Nick Sirianni

Q. Entering your sixth season, you’ve had an eventful career, overachieving teams, underachieving teams. You’ve led some teams through drama off the field and off the field issues. I guess just for your time here, what have you learned most about yourself and then coaching in a city and market like Philadelphia? (Jason Dumas)

Nick Sirianni: You’re completely in the moment at all times. Right now, we’re focusing completely on Washington. Now, in your other times, in your offseason, you’re constantly kind of thinking about all the things that you can get better at and how you can get better and how you continue to grow. We take that opportunity after every week, after every day, to evaluate ourselves and get better from that. We want our players to do that from the — They do that every single day with the film work that we do. It’s our job as coaches to do that same thing. Right now, all those things that you have worked on, you’re working to apply those for this Week One of Washington, against a good football team.

Q. How is OLB Jonathan Greenard doing? Do you anticipate him playing this weekend? (Reuben Frank)

Nick Sirianni: We’ll see. I think that all our guys that have had some dings throughout training camp, they’ve worked their butts off to — That’s what I always admire about this group, led by our captains and our leaders, is that this team works hard. When you work hard, it’s not just on the practice field; it’s also in the film room. It’s also if you’re having to rehab an injury, and he’s worked his butt off. We’ll see where that is by the end of the week, and we’ll get you an injury report for today and who’s practicing and everything like that. We’ll see how that goes.

Q. WR DeVonta Smith was named a captain for the first time in several years. What did he do this offseason to go about stepping into that role considering the new makeup of the receiver room, and in essence becoming the number one guy? (Jeff McLane)

Nick Sirianni: DeVonta always leads by example. If you are at a walkthrough, if you’re at a practice, if you’re here early in the morning when you walk in and down to the training room, there’s never a moment where that guy’s not working on something to help himself be the best version of himself that Sunday. I think that people notice that, right? It’s from how he prehabs before lifting and before practice, how he rehabs after that. All the extra things that he does to work his craft of catching the football, he’s just relentless in his approach to getting better. I think that’s so noticeable.

When he talks, people listen. There’s times he’s quiet, there’s times he’s outspoken, but I just always see him grabbing guys and trying to help them because I think — I know DeVonta knows that everyone’s success on this team equals team success, and he’s not threatened by anything there because of his position of being just a phenomenal football player, but he’s constantly looking to help people as well. Those are the main things that — again, I don’t vote. It’s a player’s vote, but as I see it, I can see that very clearly and I know the players on this football team do as well.

Q. What have you noticed about how RB Saquon Barkley is acclimating to the new scheme? Is there an example from the summer of a play where you say, ‘Okay, that shows kind of how he’s a fit?’ (Tim McManus)

Nick Sirianni: Saquon is such a phenomenal talent that I think he would be successful in any scheme that he was in. He can do everything, right? He can make you miss, he can beat you with speed, he can beat you with instincts in how he sees the hole, he can run over you. Those guys that have every quality — He can beat you out of the backfield and on routes. He’s a good pass protector. His game’s very well-rounded, and I think that he would be successful in any scheme that he’s in, and he has been. To say that I saw a play that made me say that, it’s just his body of work.

He’s just such a phenomenal athlete that what I find awesome is the consistency of which people do things, not maybe just the splash of it happening one time. Now, the splash of him jumping over the guy backwards, we might not ever see that again, but I just admire his consistency of his approach on a daily basis, how he runs the ball on a daily basis, how he prepares on a daily basis, how he protects and how he runs routes on a daily basis.

Q. With how much time WR Makai Lemon missed in training camp, did you get enough to see him and evaluate him and to feel comfortable playing him in Week One? (Dave Zangaro)

Nick Sirianni: Everybody is in a different spot when you go through an injury. He maybe hasn’t had as many reps. I’m really confident in that room, all the guys in that room, including Makai, and excited about that room and the things that it will bring to our football team. We have a number of different guys that can make plays in that room, and Makai is definitely one of those guys. Looking forward to him having opportunities to be able to do that this Sunday and moving forward.

Q. Going back to when you called plays for the first time in the NFL, what’s the biggest adjustment or challenge and how have you been able to help Offensive Coordinator Sean Mannion prepare for Sunday doing that for the first time? (John Clark)

Nick Sirianni: Just having a plan for every situation that you could possibly be in and having conviction through that. That was one thing that I wanted in this new coordinator was somebody that was convicted in what they believed and had great knowledge of it, and he has that. Going in there, having a plan and understanding that that plan doesn’t always go — It’s not always perfect, right? There’s going to be times that you have to adjust off that.

The main thing is just having a plan for everything, not just what you’re convicted in within the game plan, but all the little scenarios that can happen throughout. Sean, like I said, is just a relentless worker. We’ve worked relentlessly to get on the same page with a lot of the things of what we’re speaking of right now, but I just think I’m excited for his opportunity and I’m really pleased with where he and the offensive staff are at this particular point.

