Eagles Head Coach Nick Sirianni (Press Conference Transcript)

How does WR Jahan Dotson fit into this offense and what kind of work did you do on him pre-draft a couple years ago? (Dave Zangaro)

NICK SIRIANNI: Really liked him a couple years ago coming out. Looking forward to working with him. I think he helps our team and gives us an addition to an already deep room and excited to work with him. But, yeah, we’re just really excited that we are able to make our team better.

 

When it comes to the game today, how do you sort of handle this? What do you take out of it? Preseason games are always a little difficult. (John McMullen)

NICK SIRIANNI: What I felt like is we didn’t ay to our detail that is our standard here. So, it’s a good example of that if you don’t play with good fundamentals — we missed some tackles. We fumbled the football. We didn’t take the football away. We had a takeaway that had a penalty. We had some penalties. We had some drops in some critical areas that would have led to points and all those things led to points.

So that’s what you hope that doesn’t happen, but that happened today. So, it’s just a good example, you can have all the talent in the world, have all the best plays in the world. But if you don’t play with good fundamentals, I don’t care what level you are, it’s going to affect if you win or lose the football game.

That was the message to these guys of, ‘Hey, if you don’t play’ — just like I said. But also, the message after the game also was, that’s the last time those 91 guys will be together. We’re going to have to make some tough decisions. But it was a good camp. It was a camp that guys worked their butts off. We got better. And it took all 91 guys to get better. Not just the 53 that are going to make this team. It took all of us. But it is the last time those 91 guys will be Philadelphia Eagles together.

 

You’ve been asked different versions of this over the past several weeks, but now that it’s official that the offensive ones did not get a game snap during the preseason, what led to that decision? (Dave Uram)

NICK SIRIANNI: Again, you always take everything into account of how many reps you got. I’d say this week– we didn’t have a joint practice this week, but we had two inner-squad practices that were scrimmages.

And again, everything up front is live. The only thing that’s not live is the tackling to the ground. So, the receivers are live except for they’re not getting tackled. Everything is completely live.

And so, we felt like the work that we got in the joint practice versus the Patriots, the inner-squad that we had at the stadium prior to our first preseason games, and then the two inner-squads scrimmages that we had, you know, was our work for the ones. That’s why we decided to go that way.

And I get it, everybody’s job is to say, ‘Should they have played, should they not have played?’ I have to make the decision. I get that. I understand that. I have to make the decision that I feel is best for our team and if I feel our team was ready. And I felt that. I felt we were getting a lot of back and forth. Again, hard practices, out there for two hours, which has been more than what we’ve been.

And so, I felt like we got enough work to be ready to go and I’m comfortable where we are leading into this upcoming–I guess couple of days before we get into the game week mode. But I’m comfortable where we are and looking forward to some more good practices.

 

How hard was it to get DB Cooper DeJean into the game, be able to play as much as he did, and how do you think he did based on that? (Martin Frank)

NICK SIRIANNI: Obviously, you’ve always got to go back and look at the tape and see exactly. It’s hard to make an assessment on how somebody played without watching the tape. You can always have an idea of the splash plays they made. I saw him make a couple of really good plays. I thought he looked fast and physical out there, made a couple of tackles that I thought were really good. Had a penalty that we’re going to want back that negated an interception on the first drive.

But it was good to get him out there and playing meaningful snaps, seeing that he hadn’t played this preseason.

So, I guess that goes into the question you asked, too, like, ‘Why didn’t these guys play?’ I felt they had enough snaps through all the things we did. Cooper did not. That’s why he played. So, everything’s taken into account on that part.

But I thought, again, there were some good things. There’s going to be some things to clean up. But it was good to have him out there because he’s talented and we’re excited about his potential.

 

CB James Bradberry playing the new safety position. Why didn’t he play? (Dave Zangaro)

NICK SIRIANNI: Everybody had different reasons for why they didn’t play. With James, again, same deal. We felt like he was in a position where we were comfortable and that’s why he didn’t play.

 

How do you see his future with the team, CB James Bradberry? (Jeff Neiburg)

NICK SIRIANNI: Obviously we like James, had some really good moments here and had some really good — has been a great teammate. Made some great plays here. And so, I’m excited that he’s here and has the versatility that he has.

 

The notions you had about the linebacker room before this week, when LB Oren Burks came back and before this game when he played. How much do you think he’s going to make you guys think about this decision and what did you like about him over the last week? (Jeff Neiburg)

NICK SIRIANNI: It’s a deep room. I think that’s been a fun room to kind of watch play out of competition because I think there’s guys at the top. There’s guys in the middle. There’s guys that you think would be at the back end. They’ve all really competed well. And so, we got some tough decisions to make.

This is never a fun time here at this particular time. But you have been preparing for it the entire time. Everything’s evaluated.

So that’s a deep room. And naturally you can’t keep all the guys, and you keep the guys that you can because I know all those guys can help us win football games.

 

Today more motions offensively. To this point, even without playing the starters, maybe you didn’t want to tip your hand, but how have you noticed the advantages of being able to dictate what you want to do offensively? With motions being able to dictate what you want to do with the defense, how have you seen the advantages? (Brooks Kubena)

NICK SIRIANNI: Again, we’re doing different things to hide plays. We do different things to get information. There are multiple reasons why you would motion, why you wouldn’t motion also.

So, without tipping the hand, that’s why you do it. You do it so you can get some information. Sometimes you do it just to hide some stuff and that’s the way those things go.

 

WR Ainias Smith expressed to me and some other reporters in Baltimore he was a little disappointed. Really seemed to come on the last couple of weeks. In this particular game, what have you seen from Ainias and sort of that turn? (John McMullen)

NICK SIRIANNI: Obviously, there are steps to when you get into the NFL. It’s a different game. So sometimes people start fast and sometimes it takes a little bit of time.

So, Ainias has done some really good things. He has some things he has to learn from. But he’s growing like the rest of the guys because he’s working his butt off. He made some nice plays today that were good, but like everybody, we all have work to do to continue to get better.

 

By not having the 1s in preseason, are you concerned about the team getting off to maybe a slow start, lacking a rhythm in that first – (Chris Murray)

NICK SIRIANNI: No. Kind of the same thing I just answered on why I didn’t play them, is that it means — if I was worried that we weren’t going to get a good start, I’d play them. But because of all the work we have, I’m not worried about that. We’ve got to go out there and play and execute. I’m comfortable where we are.

 

In terms of WR Jahan Dotson, you added him, but now four through the rest are going to be open there. In terms of details, what’s going to be, do you think, the deciding factor in terms of making who makes the roster at that position? (Chris Franklin)

NICK SIRIANNI: Obviously we’ve got a lot of tape to watch, that we watch, that we have to rewatch. And again, a deep room, it’s a deep room, and Jahan just adds to the depth of that room.

Just like the linebacker position, just like the receiver position. We’ve got a lot of tough decisions to make. You’d rather have tough decisions to make. That means you have good depth, that you’re comfortable, like, ‘Oh, man, I’d be really excited if this guy’s on the team, really excited if this guy’s on the team.’

That’s where [Executive Vice President/General Manger] Howie [Roseman] and his staff have done such a good job of getting the talent here so we have these conversations of, ‘All right, who is No. 53, 52, 51, 50, 49, like who is the in between for the five and six receivers or the four and five linebackers.’

So, again, it makes for hard decisions, but you know that’s only helping your team when you’re having those type of discussions.