Eagles Head Coach Nick Sirianni (Post-Game Transcript)

Obviously with the Lions winning, you guys had a chance at the 2-Seed. With that outcome, do you regret the decision not to play starters?

Nick Sirianni: No. Again, you go through your process, you make what you think is the best decision for the football team, and that’s what we did. I knew this was an outcome, that these things could happen. Like I said to you guys, one thing I could guarantee was giving them rest. I couldn’t guarantee anything else. Us being healthy and going into the playoffs healthy is a big deal for us and that’s served us well in the past. Again, I know there’ll be debate on that, but I have to do what I think’s best for the football team moving forward, and that’s what I did.

 

Any bright spots come to mind just off the top of your head from what we saw out there tonight?

Nick Sirianni: Yeah. I mean, I’ve got to go back and watch the tape, but there [were] a lot of good things. A lot of guys made a lot of plays, and they ended up making more plays than we did and obviously won the game, but yeah, of course there were some bright spots. Some guys got a lot of good time against a well-respected opponent and that will serve us well moving forward as well, the reps that some of these guys got.

 

How did you go about balancing the emphasis on health versus playing WR DeVonta Smith so that he could get the 1,000 yards?

Nick Sirianni: We were safe with him as far as what kind of routes we were running and what he was doing, and so that was something that we decided to do, and obviously you can’t rest everybody. There were guys that, as far as D-line reps, some of those guys played through the game. We tried to limit their reps a little bit and play them a little bit less than they normally do, but with a position like D-line, those are the circumstances that you have. But, decided to do that so he could go get a thousand, and he came out good.

 

Was the jump ball part of the safe routes?

Nick Sirianni: The jump ball?

 

He jumped there between two defenders.

Nick Sirianni: Yeah. You’re talking about the third-and-one play action?

 

Where he got a thousand yards.

Nick Sirianni: Yeah.

 

The decision to rest a bunch of the starters. Did you feel like you had support in the locker room from the players and how much does that go into a decision?

Nick Sirianni: Yeah. Again, I told you guys early in the week, I’m going to talk to everybody and gather information, but at the end of the day, I have to make the decision that I think’s best for the football team. That’s part of being the head coach. You always talk through it with everybody, and at the end of the day, you’ve got to make the decision that you feel is best, and that’s what I did.

 

What are your first thoughts on QB Tanner McKee’s performance and how he was playing?

Nick Sirianni: Yeah, I thought he did a lot of good things. Like any game, he’s going to want some plays back, but I thought he did a lot of good things and we were able to move the ball. Obviously, we didn’t finish a couple times in the red zone for different reasons. I’ve got to look through that and see exactly why that happened. But yeah, I thought we moved the ball up and down the field against a well-respected opponent, and we’ve just got to finish down there.

 

How much have you looked at the 49ers and what were your initial thoughts?

Nick Sirianni: This whole week was about getting these guys ready to play this game and give them the best opportunity to play. I won’t get into anything else. That was what our focus was this entire week.

 

[Regarding thoughts on the 49ers overall.]

Nick Sirianni: Every team in the playoffs is going to be a good team. It’s going to be a good football team. I’ve got a lot of respect for [49ers Head] Coach [Kyle] Shanahan and all the success that he has had and that team. [49ers Defensive Coordinator] Coach [Robert] Saleh, all those guys. Again, the players. A lot of respect for that football team.

 

Were there previous situations that factored into your decision? I’m thinking of something along the lines of WR A.J. Brown getting hurt against the Giants a couple of years ago, or maybe something from Indianapolis. Is there a history that played into this?

Nick Sirianni: Well, I think that, again, every year is different. Every year that you go through it, you’re judging this team. But of course you think back to that, and I think my mindset more was all the good things that have happened as we’ve rested guys. I didn’t really think too much about the negatives of it. You think through everything, but I thought more about when we have had an opportunity to get a bye, that [has] served us well here in the past.

 

How do you feel about the offense going into the postseason knowing that you could have used this game perhaps as a chance to build more momentum going into that?

Nick Sirianni: We treat every practice like we’re using that as momentum, and had a good week of practice with the guys and good individual work to sharpen our skills.

 

Meaning the starters?

Nick Sirianni: Yeah. Again, this is what I felt was best for us, was to be rested and healthy going into the playoffs. Everything else was considered, obviously. But again, this was the decision I made.

 

1. Anything about the offense with mostly backups playing?

Nick Sirianni: Yeah because there were guys that are going to make some plays in the playoffs for us. I think about [WR] Jahan Dotson and the plays that he made in the playoffs propelled by some of the things that he did really well in the Week 18 game last year. Same with [RB] Will Shipley. We kind of talked about some of those things last night, so these are guys that are going to play meaningful snaps and make plays in the playoffs for us to get to where we want to go. Again, I thought we did some good things. Obviously, [we] didn’t finish like we have been finishing in the red zone, but I definitely think that you can build upon this regardless of who’s playing.

 

The idea of inserting starters late in the game when you see how things are unfolding both with the Chicago game and here, why was that not an option on the table?

Nick Sirianni: With the guys that haven’t been going all game and then to throw them in there in the third or fourth quarter, I don’t think that’s fair to them. Like I said, you make a decision early in the week and that’s what you go with. Now, guys would’ve had to be ready if people were going down, [like] with what happened at safety. [S] Reed [Blankenship] was ready to go in if there was something else that was going to happen.

 

But again, you make decisions and that’s your job as a head coach. You have to make tough decisions, and half the people are going to agree with it; half the people aren’t. Half of you guys are going to agree with it, half you aren’t, and that’s okay, but you have to do what you think is best for the football team. If you make that decision and you’re convicted on it and then change course in the middle, I think that puts the guys in a tough spot. I knew that this could be the outcome, and we knew all these things. I didn’t know the outcome of the other game. It ended up going the way we wanted it to go, but again, I did what I did because I did what I felt was best for the football team.

 

You mentioned the D-line. Was the plan always to play those guys deep into the game or was that a response?

Nick Sirianni: No, no. The plan was that you rotate on the defensive line. To keep somebody in there and just make them go the whole time, that’s not how D-line play works. You always want to have fresh bodies in there and so we knew they would play into the fourth and we tried to limit their reps as best as we possibly could by giving the other guys some more reps, but we knew that we would have to play them the whole time through because just the way the nature of that position works.