Nick Sirianni

Q. We’ve talked about other players going back to teams they’ve played for in the past and controlling that emotion. RB Saquon Barkley going back to where he still has friends and stuff, what does this game mean to him, do you think? (Ed Kracz)

NICK SIRIANNI: I would like to let him answer that question. I know he’s probably going to have to answer that question all week. I’m excited for him. Every opportunity he gets to put on this jersey, I get excited for him.

I know, obviously, there is always emotion in this game. It’s an emotional game. So I think the most important thing for him is just to be able to – all [RB] Saquon [Barkley] has to do is go out and be himself. Because he’s a hell of a football player. He’s a hell of a leader, and so many good qualities that he has.

You want to be able to control the emotions as the game goes. Not be too up, not be down, but play the next play.

Q. How much did the ideas of what you can do with a running back expand with RB Saquon Barkley? (Brooks Kubena)

NICK SIRIANNI: Any time you have a big time running back like that, you always think about how you’re going to get the guy the football. It’s never like, ‘Hey, well, in this place we ran this, and in this place we ran this, and this is what our system is.’ You do everything you can do to get players the ball and do things that they do well.

That’s the focus of any coach: What do our players do well and what can we do with them. Obviously, we’ve looked at the [running] backs that we used in the past and how we’ve used them in the past, from our different teams and even different teams here.

But then, you also study some other teams. What does Team A or Team B do to get their running back to the ball?

And again, it’s all about fitting the skillset of your players. Fortunately for Saquon, I don’t think there is anything he doesn’t do well. He’s big, he’s strong, he’s fast, and he’s ultra quick. That’s what you look for in any running back.

Q. Now that you have a bigger sample size with different defensive schemes, are you noticing defenses trying to do some different things to try and take RB Saquon Barkley away? (EJ Smith)

NICK SIRIANNI: Any time you have unique players, a good attack on offense, you’re going to get different things than you see on tape. We expect that.

We’ve had a good running game here for a while, so you see different things. That’s been evident of our teams throughout my whole time here.

So, when that happens, you have to be ready to adjust. Hey, the plan said to do this. Well, sometimes the plan changes. You have to be ready to adjust with your answers that you have while still doing what your players can execute well.

Q. When you offer up that you’ve called plays that have failed in certain circumstances, and we spoke to both Offensive Coordinator Kellen Moore and Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio about this, they said your interaction with them isn’t any different than other head coaches. What is your objective in putting that information out there? (Jeff McLane)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, you know what? Sometimes I feel like – I don’t know who said it, John maybe asked me the other day. ‘Are you giving them too much information?’ Probably. So I probably won’t give that information to you guys anymore.

I probably give you too much information. Probably rethink that. I think somebody asked me this, but at the end of the day, I want to be accountable. And make no mistake about it – everything that is on that field, and every product that is on that field, has my accountability on it. So if there is a mistake on that field, then that belongs to me.

As minute as you could think of that mistake being. And I really believe that, and I really think that way, in the sense of, ‘Okay, this guy missed a tackle in space. Well, did I put him in positions to make that tackle? Did I help him with that?’

So that’s constantly on my mind of how we do that. So, again, if I want these players to have accountability for the things that they didn’t do right, only in the attempts to get better, then I better do it myself.

Q. Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio was talking yesterday about how young you guys are on defense. If you think about it, CB Darius Slay and DE Brandon Graham are really the only guys in the regular rotation who are over 27, 28. What are the positives and the negatives of having that young of a group on one side of the football? (Reuben Frank)

NICK SIRIANNI: Obviously when you play together you gel together, you get more time together. The more plays you play in this league, the more you see, the more football IQ you’re going to gain.

When you watch the Bulls documentary, Michael Jordan talked about the game against the Celtics when he scored 63 points, he’s like, ‘I just let my youth and energy go, and I didn’t stop.’ He said something like that.

I kind of felt that, especially seeing [DB Cooper DeJean] Coop on the field. I just saw his youth and his energy.

