Nick Sirianni

Q. Nick, how much has WR Makai Lemon benefited from — I mean, obviously you don’t want to have WR DeVonta Smith and WR Dontayvion Wicks out, but how much has that helped speed along Makai’s process? (Martin Frank)

Nick Sirianni: I think that Makai — His process is continuing to go well because of who he is in whatever situation he’s been in. He was dinged up early and missed some time in training camp, and I just think he handles himself awesome, like a pro. Like I’ve said about him, he’s tough, he loves football, he’s got high football IQ, and those guys have a tendency to reach their ceiling, and everyone comes along at different times but he’s doing a nice job for us.

I think you can see how scrappy he is when he plays football in every phase, whether it’s with the ball in his hands, whether that’s with him running routes or whether that’s him doing some of the dirty work. We really value that, and that always helps when a guy’s consistent like Makai is. I think that always helps in the development of him because he’s able to be in there at all times because he can execute everything we’re asking him to do.

Q. You’ve had QB Joe Milton here for about three weeks now. What’s he showing you? How’s he picking up the offense? (Reuben Frank)

Nick Sirianni: I think he’s worked really hard. Him and [Quarterbacks Coach] Parks [Frazier] have spent a ton of time together getting him caught up to speed. I know the developmental periods always help to be able to run our plays, but he works extremely hard. He’s always in the building doing the extra things, and I like his progression.

Q. After the game, you talked about maybe changing the way you address detail and the messaging with that. Did you come to any conclusions about how you might change that? (Dave Zangaro)

Nick Sirianni: No, I just think it’s just day by day as far as whether — I knew my college coach would always be like, the early part of the week, it was going to be harsh, and the later part of the week, you weren’t going to be able to do anything wrong, because he wanted to build you back up. There’s different ways to approach it. I think I’ve done different ways to approach it. Again, all that it [really] comes down to is knowing your guys and knowing what buttons to push to be able to hold the standard and what the standard is. I’ve said to you guys before, it’s so important that you know what you believe in. It’s so important that you’re able to show what you believe in. The most important part, in my mind, is that you’re relentless and a bulldog about holding that standard of — your culture is your behaviors, of what your behaviors are. That’s what we’re working on. It’s constant growth. You never make it. You never reach the mountaintop on that. You’re just looking for constant growth, and that’s what we’re trying to do.

Q. Talked to Offensive Coordinator Sean Mannion yesterday about pre-snap communication, just trying to understand in a general sense, what changes can you make to fix those things? How do you — (Brooks Kubena)

Nick Sirianni: I think we get into a little bit more stuff that doesn’t [help] us to give out publicly, but this isn’t the first time any of us have been in the NFL and had, ‘Hey, we had some communication errors,’ that’s football. So, you lean back on some of the things: ‘Hey, when we’ve had this before, we did this, this, and this.’ Whether that’s my time here, whether it’s my time in Indy, whether it’s my time [with] the Chargers, whether that’s my time in Kansas City, whether it’s my time at IUP, Mount Union — I’m out of coaching jobs there. That’s all the places. You lean back on that, you lean back on the experience of, ‘Hey, here are some things that we’ve done in the past to be able to do this. Is that necessary? Are we having too many of them?’ You go from there. But there’s about four or five things that we talked about and are doing on some of these things to help us out.

Q. The trade deadline’s coming up, obviously. Do you take a proactive approach and talk to the team as a whole about any of the rumors or individually at them? (Ed Kracz)

Nick Sirianni: You’re always in constant communication with your guys. I think we have a good beat on what guys are going through, any situation that they’re going through, what guys need to be talked to. Of course, you talk to all the guys about that. I’m not saying that necessarily is in front of the room, but maybe more one-on-one situations there. I think that just goes back to everybody’s going through something, and it’s important that you’re connected with the team to be able to help guys get through anything that they are going through, whether that’s something in their personal life, whether that’s something on the football field, whether that’s something with a trade or whatever. I think that’s just kind of our DNA, our cultures, our behaviors of what we do. You’re constantly in communication with everybody.

Q. You mentioned your previous stops, drawing from those experiences. Have you had experience this late in the season where you’re having protection issues and communication issues? (Jeff Neiburg)

Nick Sirianni: Yeah, of course. Again, you lean back on past experiences, you study new things or whatever you need to do. Our job is to be problem-solvers and to try to fix every problem that we possibly can so we can go out there and execute and coach at a high level. Whatever that may be and however you get to it, you get to it through your process. But there’s different ways that you get to it and how you get to it.

