Nick Sirianni

Q. Nick, why was it the right decision to release former Eagles LB Devin White? (Tim McManus)

NICK SIRIANNI: Ever since [LB] Devin [White] got here, I just thought he was a really great pro. He handled everything with class. I know that was a hard situation for him to be in, a guy that has started a lot of games in this league and been successful in this league.

And I can’t say enough good things about Devin, the person, and how he handled a disappointing situation for him. I think it just gives you a perspective of what we feel about the rest of that room. And the guys we have in that room, and how they’ve been executing, and how they’ve been playing. Look forward to continuing to grow with those guys that we have.

Q. You mentioned that, at some point, you might need former Eagles LB Devin White to play. Without him – you mentioned the depth. How do you think that depth is now? (Dave Zangaro)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, like I said, I’m really excited about the guys in the room and the way they’re progressing. I think Coach [Bobby] King, our [inside] linebacker coach, is a great fundamental teacher. I just continually see them improving their fundamentals in different aspects of block destruction and different things like that, blitzing.

Again, like I said, just excited about the room that we have and the depth that we have there. Some guys that have played meaningful snaps, some guys that are young in this game as well. Just excited about the development and the growth opportunity that we have in that room.

Q. Why wasn’t former Eagles LB Devin White able to find a role, do you think? Signed as a free agent, had some success in the league – (Ed Kracz)

NICK SIRIANNI: It goes back to [LB] Nakobe [Dean] and [LB] Zack [Baun] getting that spot, winning that spot. And, like I said, that’s not an easy situation. I can’t say enough good things about [LB] Devin [White] and how he handled a really hard situation.

Sometimes, guys have roles on special teams, et cetera. And just in this particular case, this is where we were and just how it played out.

Q. Do you know what you fully had in former Eagles LB Devin White, or do you think there were things that were unknown by not seeing him in a regular season game? (Brooks Kubena)

NICK SIRIANNI: Again, we go through our process as far as how we practice, and [we] get a lot from how you practice. I’m confident in our evaluation of players as far as how we go about our business – practicing, preseason games, et cetera – just with every player in general.

Q. What’s the biggest thing you learned during the self-scout during the bye? (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: Obviously, you spend a ton of time there. I actually always get so excited for the bye week. Just get locked into the room and just sit there and figure out the things you do well, the things you don’t do well. And the things that you don’t do well: is it something that you can just eliminate, or is it something that you have to get better at?

I think, generally speaking, it’s our turnover differential that we have some different ways that we’re going to coach a couple things, some tackling things, how we’re going to coach a couple things and drill a couple things.

Again, every bye week, every self-reflection you go through, it’s got to start with being humble to say, ‘What are the issues?’ For everybody, right? Being humble of, ‘Hey, these are the issues.’ And then putting thought into how you do different things – and I’m just speaking of fundamentals – and then adapting to it.

I think the whole general thing of how do you get better can start with: Are you hungry to get better? Does it drive you? Are you obsessed with it? Are you waking up in the middle of the night thinking about how you can get better, how you do things different? Are you at home, and your mind’s wandering to figure those things out? That’s just that desire, that hunger.

And then, are you humble enough to say, ‘Here are the issues, and here’s what we’ve got to do.’ ‘So hungry and humble’, [former Villanova basketball coach] Jay Wright would always say that, and I always thought that was a really good way to say it. Because the 10,000 foot view, that’s how you get better in those ways.

As far as one specific thing, Zach, there’s a lot of things we studied and looked at, but we looked at a lot of different things turnover-wise and creating turnovers.

Q. You do stress winning the turnover battle. You’ve had a chance to look at the first four games. Did you see any common thread between the turnovers on offense and then why you’re not creating them on defense? (Eliot Shorr-Parks)

NICK SIRIANNI: Not only do you look at the first four games, you also go back and look at four years worth of us being here. You do that after every season, you do that during every bye week, every opportunity to self-evaluate. So we did that as well.

Sure, there’s common threads, I won’t get into that. But there are definitely common threads that – again, you’ve got to identify issues, and then try to put the guys in positions to fix those issues, whether it’s with a drill, whether it’s with a play call. So a lot of good discussion back and forth.

