Shane Steichen

Q. What have you seen so far from QB Jalen Hurts in the first few days of practice? (Eliot Shorr-Parks)

SHANE STEICHEN: You know what, I’ve been really impressed with him. We all know this about him, this guy loves football. Like, he loves football. And he’s a tireless worker and he wants to be the best he can be. But just watching him in practice, the plays he makes, as we know he has big scrambling ability. But the way he throws the deep ball, he hit [WR] DeVonta [Smith] the other day on this field for a big deep ball and he hit [TE] Zach [Ertz] the other day down the sideline, too. To be able to throw the deep ball and hit guys in stride, that’s an 80-yard touchdown instead of a 60-yard gain. So, really impressed with how he throws the deep ball right now.

Q. What have you seen from TE Zach Ertz as far as his engagement with the playbook and with you guys on the staff and on the field? (Mike Kaye)

SHANE STEICHEN: Zach’s a pro. This guy’s been a Pro Bowl player, really intelligent. He came right in and he’s been rolling, so it’s been good to see.

Q. Head Coach Nick Sirianni is new to Philadelphia. What should Philadelphia fans that watch him coach and approach football, what should they expect? (Rob Kuestner)

SHANE STEICHEN: Just the love of the game. Like, he has so much passion for the game, and I know the city has passion, and he’s going to bring that for this city. So, we’re excited about that.

Q. Shane, were you curious to see what he would be like as the head man and has it matched your expectation? (Tim McManus)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, he’s been awesome. He’s been preparing for this moment. Obviously, when we were younger coaches, you know, a couple years ago – we still are young coaches – but just him getting this opportunity and the way he’s taken it over and the way he runs the team meetings have been very impressive. He’s done a very nice job, excited for him.

Q. What have you seen from WR DeVonta Smith early in camp, especially because you guys started with so much red zone in those close quarters and things like that? (John McMullen)

SHANE STEICHEN: The thing about Devonta, his releases off the line of scrimmage for a young player are super impressive. Like, it’s rare to see the way he gets off the line of scrimmage. His first step and his jab to create that separation, I mean, that’s the biggest thing I’ve seen from him, along with his speed and his route running ability. It’s been very impressive.

Q. At this point in camp, how much of the offense now is catered to Jalen Hurts? Do you have specific plays that are designed for him or is it just you putting in the playbook as a whole? (Jeff McLane)

SHANE STEICHEN: We have a system that we are installing right now, and we are still going through that process and obviously we are still installing plays. I mean, we’ve had four days of practice, so we’re still working through that right now, installing our offense and seeing what he does well so we can run those plays on Sunday.

Q. When you look at the offense of what you have, what you’re trying to install here and what you’re trying to build here, is there enough room in there for – let’s say if Jalen, you want a guy, an athletic player like Jalen, something like you see with the Ravens what they have done with Ravens QB Lamar Jackson. Is there enough in the offense to cater to that type of quarterback? (Jeff McLane)

SHANE STEICHEN: We are going to try to do whatever we can to put our players in the best position to make plays. So, we are going to cater the system to what our players do best. I said that in the spring, and I think that’s the biggest thing is, ‘What do our guys do best and let’s put them in position to make plays.’

Q. A follow up to that, your personal exposure has mostly been to Former Chargers and Colts’ QB Philip Rivers and obviously last year with Chargers’ QB Justin Herbert. What’s the adjustment for you when you go from a quarterback of that style to a quarterback like Jalen? (Zach Berman)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, you just have to continue to study certain things around the league. What guys do well with those guys that can move and we’re doing that right now and he’s doing a nice job.

Q. What’s your philosophy on using QB Jalen Hurts to even up the math as part of the run game versus not having him take those hits? Different coaches seem to have different philosophies. (Sheil Kapadia)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, no question, we have to protect the quarterback. Obviously, his running ability is going to be big, and when he can run the football. But we have to protect the quarterback, too, at the same time, because we know if you take a lot of hits in this league it’s hard to maintain your health. So we have to protect them at the same time.

Q. We have seen a lot of speed 21 out here. What do you like about that package and how can Jalen Hurts help that package be effective? (Mike Kaye)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think with all of our packages right now, I mean all our personnel groups, we are installing our offense right now. So we are finding out what these guys do well, 21 stuff, whatever, 12, 11, four-wide, all that stuff. We want to look at all that and see what our guys do best so when it comes to Sunday, we put them in the best position possible.

Q. When you look at the left tackle competition, what are you seeing from T Andre Dillard and T Jordan Mailata so far? (Martin Frank)

SHANE STEICHEN: I love both those guys’ competitive nature. Coach [Sirianni] preaches it all the time: Compete, compete, compete and these guys are doing that. Everyone is competing right now, but love where both of those guys right now and Coach Stout [run game coordinator/offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland] has done a heck of a job coaching those guys.

