Shane Steichen

Q. When you have RB Boston Scott, RB Kenneth Gainwell and RB Miles Sanders, do you go into a game with an idea of like how you’re going to use them, when Boston might come in or is that kind of a feel as the game is going on? (Reuben Frank)

SHANE STEICHEN: It’s both/and. There’s a feel for it and then also [Running Backs/Assistant Head Coach] Jemal Singleton, our running back coach, does a hell of a job of rotating those guys in and out. Credit to him and the work he’s done with those backs. We feel good like I said with all three of those guys and they’re doing a really nice job right now.

Q. Monday was your highest percentage of 11 personnel in your time here. What was the reason for that? (Zach Berman)

SHANE STEICHEN: We went a little tempo there and it worked out well for us obviously in the first half. But we can do it out of different personnel groups, and it just happened to be that, that week.

Q. What went into that decision, the tempo to start the game? Is that something you saw in Minnesota, is that something you just wanted to do yourself? (John McMullen)

SHANE STEICHEN: We always feel that sometimes that gives you an advantage, obviously when you do that. It can be different types of it. You can be in it all the time, sometimes you can mix it up. It’s week by week going into those things and how we do that. So, it was good for us on Monday night.

Q. How have you seen TE Dallas Goedert take ownership of that top tight end role? (Dave Zangaro)

SHANE STEICHEN: He’s been tremendous. He led the team in receiving yards. I think he had 5 for 82. He continues to grow every single week. He’s so strong and powerful. He makes a ton of plays. He was awesome in the run game. Everything he does every day in practice it shows up on Mondays and Sundays. He’s continuing to be a better player every single day. Credit to him. A credit to [Tight Ends Coach] Jason Michael, our tight end coach, for preparing him every week. He’s been awesome.

Q. You were not here for RB Miles Sanders’ first couple years, obviously. But he had a lot of, he ran differently back then. He’s really cut down his number of negative runs. What do you see from him as far as being decisive with the ball in his hands, not dancing around and hitting the hole and just doing his assignments? (Reuben Frank)

SHANE STEICHEN: He’s been tremendous. The offensive line, it starts up front with that offensive line. But his patience, his vision to hit it and get those yards when it’s tight. Sometimes it’s tight in there, the line of scrimmage. He does a nice job of just sticking his foot in the ground and getting through those voids. It might be an ugly two or three yards, but it’s not a negative run. He’s doing a nice job and we have to continue to do that.

Q. Some of the throws that QB Jalen Hurts made Monday night, you’ve seen now for two years, would you say he played his best game against the Vikings and does any of what he’s doing surprise you? (Martin Frank)

SHANE STEICHEN: It doesn’t surprise me at all what he’s doing. He’s continuing to grow every single day, every game. We saw it in the spring. It carried over into training camp. We’re in week two, he knows that. And he played well. We have to continue to play well individually, collectively, everybody coaches included. We have a lot of football ahead of us. We have a heck of a challenge going into Washington, a division opponent. We just have to stay on it. Everybody. It starts with the head coach. He’s done a hell of a job holding everybody accountable. Every day we come into this building, it doesn’t matter if we win or lose, we have the same process. He holds everyone accountable. Offense, defense, special teams. And I think guys feed off that. So, it’s been good, and we have to continue that trend.

Q. You guys talked about the mechanical changes that QB Jalen Hurts made in the off-season, the work he did to improve in that aspect. Has that resulted in him maybe having more velocity on his throws? (EJ Smith)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think any time — mechanically that’s the fundamentals. Coach talks about fundamentals all the time. If you work on your fundamentals and you work on your craft, you’re going to become a better football player. It’s showing up. Like I said, we have to continue that, we have a lot of football ahead of us. But like where he’s at, like his mindset.

