Nick Sirianni

Q. QB Jalen Hurts had mentioned about the great moments you guys had together during the bye week. And went into a little bit of detail; not much. From your vantage point, how productive were those interactions? (Jeff McLane)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, very. Just having conversations about the team, having conversations about just everything that involves the team. Long conversations.

Just got a lot of work done.

I always appreciate when guys work as hard as he did over the bye week. That’s what my mind was on, and that’s what his mind was on. We had a lot of good talks. Obviously, I’ll keep all those private.

And I said this the other day, I just admire how guys worked during the bye week to keep going and just keep getting better.

He spent so much time working at his game – resting his body but working at his game – and I admire that.

Q. How do they come about? Are they organized? Or just organically they happen? You’re set to be in the same – (Jeff McLane)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yes to both. You start with conversations, and that’s kind of how it goes in the coaching world, too. You’re watching something and you’re like, ‘Hey, let’s look at this. Are we as productive as we need to be in this particular case? No. Okay then…’

So then you’re kind of going down this path.

This is a coaching way, and then this is just how it went, too. You’re going down this path, ‘Hey, let’s venture here and see what’s going on there.’

Then you get back and venture somewhere else. So you have some things planned out, but also, conversations and studies take to you different places.

Q. How do you feel like the insights that you discovered or reflected on over the bye week manifested themselves in practice this week? (Olivia Reiner)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, a lot of different things. Like I said to you guys, the way we drill things was a little different this week. Had some different ways we practiced a couple things.

Obviously, you guys don’t get to stay out there and watch all of practice, but that showed up throughout practice. Giving some stuff to answer your question and help you do your job, but also keeping stuff inside: we video taped things a slightly different way. Everything is on the table.

The way we video taped and audio taped and everything. Anything that you think that you have an opportunity to take another step on is what we did.

That’s meetings and that’s – again, your core values are who you are, and your habits are who you are and what your identity is.

But then all these other things can change the way you prepare just in attempts to get better. Like I said, there were things in meetings, there were things in practice, there were things in the way we tape practice. Shoot, there was a different thing with the crowd noise we practiced, too. Bunch of different stuff.

Q. Offensively, you had some things you talked about that you needed to work on: turnovers, slow starts. How do you balance wanting to make some changes, but also the reality that you played one game with your full offense. How do you balance that? (Jeff Neiburg)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, again, only thing you’re ever trying to do is focus on how do we improve. How do we improve, how do we improve, how do we improve. So that takes discernment to say, ‘Hey, this may show as a problem, but is it?’ You’ve got to go through, and you’ve got to study that and say, ‘This is an issue,’ but then you study it and you’re like, ‘Well, it’s not, maybe, as big an issue as we think,’ or this and that.

But like I said, everything you’re trying to do is just to improve, and you’ve just got to have wisdom of what truly needs – when we say improve, it’s not like, ‘Hey, just go get better.’ There are paths to it. So you focus your time on what you think are the big things, just like you spend more time practicing first and second down – I’m trying to make an analogy here.

You spend more time practicing first and second down, then third down, and then red zone because there are more opportunities there. So it’s the same thing there, where you’re trying to focus on the big things. And still focus on the little things, you just give the things the amount of time and attention that it deserves.

Q. You’ve pushed back on the idea of turnover luck. Do you still feel that way, that it’s not a product of the ball bouncing here and there, but it’s coaching – (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: I do. Yeah, I do. And I’ll stay firm to that. Now, Zach, there is always a bounce of the ball. It’s an imperfect game. There are mistakes. No one comes off a football game like ‘That was a perfect game.’ You have that in baseball sometimes. That’s not a perfect game.

None of these games are perfect. But that ball bounces differently, so there are times where you’re like, we did not get on the ball – we fumbled, but didn’t get on the ball. But the act in itself of the fumble alone is what we’re talking about. The way the ball came out is a product of coaching, of playing. The details of how you play.

That’s everything. You name it. Whether it’s somebody that’s punching the ball out – I’m talking as an offense – and you weren’t protecting it good enough. Whether it’s a communication problem on a snap. Whether it’s a ball handling issue where you catch the ball and you’re in the mesh between the back.

Those are all things that we practice and preach and talk and detail out a ton.

And so yeah, I definitely push back on that. Like I said, the element of the ball going out – I count any time we fumble as a fumble. I’m treating that, in my mind, as a turnover. Because you could have, right?

The ball in itself can bounce weird ways, and that’s going to happen, but that happens to everybody. So if you’re like, ‘Oh, the ball didn’t bounce our way, this way.’ Those happen throughout the league, right? So it’s the act in itself of protecting it.

And vice versa, the act in itself of coming after the ball. When you close in on a guy, and one guy has a shot at the ball and the other guy has a tackle secured: are you getting that shot? Are you taking your attempts? That’s what we talk about when we take it away: are you getting your attempts?