Q. Are you rotating them at the ones each day? (Martin Frank)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, we rotate those guys, and everyone’s rotating right now. Everyone’s trying to win a job right now. It’s all about competition, that’s what we are trying to create and that’s what we’re doing.

Q. Seems like the defense has been a little ahead of the offense the first week; is that par for the course at this point in camp? (Ed Kracz)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think when you start camp early and then you’re in the red zone, obviously the windows are really tight down there you know what I mean? So I think we’re continuing to grow and the defense has been doing a nice job and when you are going against the defense on Sundays, you’re scouting those guys.

Right now, we’re installing our system right now and as we get going right, we’ll continue to grow as an offense and continue to get better.

Q. Can you take us through that players’ day off from a coach’s perspective? What do you do when you hit that pause button? (John McMullen)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, that’s a great question. What we did is we went through and cleaned up some of the stuff from the week, right, continue to talk through things. And then obviously you work on stuff down the road in the future and stuff and continue to scout yourself and clean up some things that you have to get cleaned up.

Q. Everyone is excited about WR DeVonta Smith, but how much of a factor can WR Jalen Reagor be? (Merrill Reese)

SHANE STEICHEN: He can be. He’s a speed guy. I’m excited about Jalen. I’m excited about the whole group to be honest. These guys are very talented, so we have to get everyone rolling and on the same page and we’re excited about it.

Q. How about WR Travis Fulgham, I’m sure you watched, he had an unusual season last year because he had that great stretch and not much else, were you curious what he would bring and what have you seen so far? (Dave Zangaro)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, he’s been good. He’s been really good. That big body receiver, any time you get that big body receiver out there wide, that helps you, right. Those one-on-one matchups, right to go up and get it, so that’s what he brings, and we’re continuing to evaluate everybody and go from there.

Q. What’s been your impression of the depth at running back behind RB Miles Sanders? You have a bunch of guys that seem to be making plays right now. (Reuben Frank)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, [RB] Boston [Scott] has been doing a nice job, [RB] Kenny Gainwell, [RB] Kerryon [Johnson], all those guys are competing. We’re trying to give everyone an opportunity. We’re giving everyone, splitting the reps up, [running backs/assistant head coach] Jemal [Singleton] is doing a heck of a job splitting reps up with those guys and seeing what those guys do best.

Q. A lot of guys were commenting on the instant chemistry between DeVonta and Jalen? Have you noticed that as well, and does it make things a little easier? (Breland Moore)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, it does. When those guys have played together, you can see, when they have those conversations, those side conversations, hearing them talk, when they have been together, you can see it, so that’s been fun to see.

Q. Nick Sirianni described the QB meeting room. He said he is in there, you are in there, obviously quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson is in there. Is it typical for you to have the head coach in there for all those meetings? (Zach Berman)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, if it’s an offensive head coach, absolutely. Obviously, his offense, my offense, it’s very similar, the system, we have been in the same system verbiage wise and it’s always good to have the head coach in there and everyone in there communicating and being on the same page.

To me that’s the biggest thing is the communication and preparation part of it because in this league as we know, there’s so much parity that the separation is in the preparation. If you don’t prepare well you’re not going to win on Sundays. That’s the difference in this league, you have to have the preparation part of it, and everyone has to be on the same page.

Q. Where does the terminology come from? (Jeff McLane)

SHANE STEICHEN: We have kind of built it, like the route concepts and all that stuff has been. But then Nick and myself when he was in Indy and I took over as the coordinator, we talked when we were away from each other, like, ‘Hey, what are you calling ‘this’ now? Let’s make this all systematic.’ And he has done a heck of a job. So we kind of meshed that. So when I came over from L.A., it’s been the same verbiage. There are tweaks here and there but very similar.

Q.You and Nick have had a lot of really good receiving backs in your careers. Do you feel like you have the same sort of talent here? (Mike Kaye)

SHANE STEICHEN: I do. I do. I think in our offense, obviously the back is a big part of it, right? We scheme up stuff for the backs, but also the backs do catch a lot of balls, and I think a lot of those happen organically. It’s like hey, do I have this ball down the field? No, I’m throwing to the tailback for a ten-yard gain. That’s a big part of what we want to do.

Q. Going back to Travis Fulgham, last year dominant for a month and then otherwise not much of a factor; how do you tap into when he was at his best, getting him in that zone? (Joe DeCamara)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think it’s just repetition, repetition and continue to talk to him about what we want to get done from a fundamental and a technique standpoint. Coach Sirianni does a heck of a job and [wide receivers coach] Aaron Moorehead do a heck of a job with the route detail and how we wanted to get things done.