Q. Is there a certain theory you have for the Week One success in your career? (Zach Berman)

Nick Sirianni: I’ve talked to a lot of different coaches and taken a lot of things from our examples of openers, and there’s a lot of common denominators. Without getting too much into what they are, just for competitive reasons, there is no substitute for the work. There’s so many of those things that are key to Game One, which we discussed as a team today, that you can’t cram for.

You saw college football this last weekend, there were a lot of kicking errors. I didn’t watch a ton, but I saw Notre Dame get a punt block for the first time in a long time, and then it’s 0-0 when that happens. I think Wisconsin scores three, and then it’s 3-3, and then Wisconsin drops a kickoff. Mount Union loses to Wheaton on a blocked kick. You didn’t see that one? It’s [Mount Union’s] first two-game losing streak, because we lost at the end of last year and at the beginning of this year, since 1977. It’s been quite some time [since] we’ve banged out two. At least that’s what [Assistant to the Head Coach] Cole [Peterson] told me. I don’t know if — I throw that stat out. I hope it’s true.

But kicking errors, live fundamentals are huge. Again, I’m not going to get into every one of these things, but those are things that you can’t cram for. That’s where I feel so good about our daily process of when we’re out in that practice field, we practice hard. I think people get it confused that they think practicing hard has to be long. No, when you’re out there, it’s got to be efficient. Moving from period to period, high intensity. Sometimes the intensity of practice when it’s really, really long, the guys tempo themselves a little bit in that.

Like I said, the whole thing is your habits that you build. There is no secret to some of these things. The habits that you build every single day are going to be what shows up on Sunday. Our guys work extremely hard at that. Our coaches are very purposeful on that. Our drill work, I think we do a good job of not only drilling it, but then also showing it. A lot of teams show just the clips of practice. We’ll show a lot of drill work in here as well because those are all opportunities for you to get better.

Q. You’re facing a team with a head coach returning, but two new coordinators. You’ve experienced that from the opposite side twice before. Dolphins Head Coach Jeff Hafley recently shared an anecdote about former Eagles Offensive Coordinator Kevin Patullo talking about how he knew about his scheme and how you guys went about finding that out. (Jeff McLane)

Nick Sirianni: [Jokingly.] It was good that they brought that to attention to everybody. Obviously, they’re not doing it this year or else they wouldn’t have told everybody about it.

Q. How do you prepare knowing your experiences with it and how do you prepare for that not knowing who these guys are and what they — (Jeff McLane)

Nick Sirianni: You look for every advantage that you can possibly get in everything and trying to find the inches. When you might not know quite as much as far as your opponent, because we could get out there and they could be — The defense could be all [Commanders Head Coach] Dan [Quinn] or it could be all [Vikings Defensive Coordinator] Coach [Brian] Flores or it could be a mix. The same thing offensively. I know their offensive coordinator has worked really hard, and I’ve got a lot of respect for him and through the people that he’s learned from as well. I think what happens in those situations is that you have to be able to do what you do best, be fast, be simple. You have to do what you need to do to stop them.

You have to do what you need to do to create plays on offense. What I mean by that is the things that you’ve been repping and working, you have to do those, and you have to do them incredibly fast so you can play with great fundamentals because, at the end of the day, regardless of what scheme they’re running, what scheme we’re running offensively, defensively, it comes down to — We don’t always see that because I think there’s a lot of flash in other places. This game comes down to who blocks better, who gets off blocks better, who tackles better, who protects the football better, who comes after the football better, who catches the ball better, who’s more physical and who plays together better. Then there’s a lot of similarities with a lot of schemes throughout the NFL offensively, defensively. There’s some differences as well, but at the end of the day, players go and make plays through those fundamentals and through their talent.

Q. What makes you feel good about Offensive Line Coach Chris Kuper, and what’s the type of impact you’ve seen him have early on in that room in his first year? (Cayden Steele)

Nick Sirianni: I just think he’s a really good teacher. He’s had a ton of experience playing the game, and then his experience as a coach of starting off at low levels, working his way up. I always admire that. I know the guys value his experience and the way he is as a teacher. He’s done a nice job. He’s done a really nice job of coaching these guys and getting them all to understand what the job description is for this offense and for the offensive line. Our guys respect him, and I’m looking forward to that product being shown on the field on Sunday.

Q. Who’s the backup quarterback? (Dave Zangaro)

Nick Sirianni: We don’t have to make that decision quite yet or announce that decision. I think for competitive reasons, again, I don’t want them to be able to study one guy over the other. I’m not saying we don’t have an answer of who that is yet, but I just don’t have to share that quite yet publicly.

Q. Is that the same answer for Offensive Coordinator Sean Mannion in the booth or on the sideline? (Ed Kracz)

Nick Sirianni: You know what? We’re toying back and forth with that. We’ll see. We’ll see where he is. We have an answer. I don’t think that’s quite a competitive advantage. He’s probably going to be up. I don’t give you a lot like that very often, so you shot your shot. I gave you one.