I was impressed by the players and their involvement in it as far as the way – not only did we study it, there were some guys that really buckled down and studied it themselves. I was just really impressed by that and their interaction back with that. I mean, really impressed. It showed their hunger.

Q. Regarding which players studied turnovers during the bye week… (Eliot Shorr-Parks)

NICK SIRIANNI: That’s something I’ll keep private, but it just really did show their hunger of how they went about their business this week as well.

Q. On offense, your use of motion has decreased since Week 1. Why has that been? (Jeff McLane)

NICK SIRIANNI: Again, different game plans call for different things. Sometimes a game plan calls for a lot of motion, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes there’s more tempo, and sometimes there’s not. Sometimes that tempo plays into it, and sometimes it doesn’t. So different things happen for different – it’s a small sample size.

Q. Is QB Jalen Hurts comfortable – does the comfortability factor into it? (Jeff McLane)

NICK SIRIANNI: No, he’s comfortable. You can ask him, but I know he’s comfortable with the things. Again, small sample size. Different game plans call for different things.

Q. Specifically with slow starts on offense, now that you’ve had a chance to look at the opening scripts from the first four games, are there any potential changes, any takeaways you had from that process? (EJ Smith)

NICK SIRIANNI: Of course. You go through all those different things, and you think about – again, that’s just not a four-game study, that’s a four-year study we take a look at. And we definitely have some thoughts – we know we’ve got to start faster. We know we’ve got to score in the first quarter.

Yeah, everything was on the table as far as the style of plays, the players, how we call it, how the defense looks to open things up. And we have some really good thoughts coming out of it. Obviously, not going to get into specifics. You’ll see how that transpires.

Again, like I said about the bye week, there’s just so much room for growth because of the extra time that you get to really put the work in and grind it out to see what you can do better and what you do well.

Q. What’s the discussion like right now with Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio in terms of position changes to get the defense to where it needs to be? (Brooks Kubena)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, we’re always constantly trying to figure out who plays where. Some guys are cemented in, but figuring out who plays where, who’s playing, what kind of snaps they’re playing in.

Q. I think if you ask most people ‘What’s the nucleus of a franchise? Who are the core people, most important people?’, they would probably say ownership, head coach, quarterback. In your experience, what’s the biggest challenge in making sure those three entities are always on the same page? (Mike Sielski)

NICK SIRIANNI: Communication. Communication, talking through everything, having hard discussions – it’s not Kumbaya, but it’s having hard discussions, telling the truth to each other. At the end of the day, like it always comes down to communication.

I don’t care if it’s the relationship with your wife, your relationship with your kids, your relationship with the players, your relationship with ownership, your relationship with the GM. I think that always is going to be the core – and honesty – are going to be the core things of any good relationship, in any meshing.

We know how important relationships are, and particularly the ones you just mentioned. So, yeah, that’s what it’s about in my mind, and that’s what we strive and try to do.

Q. Former Jets Head Coach Robert Saleh getting fired, your class of coaches. Obviously, you know what this profession is, but when something like that happens, do you think about your coaching mortality, so to speak? (John McMullen)

NICK SIRIANNI: No. I obviously wish him nothing but the best. I had a good working relationship with [Former Jets Head] Coach [Robert] Saleh, being able to practice against those guys. I’ve got a lot of respect for him. Always wishing him and his family the best. I think he’s a really good football coach.

But my mind is set on only how do we get better? Anything out of your control, or anything that consumes your mind that’s not focused on getting better is a waste of time. It only clouds the process. If I’m waking up at 4:00 in the morning, this is just my mind, and I’m thinking about ‘What am I going to say to the team? Oh my God, I’m excited.’ It’s hard for me to go back to sleep when I wake up in the middle of the night because I’m like ‘Okay, I could say this. I’m going to message this. Oh, what if we did this on defense? Oh, what if I did this with special teams? What if I have this conversation with this guy?’

If my mind – I get less sleep, but I get a lot of things done there. Or on my trip home, my drive into work, my drive out of work. There are so many things – if you’re focused on things that don’t – that you can’t control, then that’s going to cloud that hunger and that drive to get better. That’s all that we think about is the hunger, drive to get better. I know you probably can say, oh, that’s coach talk, but I’m not bullshitting you.