Q. This offseason, in changing the scheme, a lot of it was to get the run game back to what you guys wanted to do. What has prevented you guys from having the identity in doing that, I guess beyond the injuries certainly that you’ve had there? (Jeff McLane)

Nick Sirianni: I don’t think it’s necessarily — It’s not just one thing, as I’ve always said. We’re not playing or coaching well enough on the offensive side, so that all adds into it. We’re all not doing a good enough job there. It’s not just the run game that hasn’t been up to par. It’s our scoring, it’s our third down, it’s our pass game, whatever it may be. We have to do a better job as a whole. I think that we’ve talked about when you want to run your offense, it’s very critical to be ahead of the sticks and be able to do that. There’s not a lot of third down conversions at the third-and-14 or whatever it may be. You’re playing to get back in phase or to be explosive when you’re behind the sticks. I think that’s where it starts is that.

There’s been multiple reasons for that, but I believe that we’ve gotten some good hits on the outside zone and we’ve been almost up to that efficiency where we want to be on that. Then, it’s just other things. Some of the inside zone stuff has almost been up to our efficiency, but we still need to be able to hit explosives [and] still be able to be efficient with it. I think a lot of it starts with right there at the beginning: Can you be ahead of the sticks so you can be in the offense that you want to be in and not being in catch up mode?

Q. What has communication been like with Chairman/CEO Jeffrey Lurie over the last handful of weeks and what kind of approach does he take as you guys are trying to get out of — (Tim McManus)

Nick Sirianni: I’ve always felt nothing but complete support from Mr. Lurie in everything, through good times, through bad times. That’s huge. That’s huge to be able to know that the owner has your back in all situations. We’ve been high of highs, we’ve been low, and I’ve felt nothing but support and my communication remains the same with him as it has [been] whether we’re on a winning streak or whether we’re on a losing streak. I love that steadiness, and I’m trying to give that same thing to the guys: the consistency, the steadiness, because I know I’m receiving it from the very top.

Q. Is there anything you can share with us about how QB Jalen Hurts is doing? Have you talked to him? Have you seen him, communicated with him? (Reuben Frank)

Nick Sirianni: Of course, I’ve seen him, and I have no new update on anything. But of course, I’ve talked to him and am in constant communication with him and know he’s resting and recovering. I miss him like crazy. But nothing new on that front. I know he’s resting and recovering, and we’re all still praying for him and hoping for a speedy recovery.

Q. Has he been here? (Jeff Neiburg)

Nick Sirianni: Yeah, like I said, no new information there on that.

Q. Earlier in the season, talking about pre-snap, it seemed like conversation was less playing chess and reading defenses that can kind of change post-snap. Just curious, with the operation, is it more some of the communication stuff based on what you are reading when you get to the line, or is it more kind of operation leading to the calls? (Brooks Kubena)

Nick Sirianni: I don’t notice us — We had some of the ones in the last game. I don’t notice us behind in the play count, really scurrying to get the ball snapped. I don’t notice any of that as far as that goes. Now, there might be one or two a game, but I don’t feel that there. Again, it’s many different — When it does happen, I think it’s because when it has happened, it’s become a splash play for the other team. Obviously, it’s something that you need to address and you need to get better at, but I don’t necessarily think it’s — I don’t think it’s been demoralizing to us. Anytime you give up a negative play, it puts you behind and everything like that. But I don’t feel like it’s been something that’s been such an ongoing multiple, multiple-times-a-game thing.

Q. How would you gauge how QB Cole Payton is doing behind the scenes? (Jeff Neiburg)

Nick Sirianni: Great. I mean, you got to see him play in some special teams, which is pretty awesome. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen that. I think [former Saints QB/TE] Taysom Hill is the guy I’ve seen that with. He’s in unique company with that. He’s tough. Again, another guy who’s tough, loves football, high football IQ. He’ll have a tendency to reach his ceiling, God willing. I like the way he comes to work every day, continues to grow, continues to learn, takes everything in and does literally anything to help the team. I don’t know how much you guys know on this. He does some stuff on scout team where he’s not the quarterback sometimes. Even sometimes in developmental periods, if we need a clear-out route or something like that, he’s had a couple nice catches in those, too. I can’t say enough good things about him and his willingness to do anything to help the football team and also help his growth. I mean, guys that do scout team, they have to do a great job of developing themselves with the coaches on their craft and then do whatever, have that servant leadership of whatever that the other side needs. He really does a good job of that.

Q. What has morale been like recently? (Dave Zangaro)

Nick Sirianni: I think the guys have been steady of how they come into work, ready to go. Obviously, losing six in a row sucks. After a game, I think that it sucks, right? There’s no doubt about it. What I believe is, every time they come in here, they’re ready to work, they’re ready to get better, and it shows you the guys that we have in this building of who they are as people, that they’re coming back every single day hungry to do everything we can do to turn it around. I think that’s coaches, players, the entire building, and I’m proud of that and we’ve just got to continue that and get off this losing streak.