Eagles Head Coach Nick Sirianni (Post-Game Transcript)
What was S Andre’ Sam’s injury? Is that a knee?
Nick Sirianni: We’ll see. I haven’t talked to the doctors yet, but he was playing his butt off, that’s for sure.
What’d you think of the quarterback play tonight with QB Tanner McKee and QB Andy Dalton?
Nick Sirianni: We’ll have to go back and look at everything on the tape. I’ve been pleased with both those guys through camp, feel we’re in a good spot there. We’ll go back and look at every throw they made from preseason games to practices, to joint practices, to operation practices and make our decision. But again, thought there was some good things. Obviously, there’s always things that you’ve got to clean up at every position and in every game, but we’ll see.
What do you attribute the lack of scoring throughout the preseason to?
Nick Sirianni: I think that there’s just some things we’re working on and being able to get some things repped. I think at the end of the day, you’ve got to be explosive to be able to not have to go the long way down the field. Have we showed everything? Obviously not. You should have that element of being able to say you don’t know exactly what we’re going to be able to do. That was all by design. We want to give our guys the best chance to be able to succeed, but while also protecting some of the unknown that we have to our advantage.
But at the end of the day, like I said, you have to be explosive to not have to go the long way down the field. That’s something that we’ll always look at. We always want to come out of a game winning the turnover battle. We always want to come out of a game winning the explosive play battle. It’s not one or the other, you’re trying to win both of those because that’s what we base our success on — ultimately winning and losing. But that, to me, is one of the stats that has the biggest effect on winning and losing.
Do you view it as a good thing that the backup QB competition is seemingly as close as it is or would you have liked to see somebody separate?
Nick Sirianni: I feel good about both guys. I feel like it’s a good room and I feel good about [QB] Cole [Payton] and the things that he can do as well and be able to develop. I feel good. I view it as a good thing that I feel good about both those guys, and our staff feels good about both those guys.
I know you have to look at the film, but what are your first impressions of WR Makai Lemon?
Nick Sirianni: Few opportunities, but we’ll look at it, and there’s going to be ups and downs for every player. There’s going to be good plays, bad plays. Obviously, he’s going to want that catch back on third down to be able to hang onto that. Not cause a turnover that obviously led to points. We’ve seen some good things throughout his practices where we are feeling good about his development. He’s got to continue to develop, a young player and we know we’re going to be able to count on him this year.
Saw QB Cole Payton in punt coverage. What was the plan with him?
Nick Sirianni: Just again, this is our opportunity to be able to work some things. He’s a great athlete and wanted to be able to see some things with him. We’ve obviously seen the things with him being able to run around when he’s got the ball in his hands. If you can find something in there, and he’d been working that in practice and in walkthroughs to get himself ready. Give him an opportunity to go out there and make some plays.
What’d you see?
Nick Sirianni: To be able to go out there and watch the special teams — sometimes in special teams, you might not — unless there was an explosive play that [was] given up on his behalf, you might not be able to say, ‘Hey, this was –‘ I didn’t notice him in the sense of anything negative, so we’ll see when we watch the tape.
In WR Makai Lemon’s case, what made you play him tonight? If I can add a second part of the question, in C/G Willie Lampkin’s case, was that injury-related or have you seen enough of him so far?
Nick Sirianni: I won’t get into any injuries or anything like that or where we are with any of those things. Just what we decided to do. Makai hadn’t played in the preseason yet. He’s a young player, rookie. We want to be able to get him some reps.
Given the news of the offense, the first time play caller, why ultimately did you feel comfortable not playing the starting offense?
Nick Sirianni: We feel good about how it’s kind of went in practice and the operation that we’ve been getting in there. We look at our practices [as] a great evaluation tool for us and the operation that we stress in those situations. Again, this is kind of what we’ve done the last couple years. That doesn’t mean that next year during the preseason, I won’t play anybody. It’s just what we decided to do this year. That’s the decision that I felt would have us best ready to play in Week One.
Is the operation best with Offensive Coordinator Sean Mannion up in the booth? It seems like he was up there a second time.
Nick Sirianni: Yeah, but he went to the field during the operation practice at the stadium. So again, been getting some different opportunities to go there. I think the operation’s been good regardless of where he’s been. It’s about where he’s going to feel comfortable and be at his best calling the plays, and we’ll continue to evaluate that.
When do you think you need to make that decision? Is there a point where you have to say –
Nick Sirianni: I would say Sunday at four o’clock. We’ll figure it [out]. Yeah, we have some time, but we won’t get another opportunity for him to go up there. I don’t look at it like you have a deadline there. At some point, I’m going to have to tell those guys, ‘Hey, have his headset on the field or have his headset up in the box.’ But he’s gotten his opportunities to be up there. I imagine it won’t take us ’til Sunday. I was teasing. It won’t take us ’til Sunday at four. We’ll probably figure that out here pretty soon.
With more time than in the past between cutdown day and Week One, how do you plan to spend next week?
Nick Sirianni: Getting better. Getting better practicing, meeting, going through some of those things. I think next week’s a really good opportunity for us to do some emphasis periods, some cards and some conditioning stuff with some long drives. Get some good meeting time in as well. I think it’s just important that you continue to grow in all areas, and we’ll use that next week to grow.
Considering there’s been so much newness this preseason, how have you felt everything has gone, training camp and these games, what kind of progress do you feel like you guys are making?
Nick Sirianni: Every time you step on the field, it’s an opportunity for you to get better. We feel like our guys practice really hard. Our coaches coach their butts off and we feel like every time we’ve stepped on that field, we’ve gotten better. Again, it doesn’t always — You’re going to go forward and you’re going to come back a little bit and all those different things, but progress has continued to get better in some of our operations based off of just my observations, but there’s still things you have to clean up. Obviously, you want to be playing your best football by the end of the year.
With how you prioritize not giving the ball up, do the uptick in turnovers this summer, do you view it as just breaking in the system, experimentation, or how are you looking at that holistically?
Nick Sirianni: We always want to be explosive. We always want to take care of the football. Anytime we have a turnover or anytime any play doesn’t go your way, you always evaluate it. Or even if a play does go your way, you evaluate it. From the quarterbacks, you want those guys to be going to the right place with the football on time, making accurate throws with the receivers. You want them to be in the right spots when they’re supposed to be there and win on their routes with protection. You want the guys to get a hat for a hat and then be able to win their one-on-one matchups, whether it’s a tight end in protection, a running back or an offensive lineman.
Then when there’s a turnover, you want to make sure we’re — Tonight’s turnover was obviously off of a dropped pass, so that goes into it as well. So when there’s a turnover, you’re just evaluating those things of what went wrong on the play, but we always want to make sure that we’re protecting the football. That will always be first and foremost on this football team. I think you could see how our defense was coming after the football today, and we know that we’ve had success when we’ve been able to take care of it, but our best success has come when we’ve taken care of it, when we took it away and when we’ve been explosive and stopped explosives.