Nick Sirianni

Q. One of the knocks on DT Jalen Carter coming out of school, I guess you know, there were questions about his fitness, his ability to play a full set of downs, full set of snaps in a game. What have you seen from that standpoint of his conditioning, taking care of himself? He’s playing like 98% of the snaps. (Reuben Frank)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, takes care of his body, weighs what he’s supposed to weigh each week, and has himself in great shape. Credit to him, credit to our strength staff and everybody involved in it.

Yeah, he’s being a pro, and that’s a huge deal. Because that helps him continue to reach his full potential.

Q. What’s he supposed to weigh each week? (Jeff McLane)

NICK SIRIANNI: I won’t get anybody’s weight, but he weighs what he’s supposed to weigh.

Q. Have you seen a big difference from that standpoint since he got here? (Reuben Frank)

NICK SIRIANNI: I actually think since the moment he got here, I’ve had a ton of respect for how he goes about taking care of himself and getting ready to play football.

Yeah, he’s been awesome.

Q. Washington Defensive Coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. was talking about defending mobile quarterbacks, including QB Jalen Hurts. He said if you guys are going to run him, they’re going to hit him like a running back, and it’s up to you guys to protect him. Have you found this year that teams go after QB Jalen Hurts while he runs, and when you hear something like that, does it impact how you are going to run him? (Eliot Shorr-Parks)

NICK SIRIANNI: No. Every team is going to try to tackle [QB] Jalen [Hurts] like a running back. He’s running with the football. They’ll try to tackle him.

We already are ultimately cautious with how we use him and how we think about each play because we know how important it is to have him out there.

But I wouldn’t expect anything else. Jalen knows how to take care of himself, and we know how to help him do that as well as far as the way the scheme goes.

Q. With DT Jalen Carter, Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio said he doesn’t have as much freedom in the game as we think. There are some times where he does either/ors. In terms of not just Jalen, but other players, how do you handle players who can transcend what you ask of them and deal with the limitations of where they can pick and choose about what they see and how they act? (Brooks Kubena)

NICK SIRIANNI: Everything has structure to it. Every single thing we do has structure to it. You give them the job description exactly. ‘Hey, here is what we want you to do’ on the job description, but you also don’t make it so restrictive that they can’t use their instincts. But you’ve got to use your instincts within the structure, right?

So I know that’s kind of saying both things, but it really is that. You give them the job description, ‘It has to look like this,’ and there is some wiggle room for other things to make sure they can use their instincts and do the things they do and do well.

Q. Do you expect to have TE Dallas Goedert and C Cam Jurgens at practice today? (Bob Brookover)

NICK SIRIANNI: They will be out there today, yeah.

Q. Was Week 16 a reminder of just how important S C.J. Gardner-Johnson is to the defense? (Dave Zangaro)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah. I think he’s been just so good at taking the football away and playing with energy. Teammates love playing with him. So he has been great for our team. It’s been great having him back. He has an impact on games.

Q. You have a couple veterans who are going through this playoff thing either for the first time or maybe they only got to like a game or two. Guys like WR Parris Campbell, G/T Mehki Becton, even RB Saquon Barkley to some extent. What is this like for them? How much do they feed off of the other guys who have been through it before? (Martin Frank)

NICK SIRIANNI: I mean, you’d have to ask them how they’re feeling. I think I feel energy from everybody in here and the excitement. But our job is to go through each day to get ourselves better this week to prepare ourselves to put ourselves in a position to win this weekend.

There is excitement from everyone, whether they’ve been here before, whether they haven’t been here before. Regardless of if they’ve won championships or not won championships. I just feel excitement from everybody on this team, including the guys that you mentioned.

Q. With S C.J. Gardner-Johnson, do you think there was a silver lining to that because he’s kind of verbalized how important he is to the defense and he understands that now? Was there any silver lining to what happened with that? (John McMullen)

NICK SIRIANNI: As far as?

Q. As far as getting ejected from the game. He seemed to have verbalized that he knows how important – (John McMullen)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I think he’s always known how important he is to the defense. We sure do. Yeah, I wouldn’t say that. I would just say you learn from every mistake. You learn from all your good plays, learn from all your bad plays, and try to get better from it.

That’s really what we’re focused on. I guess I can’t really answer that question as far as that goes. I know we learn from our mistakes, that’s for sure.

Q. How much will QB Jalen Hurts and CB Quinyon Mitchell be able to do at practice today? (EJ Smith)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I’m not going to get into everybody’s – you guys will get the injury report later.

Q. You’ve been aggressive on fourth down all year, but Commanders Head Coach Dan Quinn has been really aggressive recently. When you’re going up against a coach that’s aggressive, does that impact at all how you call it? (Eliot Shorr-Parks)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, that’s a good question. I think the game flow and things like that will have an impact on it, so where the game is once you get into later moments of the game. But you go in and do the things that you do, and we’ll see how the game plays out.

But he’s done a good job of going for it on fourth down, and they’ve been really successful. That will be a key to the game on both ends.

Q. With C Cam Jurgens popping up on the injury report, what are your concern levels for him on Sunday? (Brooks Kubena)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, we’ll see where he is. It’s hard to predict these things this far out.

Q. Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio said that Commanders QB Jayden Daniels is probably playing the QB position as a quarterback the best he’s seen through his time. Is there a comp that pops to your mind over your time in the NFL, a young quarterback that elevated a team so quickly? (Tim McManus)

NICK SIRIANNI: I guess I’ve never really thought about that with him. I just think he’s playing really good football. He makes good decisions with the football. He’s really accurate with the football. He’s able to create with his legs and extend also and make plays with his arm.

Just got a lot of respect for how he’s playing and know we’ll have to be on top of our game to stop him.

Q. The AP came out with its finalist for the awards. And I recognize that you’re focused on the practice today and the game coming up and this is not something you can control, but your record has been really good here over your tenure. You overcame the collapse of last season; some struggles early this season. There’s been a lot of adversity that you’ve overcome, and you’re still not a finalist for Coach of the Year. What is your reaction to that? (Dave Uram)

NICK SIRIANNI: I don’t care about that stuff. I just want to win.

I didn’t know – it was like the Jerry McGuire where he’s telling him all the things about himself. He’s like, ‘I’m not going to cry, Roy.’ (smiling)

No, I don’t care about that stuff. I just want to win. And we’re in a position to be able to, if we win, go to the Super Bowl. That’s pretty dope. That’s all my focus is on.

Q. If you think about your career before you came here, you didn’t get this far in the postseason. Now you’ve done it twice. To follow up on that previous question, are you aware of the run that you’re on here, for lack of a better term? Is that something you appreciate? (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: I think back, I’ve been fortunate to be on a lot of successful teams. That doesn’t just mean NFL. Winning national championships at the college level was obviously a big part of my development as a coach. And all those things, all the great things we were able to do at Mount Union, obviously hold that in high regard.

But I don’t really think of it in that way. How are we going to win this game?

And it’s been a good ride as far as this year goes, and how we win this game, and see what happens after that. I’m boring. I’m sorry.