That’s how I live, that’s how I’ve operated. You are who your habits are, and that’s how I’ve been operating for a big portion of my life.

Q. What’s the difference in the structure of the offense when you have WR A.J. Brown versus when you don’t? (Bo Wulf)

NICK SIRIANNI: Obviously, [WR] A.J. [Brown] is a phenomenal player. Again, when he goes down, you ask yourself questions as far as ‘Who can do this?’ and ‘Who can do that?’ Sometimes the answer is Player A, sometimes the answer is Player B, sometimes the answer is that’s an A.J. thing.

So there are some differences that happen when he’s on the field. And quite frankly, there are just some differences in the way the defense plays you when he’s on the field. That’s common for any good player in this league that’s been as successful as A.J. has.

Q. Is LB Jeremiah Trotter Jr. ready to be the backup MIKE [Linebacker]? (Jeff McLane)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah.

Q. Why? (Jeff McLane)

NICK SIRIANNI: Again, these aren’t just things we make decisions on with no evidence. We practice every day. We walk through every day. We meet every day, obviously, and come to those conclusions in that aspect.

Q. Speaking of WR A.J. Brown, are you expecting to have him and WR DeVonta Smith and T Lane Johnson back this week? (Martin Frank)

NICK SIRIANNI: We’ll see. Early on in the week, we’ll get you guys the report later today. Feel good about the health of our football team. Bye week came in at a good time for us for different reasons. So we’ll see where we are.

Q. What’s the plan with S Sydney Brown this week? (Dave Zangaro)

NICK SIRIANNI: Window’s open, as you know. And we’re going to see how he does and how he looks. Obviously, we feel like he’s ready to start going because our trainers and our doctors have said he’s ready, it’s time to go. [S] Sydney [Brown] is – man, has he attacked this with such a positive attitude. And you talk about a guy who’s obsessed with getting better and obsessed with this game of football, that’s Sydney.

We’ll see where he is as we go. Obviously, you guys know he’s practicing, and we’ll see how he looks. He’s looked good on the side there, but now it’s a little different because you’re changing directions with bodies around and all those different things. So again, we’ll see where he is. But excited he’s at least back on that field because we’ve got a lot of high hopes for Sydney.

Q. With turnovers, giveaway takeaway ratio and all that, you talk about it a lot. But how much of that is really coachable, and how much of that is just guys making plays? (Reuben Frank)

NICK SIRIANNI: I think a lot of it. I think everything we do is – when you’re looking at yourself first at all times, you’re always going to think ‘This is a direct reflection of me and how I coach.’ And you’ve got to be able to do that to get better. So, to me, you get what you emphasize as a football coach.

So it’s not just about talking, it’s about your habits. What are your habits doing that create that? That’s what I mean by: we do our drills to do it. We videotape it differently. Shout out to our video department, we get essentially a TV camera out there that gets you the good, close looks of the ball.

Again, we’re obsessed with it. But it’s not just by speak, it’s by our habits. Then if it’s not meshing, what’s going on? Then you’ve got to think about yourself: how do you coach it different, how do you refine it different, how do you drill it different? So those are all the things that were discussions. Like I said, it might not be big tweaks, but there are tweaks of ‘Here’s how we want to drill this going forward, and here’s how we want to rep this particular one going forward.’ So, some different thoughts.

But anything that happens on that football field, the head coach is responsible for every one of it. And you’d better have answers as far as how you do things better. You’ve always got to be digging for that. If I want our players to have that hunger and desire, they need to see me with that hunger and desire. So I think, to answer your question, a hundred percent.

1. Is DB Cooper DeJean taking over at slot cornerback? (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: Again, we’re going to look at – he’s obviously been getting reps at slot. We’ll see how it goes this week. [DB] Avonte [Maddox] has done a good job. Avonte’s been a good player here for a long time, and I’m pleased with the things that he’s doing. We’ll see how the reps go this week.

[DB] Cooper [DeJean] obviously has got more on his plate than he has in the past with the punt return duties and some of the things he’s doing on special teams. Again, pleased with how Avonte’s going, but we’ll continue to work the reps for all the guys this week and see where we are at the end of the week.