The guy that shoots 25 shots is going to score a heck of a lot more points than the guy who shoots 8. Unless the guy that shoots 25 stinks, and he doesn’t make it.

So get your attempts on the ball, and then the fundamentals and detail that go into that. Because gosh, we work too hard at it to ever think, ‘This is luck.’ You make your own luck. You try your best to put yourself in the best position you possibly can. That’s turnovers, that’s game management, that’s the way you run a two-minute drill.

It’s everything, right?

These guys pour everything into this thing, and they’re so hungry to get better. So those are things we feel like we can control.

Q. You have the two – you’ve got ball security and takeaway up there [referencing poster in the auditorium]. Do you have a third one for quarterbacks in the pocket? (Jimmy Kempski)

NICK SIRIANNI: Like with two hands on the ball?

1. Yeah. You’ve got the body ball boundary [referencing poster] – (Jimmy Kempski)

NICK SIRIANNI: We have our rules. There are a lot of different things that come off of this [referencing poster]. Again, this is for the team ball carriers. This is a good question. This is for the team ball carriers. [QB] Jalen [Hurts] having two hands on the ball in the pocket is definitely a thing.

But the reason it’s not up there is because that’s not as – to me, to [TE] Dallas Goedert, he’s not going to be passing the ball like that.

So the ones that are individualized for the position stay in the position. They don’t make it to the poster. But there is the [running] back, too. The back gets the ball off the mesh, and so many times in this league, we see the back do this [referencing holding a football] and a defensive linemen get a hand on it.

Well, what the back is taught to do is here [referencing receiving a football] and get to this right away [referencing holding a football]. But something like that doesn’t make the poster. Also a catch, tuck. That’s specific to – the quarterback is not involved in that. These are team fundamentals, where it applies to everybody.

Whereas the specific ones that apply to the position group are handled in the team meetings, but also in the position groups, and also in the offensive meetings.

Q. How did DB Cooper DeJean look in practice this week on defense? (Brooks Kubena)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I think the guys had a good week of practice. They worked hard on their fundamentals. They worked hard on being on the same page. Playing good defensive football is tackling well. Playing good defensive football is coming after the football and creating some turnovers. Being good on defensive football is effort and energy to the football. And being good on defense is also everyone being on the same page.

I think our group as a whole had a really good week of practice doing those things. Because if you don’t do some of those things in defensive football, you can’t be a top tier defense.

Q. How was S Sydney Brown’s first week back? (Dave Zangaro)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, he had a good week, too. Fun to have him out there. He’s a good player. Great worker. Great teammate. He’s had so many plays where he has just been standing back there. And his mind has been so focused on, ‘Hey, I’m not in right now but, my mind has got to work in.’

And I have admired watching him do that from afar. But, yeah, it was good to get him out there running around. I thought he had some good moments.

Q. How much is tackling fundamentals, and how much of it is desire and effort? (Howard Eskin)

NICK SIRIANNI: And coaching, right? I look at it the exact same way as I look at the turnovers. What I know about our football team – and I said this to our football team – I know that we are a tough, physical football team that plays with relentless, relentless effort.

We grade that. We talk about that every single day. And I see our guys busting their asses to play hard. Because we know that when we play hard – heard someone say this the other day, your hustle and your energy give you the right to make a play. And I see our guys doing that.

I think so much with tackling comes down to the detail of how you approach, the detail with how you wrap. But sometimes it is just getting the dude down. It’s like, alright, there was no detail there, but he got him on the ground, or vice versa.

But it’s always like, hey, you have all these rules. We could make a poster for the tackling. Because there are so many different details with that of how you go about your business about getting there. And your track, and your line, and then your strike, and everything. How you get off the block.

But sometimes it does come down to just get the dude down, right? Just get him down. One of the best coaching lines that [Assistant Linebackers/Defensive Quality Control Coach] Ronell Williams says is ‘Just grab a body part and get him down.’ Just get him down. Now you’re there, you’ve made your hit, just grab a body part and get him down.

So I know we’ve done the right things to put ourselves in position this week. We’ll keep tinkering with different things to try to put our guys in position. We did different drills. We had a couple different things with equipment out there.

Because all we care about is that the product that we put on the field is a reflection of the things we do here. And our guys have worked really hard at it.

Q. Your roster right now is at 52. Do you anticipate going to 53, and how do you think WR Parris Campbell has performed? (Bob Brookover)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, [WR] Parris [Campbell] has done some really good things. I’ve season Parris make plays for a long time in this league. He plays with relentless effort, he plays physical, he plays tough. And when he’s gotten opportunities – I think he has 8 targets and 8 catches. You guys would know that.

I thought I saw something like that with our stats that they give me. I think he has 8 targets and 8 catches, so he’s taking advantage of the opportunities he’s gotten. And he’s fast, so he helps there.

We will see how that plays out, but I’m pleased with Parris and the things that he’s done.

Q. How are WR DeVonta Smith and WR Johnny Wilson doing? (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: You’ll get that [referring to the injury report].