C.J. Gardner-Johnson? (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, he tweaked something yesterday. I won’t get into the specifics, obviously, but we’ll see how today goes.

Q. Is there still a chance WR A.J. Brown plays on Sunday? (Eliot Shorr-Parks)

NICK SIRIANNI: Again, we’ve got some time. [We will] see how today goes. We’ll see how the rest of the — we got today, we’ve got a little bit of tomorrow, and obviously Sunday before we have to make that decision.

I know both guys are working their butts off to try get back.

Q. If S C.J. Gardner-Johnson does play, he is an emotional player. I imagine this is an emotional situation for him going back there. What’s the message to him? (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: My message always has been to him is I love his emotion. I love his energy. You know, always use that. He’s got such an awesome personality; always use that personality to bring people together. So be yourself. Have fun out there. Show your emotion.

I would be crazy to tell him not to show his emotion because I show my emotion. Show your emotion and do everything within the rules of the game because people feed off that. Again, love his energy and just his personality.

Q. How have the players responded this week? (Tim McManus)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, we’ve had a good week of practice. Obviously, we’re not done yet. Got a big one today to go out there and have a good practice today. We had good meetings this morning. We will have a good walk-through.

Yeah, they’ve been great. Ready to get back at it and go. Because we know that, at the end of the day, all we can control are our habits, and our habits are what are going to produce the results. Our habits have to be the exact same as they’ve been. And any process that we have that hasn’t been what we think is up to the standard, that has to even raise, too.

So guys have been great. We’ve had a good week of work.

Q. Was there any curiosity to see how the team would respond to this early adversity? And, if so, what did you learn — (EJ Smith)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, wasn’t jumping to get the loss to figure it out [joking].

No, I think that happens in camp. You have good days in camp, you have bad days in camp. It was kind of answered in that portion.

So I think, again, we treat everything like — when we go out and practice, it’s game-like. Those things are answered in the preseason.

But, naturally, right, [there are] the consequences of losing a regular season game, so maybe a little bit.

But like I said, guys have really responded well. We’re 1-1, and we’re ready to go out there and play a good football team and get back out there on the field on Sunday.

But we have got to have a good practice today.

Q. What have you seen from DB Cooper DeJean as far as his readiness to step in if he’s needed? (Martin Frank)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, he continues to impress as he’s out there as far as starting with his special teams abilities. He made a really good play in special teams. You guys weren’t out there still but made a really good play in special teams yesterday in practice that was shown in front of the team today.

And you know, he’s really had some good reps with the defense. He gets reps with the defense and also gets reps on scout team. I think he’s been stringing together practice after practice after practice, and our confidence is continuing to grow in him because we know he’s a good football player.

I know he wants to be out there on the field and contributing to this team.

Q. The decision to let QB Jalen Hurts address the team after the loss on Monday night, is that something you thought about in the off-season? (Bo Wulf)

NICK SIRIANNI: No, I think those things happen organically. What happens in those scenarios is [QB] Jalen [Hurts], you know, while everyone is walking in the locker room, he got emotional himself and started to talk to everybody.

When he started to talk to everybody, it was like, man, this is exactly what you want to happen from the leaders on your football team. Really, at the end of it, there wasn’t anything for me to say because he said everything I would say.

He said it with great emotion and great care. Like I said, I just said, let’s take a knee. That’s something that — I talk to these guys every single day, right? We have team meetings every day. I break down practice. And that’s after a practice, too. Sometimes I say nothing and I say you guys got it, or sometimes I say something.

When the leaders on your football team are preaching exactly the same things that you know are your core values and are important to the football team, that’s awesome. That’s the best thing that can happen. That’s the best message that you have.

Sometimes you do that in team meetings. If I feel like something that I’m saying, I’ve said it a million times and I want them to hear from another person’s perspective, that’s where you use video clips of [former MLB player] Roger Clemens saying something. First person that popped into my mind. Roger Clemens talking about the same thing. Or we talk about connect. We have shown the Phillies video from the ’93 Phillies team.

That’s just teaching, right? It’s not always me talking. You find different avenues to do it. Jalen had an opportunity to do it, and he was awesome. Showed how good of a leader he is. I just really appreciated what he said, and the team appreciated what he said. And it started the process of, hey, getting over that loss and going on to the next one.

Q. Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio said yesterday LB Zack Baun had never seen chop blocks before. Isn’t that something that should have been addressed in practice or camp — (Jeff McLane)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, you do that in camp, you do that in practice. Now, I always talk about O-line, D-line, are a full-go. Even though you’re not tackling to the ground, O-line, D-line are full-go. We don’t let them cut in practice for obvious reasons.

Same thing with the tight end slicing back onto a defensive end. You wouldn’t want that collision in practice, but you drill it and try your best to make sure, just like you do with tackling drills.

You know, even though you’re not going to the ground, you’re drilling it and trying to practice that. [Inside Linebackers Coach] Bobby King has practiced that. Our defensive line, that happens to them, too; they continue to practice that.

So you just have to find ways to drill it. Now, if it happens in a pre-season game, when [LB] Zach [Baun] had some preseason reps, then that would be another thing, too.

But, yeah, he’s drilled it. And Zack has played defensive end as well. It’s a different block when a tight end is coming back to slice across, or an offensive line on quick game is coming out to cut you.

But, yeah, we’ve drilled that, and even sometimes you drill things even more if you don’t have a good game doing it. He knows he got cut a couple times, so they obviously emphasized it even more the last couple days of practice.

Q. That’s a challenging place to play down there. With a new center and right guard, how do you prepare for that? (Dave Zangaro)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, you just try to simulate as much as you can. Same thing as the cut blocks, you try to simulate it. Tackling, you try to simulate it. So it’ll be loud out there in practice today. It’s been loud. Our ears are ringing from the crowd noise yesterday.

Sometimes, you try to even put it up a little bit louder. We have it up as loud as the speakers go, but to make it louder, sometimes you actually use — instead of music, you use the crowd noise. Which can become annoying, but that’s what we’ve done.

So communicating and being on the same page in the noise is one of our keys to win this game. That’s really any time you’re on the road, but especially in New Orleans.

That’s just, again, like a rain game, you put water on the ball. You have periods with water on the ball. You do all those different things. It’s the same thing in one of these environments. We’ve let the noise be even louder, like in a game.

It kind of goes like this: the noise is loud during the play, and then it comes down a little bit, and then back loud. We try to keep it loud the whole time so they’re constantly having to communicate within that noise.

Q. We saw you in the locker room the other day, which is atypical for you. What’s your approach or philosophy with that? (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: I actually was going around to ask a couple guys a question. My approach is usually that that’s their space. I don’t go down there. There is a barber shop in there though. I’ll get a haircut in there.

And every once in a while, I might go play a game of ping pong with somebody. But that’s their space to be together as a football team. The only time I go in there is if I know they’re in there at a certain time and I have to ask somebody a question or talk to somebody about something. That’s the only reason I was in there the other day.