Nick Sirianni

Q. How have the Rams changed since you guys have played them, if at all? (Jason Dumas)

NICK SIRIANNI: They are playing really good football. I think that was pretty obvious when we went in to play them last time, too. They had won four out of five before we played them, and then pretty much have been undefeated since then.

So they are playing really good football. Both offensively and defensively, special teams wise. And you expect that because they’ve got good players, and again, I can’t say enough about this coaching staff. I really think that they have a really good coaching staff led by [Rams Head Coach] Sean McVay.

Q. How about defensively, anything tangibly that you’ve seen that shows the improvement since the last time you guys faced off? (Tim McManus)

NICK SIRIANNI: Any time you’ve played a team as long ago as we played them, there’s going to be things that have changed, and there definitely are. They do a couple different things on defense, making it hard on you, making it challenging on you, to predict what’s coming.

But yeah, [Rams Defensive Coordinator] Chris Shula has done a really good job coaching the defense. Again, they have really good players. Especially on that defensive line, it’s a good front that’s playing really good football right now. To say exactly what they are changing, I’m not going to get into that, but they have some changes. Just like we have some changes since the last time we played them.

Q. What was your message to the team this week? (Eliot Shorr-Parks)

NICK SIRIANNI: Talked about, again, the consistency of what’s important, and our tough, detailed, together is always going to be important. Then, also, we talked a little bit about embracing adversity in playoffs, in playoff football, and just in the NFL in general. There are going to be plays when you’re in a game that they are going to make.

Even with your best efforts, they still could make the play, so how do you play the next play mentality? And again, that’s something that we’ve focused on a lot all year, next play mentality.

We’re saying this week, embrace the adversity, and that’s really another way of saying, hey, play the next play.

Q. You got to work with Rams Defensive Coordinator Chris Shula with the Chargers. It’s been a long time. Do you know anything? Do you have a foundational sort of understanding of what he is as a coach? (John McMullen)

NICK SIRIANNI: From my experience with him at the Chargers, no. We’ve both been a lot of different places since then. Enjoyed the relationship I had with him while we coached together. Still consider him a friend. I think he’s a very good coach, and he’s doing a great job this year.

But to say anything like – no, not really. Not really as far as that goes. Because again, his philosophy has continued to develop. My philosophy is continuing to develop.

It will be a different handshake because I know him well, but that’s about it.

Q. Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio said that LB Jeremiah Trotter Jr. could or will get some playing time with LB Nakobe Dean out. How important was it that LB Jeremiah Trotter, Jr. got that final regular season game and all that action, and what did he show you? (John Clark)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I think that was important for all our guys to be able to get that. We had the opportunity, just like the Rams did, to give ourselves a bye week, however you want to say that, to give our guys a rest at the end of the regular season.

And with that comes opportunity for other people that are back-ups, and it was really important for him. He played a really good game. It was all over the stat sheet of what he did and then all over the field, so I feel really good about the linebacker room.

Obviously bummed about [LB] Nakobe [Dean] but feel really good about the guys that are going to be able to step in and play in his absence. Just can’t say enough about [LB Jeremiah Trotter Jr.] Trot and [LB] Oren [Burks] and [Inside Linebackers Coach] Bobby King and [Assistant Linebacker/Defensive Quality Control Coach] Ronnell Williams, getting those guys ready.

Q. In an overview of the offense this year, QB Jalen Hurts’s role within it, two years ago versus now, 100 pass attempts fewer. You called the game manager notion ‘bullshit’ with him. How much has he embraced this role in the offense, and how much of it was from input that he had throughout the year? (Brooks Kubena)

NICK SIRIANNI: To look at a whole season like that and say we had 100 less passes, yes, that is the truth. But games go differently. The way games were last year is different than the games were this year. We have been in some situations where we haven’t passed the ball in the fourth quarter of a lot of different games.

So I think that’s kind of hard to see that number. It’s an astonishing number when you say it like that, but that’s over the course of 17 games. And also, again, knowing that some of these guys didn’t play in fourth quarters, and we didn’t throw some in the fourth quarter.

But again, to answer your question, I think what we do is we do whatever we need to do to win each and every game. So if that means you’re in a two-minute to end the game and you’ve got to throw it like we did against New Orleans to get the ball down in a position to score, you do that.

If you’re in a position where you’re in a four-minute at the end of the game and you’re running out the clock to do whatever you need to do to win the game in that particular one and you’re running it well, then you do those things.

So I think that’s just the nature of how that’s gone. Again, I think any time that you have won whatever, 13 of 14, 14 of 15, whatever it is, your quarterback is going to be playing well. And [QB] Jalen [Hurts] has been playing very efficient. He’s taking care of the football. He’s playing really good football.

And I know the stats don’t look the same way because of different circumstances, but I think Jalen is playing really good football at this stage of the year and excited about his opportunity of what he gets to do on Sunday.

Q. Protecting the football, you mentioned with QB Jalen Hurts, how did he go from having 25 turnovers over a span of 20 games or so to only just maybe four over the last 14? How did it happen? (Jeff McLane)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, it’s pretty impressive, isn’t it? Pretty impressive by him of being able to lead us to wins while also taking care of the football. And be explosive and still take care of the football. That’s not easy to do because we talk about that a lot: How do you win the double positive? How do you win the explosive play battle and how do you win the turnover battle?