Now, did we make some mistakes? Sure, we made some mistakes. But I saw him flying to the football. I saw him being physical and violent when he got to the football. And that’s for a lot of the guys, but I’m thinking about Coop in my mind right now.

When that happens, that can be really exciting because you’ve got youth and energy just flying around to the football. But it’s our job as coaches and their job as players to learn the plan, try to put themselves in situations.

We try to put them in situations so that we’re accelerating that play as much as we possibly can as far as the football IQ goes. And that’s where walkthrough comes in, and practice comes in.

Q. Prior to the bye, the turnovers were certainly a problem you guys were dealing with. Didn’t turn it over against the Browns, and I don’t think had a turnover-worthy play. I’m curious, was there something you did during the bye that you implemented in that game that you think worked especially well? (Eliot Shorr-Parks)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I think so. I always want to help you guys do your job, and you guys know that. I just want to keep some of that in-house.

But yeah, we thought a lot about it. I think we did some things that were different. Not necessarily with how you protect it, but some of the things in the way you go about protecting it, and drilling it, and this and that. Yeah, we spent a lot of time on that.

You know, the big emphasis we want to continue moving on is: We want to take the football away. This was a turnover that [S] Reed [Blankenship] had [referencing his shirt], and just want celebrate that when we do that. Because we know when we win that turnover battle, we have a good chance of winning. That’s the entire league, not just the Philadelphia Eagles.

But we’ve been pretty good at it when we have, and so the emphasis – you guys see it out there when we do drills and stuff like that, what our emphasis is. Taking care the ball was a big thing.

I think the stat of – you guys can look this up – but I think the stat of us when we don’t turn it over at all, forget about winning the turnover battle, but when we don’t turn it over at all, we’re like 16 and 5.

It’s always going to start with us, with how we protect the football offensively and how we take it away defensively.

Q. RB Saquon Barkley had a rough stretch at the end of the first half. When he went out of bounds before the mark, and then the block. When he does that, when he has a rough stretch, what’s he like on the sideline? Probably was not his best game. Maybe his worst game of the year. What’s he like after that? (Bob Brookover)

NICK SIRIANNI: Again, I can’t say enough good things about him and all the plays he makes for this football team and the things that – even though there might be a mistake that we can point out. All the things he does when the ball is not even in his hands, and the attention that the defense has.

I want to say that first and foremost. Everyone will make mistakes during the game. It’s not a perfect game. When you’re battling and striving for something great, there will be errors along the way. There will be mistakes along the way.

So those happen. When he has a mistake, I just see a guy who just pushes it out and goes to the next play. I really do. He’s great when other guys have a mistake of just being there to lift them up. He’s a great teammate. He leads not only by his play and the person he is, but by example.

That is what you want out of any of your leaders. I know he doesn’t have a C on his chest for Captain, but I have no doubt he’s one of the main leaders on this football team.

Q. How RB Saquon Barkley and QB Jalen Hurts make each other better, what have you noticed about that so far? (Martin Frank)

NICK SIRIANNI: Shoot, you got two guys in the back field that can really create explosive plays. And I’m really impressed by how much they work as far as – one thing that’s not simple, but I think it gets looked at as simple, is the ball handling in the back field. Especially when you’re running zone reads, or RPOs, or things like that.

Because how does Saquon know he’s not getting the ball? He doesn’t. So they work so hard together at that. I really admire that, of how much [Running Backs Coach] Jemal [Singleton], and [Quarterbacks Coach] Doug [Nussmeier] do to put them in positions, but then all the extra work [QB] Jalen [Hurts] and Saquon do together.

They know they can’t be great without the greatness of others. That’s why this is such a cool team sport. And I think it’s when you do run those plays, it’s like alright, pick your poison which one you want.

It really is on display on some of those plays: What do you want to stop? Okay, cool. Now you got to go to the other guy. Again, I just go back to that line, you can’t be great without the greatness of others.