Shoot, one play that really stood out to me in the game, it was two minute right there at the end and we were trying to throw a shot and we had a check down, he hit [TE] Dallas [Goedert] on a check down. He just like was in protection and he threw Dallas a diagonal and it went for 30. But the decision to see it as fast as he did and get that ball, they all synced out of there and it was like, here, ball. I was on the sidelines seeing it unfold and I was like, there’s Dallas. Boom. It was right there, and it went for 30 down the sidelines which got us into a good chunk. Then we hit the seam to get points at the end of the half. That was a heck of a drive by him. Heck of a drive by everybody on that two-minute drive.

Q. Does QB Jalen Hurts make that play last year? (Dave Zangaro)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think he makes that play last year. But I think with reps too you see it. With anything, any position you play, the more you rep it, repetitions, you see more of it. All those guys that have played for so many years. These quarterbacks that have played 10-plus years, they have seen a lot. When you see a lot, right, you’re going to, your accelerated vision is going to help you on game day.

Q. Obviously you have a better feel for QB Jalen Hurts in your second year of working with him. Do you feel like you have a better sense of kind of how to deploy him, what to call for him and just what he’s going to respond to in different situations? (Reuben Frank)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, it’s great. The communication, any time you’re around somebody for a long time you get to know them. You get to know what he likes, you get to know what he’s good at. That process started, whatever it was, last year. Then now we’re getting into this season, the off-season, like all of those communications, those conversations in the QB room, on the field in between series, I mean it just continues to grow and grow. Then you see great growth from it.

Q. Head Coach Nick Sirianni said a little bit, he was a little upset at himself for taking the foot off the gas and he said he forced you to take the foot off the gas in the second half. What were those discussions like? (John McMullen)

SHANE STEICHEN: Me and him we have great communication throughout game day, throughout the week. Those things, we talk about those things, and we go from there. But [Head Coach] Nick [Sirianni] and I’s relationship is unbelievable. Like I said, he does a great job leading the charge and we go from there.

Q. What’s your personal background with tempo? (Zach Berman)

SHANE STEICHEN: Well, I did a good chunk of it in L.A. in 2020 with [Los Angeles Chargers QB Justin] Herbert. I think we led the league in plays. I want to say it was like 71 a game. Like I said, it’s good, it is good stuff. But you use it when you need to use it and when you feel it can give you an advantage. So that will be a week-by-week basis.

Q. What advantages does it provide? (Zach Berman)

SHANE STEICHEN: The advantage is sometimes — I don’t want to get into schematics, with all due respect. I’ll just keep that to myself. But it gives you some advantages.

Q. One of the things about tempo is the defense can obviously be back on the field very quickly. Are there conversations between you and the defensive coaches about like how they’re doing and if you guys do go three and out going tempo? (Reuben Frank)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, the best thing is every week we go through our process, our plan to win, what we want to do offensively, what we want to do defensively. So, we’re all on the same page on how we want to see the game play out. Does it play out exactly how we want it to? Not always. We all know that. But we’re all on the same page on what we’re doing on both sides of the ball and special teams.

Q. You guys have the No. 1 ranked offense in the NFL. Obviously small sample size, but when you go back to work what’s your message to the guys? (John McMullen)

SHANE STEICHEN: The biggest message is consistency. We have to stay consistent through this thing. We have a lot of football ahead of us. Again, division opponent. [If] You want to win, you have to win the division. We know how important division games are. It’s all about consistency week-in and week-out and we have to have that approach every single day.

Q. Speaking of Los Angeles Chargers QB Justin Herbert. He had some early success when you were there and now QB Jalen Hurts is starting to have some success. What do you tell these guys in order to get the most out of them especially with them being so young? (Chris Franklin)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think it’s just trusting the process and everything we do with the fundamentals and the details of it. The biggest thing is just, with any position, whether it’s quarterback, wide receiver, running back, you want to put your guys in position to make plays and do what they do best. That’s what we try to do as coaches every single day. Like I said, does it work out exactly how you want it to every time? No. But you have to trust your vision, the staff’s vision, the players buying into your vision as an offensive football team and you go from there.