Everybody has hard jobs. That’s a very hard job for a quarterback, to be able to create explosive plays and do the things that Jalen has done while also taking care of the football, running and throwing it. Just an unbelievable effort and concentration on his part, going to the right place with the football while also, when he is a runner, protecting the football like [RB] Saquon [Barkley] does or like [WR] A.J. [Brown] does.

So I can’t give him enough credit for that because that’s very difficult. And it’s really, when you win the turnover battle in this league, it’s one of the best stat indicators of what is going to happen in the game. It’s really just a great job by him putting our team in a position to win each week because of how he’s taking care of the football.

Q. At the Combine last year, one thing Executive Vice President/General Manager Howie Roseman said was that you guys looked after last year and said you need to play young players more. Have you been more deliberate in that, especially as injury replacements? (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: Obviously, we’ve played a lot of young guys. We’re young on defense. Now, at this point of the year where you’re 17, 18 games in, you’re like, okay, the experience is there. They have played a full year of football, and now we are into playoff football.

But I think at the end of the day, we always owe it to ourselves to play the guys that best give us a chance to win. And I think it’s just the nature of it that those guys have given us the chance to win, and they have gotten better as the season has went on.

I wouldn’t say any extra. It’s worked out that way, and I’m happy that it has.

Q. RB Saquon Barkley is closing in on 400 touches. What have you seen from him as far as the way he takes care of himself and his fitness level, and how he’s managed to navigate the season and play at a high level? (Reuben Frank)

NICK SIRIANNI: He does a lot of things just to get himself ready each Sunday, both mentally and physically. I think he’s an ultimate pro that knows how important it is that he’s in great shape, weighing what he needs to weigh, working hard in the weight room to do the preventative things, the pre-hab, the post, the rehab stuff. So he does a really good job of taking care of his body to get himself where he can touch the ball that much.

And that’s a group effort. I can’t say enough about all the guys who work with him as well, the strength staff, the training room staff, the doctors that all work with him to make sure he’s on that path.

There are some things, too, with Saquon, that you’ll have load management throughout the week to get him ready. I think you guys have asked me that a bunch, and our job on each, every Sunday is to win the game however we need to win the game. How does Jalen say it? ‘The main thing is the main thing,’ how are we going to win this game. So you do everything you can to win the game.

So really, the management of Saquon and how he feels good is what is happening Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. And quite frankly, that’s the same thing that we believe, the things that you do Monday through Saturday, whether it’s training, whether it’s taking care of your body, whether it’s the work that you put in the film room, whether it’s the work that you put on the field, are direct indicators of if you’re going to win or lose the game and how you’re going to perform.

So this is no different. Saquon just has a relentless work ethic in everything that he does, which makes him pretty special.

Q. When you look at the first game when RB Saquon Barkley had the 255 yards against the Rams, how much of a luxury is it knowing that they have to pretty much account for that somehow this week? (Martin Frank)

NICK SIRIANNI: We know that everyone is going to account for that. And that’s not new to us. They will see stuff on tape that they will want to do differently and that they will want to repeat, and we’ll see stuff on tape that we’ll want to do differently and we’ll want to repeat.

I know that that will be a big film that they watch, and it will obviously be a big film that we’ll watch. It’s not uncommon. We know that we’re going to get people’s best effort to stop Saquon, and that’s just been what we’ve dealt with all year.

Q. You have quite a few guys in load management right now that you’re dealing with. What’s the challenge of practicing like that, and do you not worry with veteran guys, if they are on the practice field or not? (Bob Brookover)

NICK SIRIANNI: Obviously, you want everyone to practice and get ready to go for the game. But it is, and at this point of the year, everybody is always in different positions. You fight the hard line of being ready to play on Sunday physically and doing the right things throughout the week to make sure you’re ready to play, if that makes sense.

So you’ve just got to fight that constantly. And really, I say at this point in the year, it’s really something that we do throughout the entire year. What’s the right amount to get ready for the game and perfect our craft and refine our skills while also being ready to go physically for the grind of a four-quarter, five-quarter game that you’re about to play? That’s something that we deal with each week, and we feel like we’ve done a lot.

Again, I get the information from everybody. Ultimately, I have to make the decisions. But I’ve just got a lot of great people to help me out, to help make those decisions. The players, they help me out with that, how their bodies are feeling, and the trainers, doctors, and strength staff.

Q. With how much you’ve relied on younger players on defense this year, what has it taken behind the scenes to develop them? (Dave Zangaro)

NICK SIRIANNI: Obviously great effort and energy by those players themselves to get themselves ready to go.

A lot of work from the coaches, the extra meetings with the coaches to make sure that you put them in positions that they are going to be in in the game, and sometimes you can’t put them in every position they are going to be in the game out at practice. That’s what walk-through is for. That’s what meetings are for. That’s what the extra meetings are for. A lot of work by the coaches and the players to get themselves in that.

Obviously, a phenomenal job by [Executive Vice President/General Manager] Howie [Roseman] and his staff to get the guys in here that are talented like [the guys] we have.

But yeah, again, all these things. I feel like I said that a bunch today. It took this group of people to do that and this group of people to do that. That’s what’s awesome about an organization. That’s what’s awesome about football. It’s every player working together, every coach working together, every department working together, and we’ve got a special organization.