Q. Do you expect TE Dallas Goedert to miss multiple weeks? (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: We’ll see. Obviously, still have time here. I don’t expect him to do much at practice today. We’ll see how that goes. I don’t ever want to put a cap on a guy that I know is going to work his butt off to get back. So we’ll see. [TE] Dallas [Goedert] is ultra-tough. If anybody can get back to playing faster than what you might anticipate, it’s Dallas Goedert.

Q. The players on the depth chart are basically the same as in the past when TE Dallas Goedert has been hurt. Obviously TE Grant Calcaterra has a bigger role now. How do you think you’re different at that spot than when you’ve missed Dallas in the past? (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: Man, I just think the development of [TE] Grant [Calcaterra]. And [TE] Jack Stoll has done a nice job. I like [TE] CJ [Uzomah], and [TE] EJ [Jenkins], and [TE] Albert O [Okwuegbunam]. The guys that are on the practice squad.

So I just think, to single Grant out, Grant has been on the rise since off-season and OTAs and during training camp. Doing stuff when he doesn’t get opportunities with the ball. I love the play of Grant when he slice-blocked the guy at New Orleans, and he sacrificed his body in Saquon’s lane. And [Saquon] scores a touchdown, and Grant is laying on the ground like this [pointing to endzone]. You can’t be great without the greatness of others in this unbelievable game.

He’s done it without the ball, and then he had a chance to do it with the ball. Grant has developed. He’s really worked. [Tight Ends Coach] Jason Michael has done an awesome job developing him, and all the credit goes to Grant for how much work he’s put in, how much talent he has. I think there is a chemistry there with [QB] Jalen [Hurts] and Grant as well with Jalen playing with him in college. All those things factor in.

At the end of the day, Grant has been everything we expected as a draft pick when we took him a couple years ago and then some. He just keeps getting better.

As bummed as I would be if Dallas is out, I’ll be really excited about his opportunity like he got last week. Yeah, I’m excited for him.

Q. I know you try to insulate yourself from criticism as much as possible. When it’s as loud as it has been this week, how do you deal with it on a personal level, and has that changed throughout your time on the job? (Dave Zangaro)

NICK SIRIANNI: No. Just try to control what you can control. All my focus and energy is on this football team and how we get better today.

That’s all my energy can be focused on, is how we go out there today. We’re still in meetings. We’re having a little break right now, and we’ll go back to meetings, and it’s going to have to be high, high detail in meetings. That starts with me as the coach, putting them in every position that they possible can be in. And then full speed to the snap in walkthrough.

When your mind is focused on other things, then you’re not going to – I think [Hall of Fame Basketball Coach] John Wooden has a quote. I had it last week. When your mind is focused on other things you can’t control, the things you can control don’t get as good as they possibly can.

He doesn’t say it like that. I brutalized that right there. But if I’m focused on things I can’t control, then I can’t do my job. If I want these guys to get better every single day, I better work on getting better every single day.

Sometimes that getting better, it’s always about admitting your mistakes, whether it’s after a game, during the game, whether it’s something you did at practice. So that’s my only focus and my only goal.

Q. There is no handbook to being an NFL coach. In your years here, how do you feel like you’ve evolved as far as how to handle the non-football parts of the job, interfacing with the fans and media, and are you still trying to strike a balance of how much to show and be your authentic self and when and how to reign that in? (Adam Kilgore)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I think you always have to be your authentic self. But, maybe your authentic self is only for your players and in the building, right? There is a time and place for that.

Shoot, I’m not going to stop thanking the fans at the away games. I can do some of that and be my authentic self. Again, you’re always a work in progress. I think I’ve made a lot of strides as far as my composure during the game.

After this week, I think this is probably the wrong time to say that. But you’re never going to be perfect. You’ve always got to stay true to yourself.

You’re always trying to improve yourself. But it’s not – like I said, this is how climbing and getting better at the things you want to get better at as a man, as a person, it goes like this, right? It goes like this [motioning up and down]. We would all love it for it to do this [motioning up]. That’s not the reality of life, not the reality of getting better, not the reality of growth mindset.

You have setbacks, you have falls as you go. So I think it’s just learning from those things and try to still be on this path, even though you know there will be some dips in that path.