Jonathan Gannon

Q. I was going to ask you about the game, but obviously, other things have taken precedence here. What’s it been like in the building since you guys have known Eagles Head Coach Nick Sirianni has tested positive? And how much have you guys talked about this kind of circumstance, whether it’s the head coach testing positive or you? How much have you discussed potential plans as the season has gone on? (John McMullen)

JONATHAN GANNON: When this all first came out a couple years ago, you obviously have to talk about it a lot. And my first initial reaction to what you just asked was it’s exhausting how much we talk about this, honestly. But you have to do that.

We’ve talked about a lot of different scenarios, ‘What if this happens? Plan A, Plan B. Who is doing what? What are we doing? How are we handling players, meetings, all that?’

So, feel really good. We’ve talked through all this and it’s, ‘Expect the unexpected.’ [Eagles Head Coach] Nick [Sirianni] has done a good job since we’ve got here, because we’re still kind of in this world that we’re living in, ‘Hey, here is what we’re going to do when these things happen,’ and feel good about the plan in place.

Q. What went into DT Fletcher Cox lining up at end a little more? I know it wasn’t a significant amount but seemed like he had success rushing from the edge. (Jeff McLane)

JONATHAN GANNON: We’ve done that a little bit in certain games. Just one of the looks and that was out of a different package. A couple looks we had off of that look, a couple calls we had off that look.

We did a good job with it and it worked a couple times, and decided to kind of keep rolling with it and they did a good job executing.

With that it’s like, I always talk about our guys. It’s about players, not plays. And our guys know that, and they did a good job executing last night.

Q. Just a quick follow-up. How do you think Fletcher Cox did in his pass rush? (Jeff McLane)

JONATHAN GANNON: Played his ass off. I mean, he affected the game for us and he doesn’t know this, but he’s going to get Player Of The Game. He’s in the quarterback’s lap all day long, he got the sack into the two minute, had a couple hits on the quarterback, played extremely well in the run game.

He really affected the game for us. As I like to call it, you guys have heard me say it, he train-wrecked the game.

Q. Because you have exhausted the conversation, can you share with us what the plan would be if you weren’t able to coach on Sunday? (Bo Wulf)

JONATHAN GANNON: I don’t know if I’m going to go into that. I’ll let Nick [Sirianni] handle that if that were to happen. Knock on wood, hopefully it doesn’t.

But we have a good plan in place.

Q. If I could ask you a Giants related question, when you played them three or four weeks ago, obviously, Giants QB Daniel Jones was the quarterback. This week it’s either Giants QB Jake Fromm or Giants QB Mike Glennon. I was wondering what it’s like preparing for them, what you see in a guy like Fromm or if it’s Glennon, how that preparation is going? (Martin Frank)

JONATHAN GANNON: Really good question. I always tell our guys – especially your divisional opponents, especially when you play them closer together, you got to be careful of, ‘Hey, this is what worked, and this is what we did really well. Or this didn’t work.’

It’s got to be kind of a blend of go back to step one, prepare just like you haven’t played them all year. You do have that game log that you look at, see how they tried to attack, see what we did, see what worked for us, et cetera, but it’s a fresh slate. It’s just like the next game up. We do have a little bit of familiarity with them, so got to see how we think they’re going to try to attack us.

And then second part to your question is we got to prepare for both quarterbacks, just like we have had to do a couple different games. You got to have plan in place to be able to affect the quarterback and a lot of this goes into who is actually playing quarterback.

So, we’ll have a good plan for both of those guys.

Q. Eagles Head Coach Nick Sirianni shared with us that Eagles Passing Game Coordinator Kevin Patullo will take over some of the gameday responsibilities if Nick is not back. We haven’t had much exposure to Kevin. You’ve, obviously, worked with him. What can you share with us about Kevin, about the type of coach he is, type of person he is? (Zach Berman)

JONATHAN GANNON: First and foremost, great person. He’s one of the better people I’ve met in the NFL. And then, obviously, a very good coach. [Jokingly] I am going to tell him after I get done with you guys, ‘Don’t be juicing me about play calls.’ That was a joke, guys [laughing].

But, yeah, extremely confident in how he’s going to handle his business. I’m sure Nick talked to you guys about that. A lot of those decisions and things like that, we kind of talk about those before they actually happen, so I’m sure Nick will have him in autopilot. He’ll do a good job for us.

Q. If I could just follow up on that, I just have two brief questions as well. You saw Kevin kind of ascend in Indianapolis while you were with him the past several years. In regards to coaching, did anything stand out about his style or about his everyday business with the players under him? (Josh Tolentino)

JONATHAN GANNON: The main thing that stands out, because he was the receivers coach in Indy and I was the DB coach in Indy, obviously, and those two groups in training camp and OTAs are extremely competitive, and he’s super competitive where we would – I felt like at times we were going to fight on the practice field.

But he knows how to connect with the players. He can always reach the players. His guys play hard for him and they’re always well-coached and he’s a good football coach.

Q. We appreciate it given the circumstances. And another question, on a different topic, but DE Tarron Jackson you got into the backfield a couple times yesterday. What has pleased you about his development as the year has progressed for him? (Josh Tolentino)

JONATHAN GANNON: Yeah, just like all of our guys – you guys have heard me say, and it’s kind of going to be same answer. As guys start to have some production, have some success, you see it on the practice field first. That’s why we feel comfortable, anyone that plays for us we feel comfortable when they’re out there to make plays for us.

And especially for rookies. He’s gotten some quality snaps and he’s made some mistakes out there and he’s made some plays out there throughout the year. He’s correcting his mistakes, he’s getting better every day at practice. That’s when the work is done, practice throughout the week, and then the game is kind of a culmination of preparation.

It’s good to see him have success and make a few plays that really helped us in that ballgame, and I expect that from T Jack [DE Tarron Jackson].

Q. Just curious to get your observations when looking at Giants TE Evan Engram. What type of challenges does he present to the defense for this upcoming game? (Chris Franklin)

JONATHAN GANNON: Big, fast, ball skills, can run away from people, good catch radius, gets in and out of the cut extremely fast. He really looks like a big receiver out there, the way he moves. And then you walk by him in pre-game warmups and you’re like, ‘Whoa, this guy is built like a tight end, but moves like a receiver.’

So, really big challenge for us because he’s an explosive play threat from the tight end position and he plays multiple positions, how they align him and deploy him. He’ll be in line, he’ll be the wing, he’ll be split out, he’ll be the X receiver.

We got to have a good plan, depending what coverages we’re in, who is on him, where our help is and things of that nature. So, just got to know how we’re defending him within each coverage and do a good job on him because he can wreck the game.