Nick Sirianni

Q. What have you seen as far as growth from T Markel Bell since he started playing? (Reuben Frank)

Nick Sirianni: Every time he goes out there and practices and plays, I think he gets better. He’s obviously very talented. I’m excited that we have him here on our football team. He deeply cares. He’s tough. He loves football, and I think that can go a long way. I do — I’ve seen improvement. On Monday night, I think he played his best game of the year that he’s played, and that’s encouraging, and we just want that trend to continue on. Like I’ve said to you guys, guys that love football, guys that are tough, guys that are smart football players have a tendency to, God willing, reach their ceiling. We’ll continue to see him on the rise because of that.

Q. Was there any issue with effort on Monday night? How do you gauge whether or not that is an issue? (Dave Zangaro)

Nick Sirianni: We grade every play based off of what they did, we grade every play based off of their assignment alignment and we grade every play off of effort. That’s not only in games, but that’s also at every practice, because if we were just grading it in games and not emphasizing it on every play in every practice, then we wouldn’t be doing our job. I did not see an effort issue on Monday night. Obviously, it was other things, which I’m sure you guys will ask me about. There were other things, but effort in no way, shape [or] form was an issue there.

The plays — now, do you bat 100% on effort? No, you don’t play a perfect football game. The plays, anytime there is an effort stand out in a positive way, we show it to the team and show what the standard is. Anytime there’s one that we feel like there was a loaf, we point that out and show that to the team. But I didn’t think that we had — I didn’t look at the tape and say, ‘Hey, this was an effort issue, and this is why this play happened or that play happened.’ That’s how I graded the film.

Q. Do you think there could have been more to help the pass rush with simulated pressures or blitzes? (Jeff McLane)

Nick Sirianni: Every time you come out of a game like that, you’re always looking — Everyone’s got to look in the mirror and say, ‘What could we have done better?’ I know that everything that’s out on the field is my responsibility. We look at that as coaches first, then we look at it as what the players can do better. When I say that about what the players can do better, we put that on ourselves as coaches as well because we’re responsible for the players that are out on the field, then we bring those things to the players.

Any way we need to affect the quarterback, we always look at. Now, with that being said, sometimes with the playmakers that they have on the outside, particularly Dallas, you bring one more guy, you leave one more guy out in coverage. There’s always a happy median there on that but won’t get into scheme or anything like that. We all need to be better, including myself, including our coaches, including our players.

Q. In terms of the run defense, it seems like there’s a lot of different front stride, different personnel at times. In your review, what did you see more about the run defense? (Brooks Kubena)

Nick Sirianni: I think that again, at the end of the day, I know you guys kind of get tired of me saying this, but when the game doesn’t go the way you want it to go, it’s never just one thing, and particularly the run game. It starts with us: how do we put them in positions to succeed? Then it goes to execution. Within execution, it’s about how you defeated blocks and how you put your hands on somebody and shed that blocker, and then how you tackled. Obviously, with the amount of yards that we gave up, none of us were — It’s a team sport. It’s not just a team sport when you win, it’s a team sport when you lose. You win together, you lose together, you give up the rushing yards together fully as a whole, coaches, players, everybody together.

Q. Do the players get those grades that you’re talking about, assignment, alignment and effort, do they get those on a weekly basis? (Tim McManus)

Nick Sirianni: That would be crazy not to tell them what they’ve done and what they haven’t done. We go over that with them. We watch the game with them, and everything is discussed with these guys. I guess I’m a little confused by the question. If we want them to get better, we’ve got to go over all the mistakes and everything with it.

Q. Just curious about the process. Do you deliver it in the meetings? Do you do it as you’re reviewing the film? Just curious how — (Tim McManus)

Nick Sirianni: Yeah, you do it as you’re watching the tape.

Q. I heard you reference ’21. What allowed you to turn that season around and do you see comparisons between that situation and this situation? (Zach Berman)

Nick Sirianni: Every team is different. Every single team is different. Sometimes it’s like you’ve been in these situations before, and it’s about — There is no secret. It’s going to be about how we get up and how we work. There’s no shortcut to this thing and about finding out what you do well and figuring out who you are and really doubling down on all the things that you believe are to be true. That’d be our ‘tough, detailed and together.’ There’s plenty of teams in the history of football that you can always go back to and say, ‘Hey, this team started this record and then they turned it on,’ or ‘This team started with this record, they turned it on and then it equaled really good success for them for the next couple years.’ Sometimes you use that, sometimes you don’t.

I think just for — Maybe the time I brought it up was being about, ‘Hey, we’ve been here before. Here’s what this team did.’ We figured out what we did well, figured out what we didn’t do well. We tried to double down on that, but the things that didn’t change were your core values and what you really believed in. You double down on that because we’re outcome-aware, but we’re process-driven, and it’s the daily inputs that we need to do and our daily behaviors that we need to do that are going to affect winning and losing and are going to affect winning and losing in the long term. It is about our daily process, and there’ll never be a shortcut for that.

Q. Why did you decide to bump QB Joe Milton up the number two quarterback? (Jeff McLane)

Nick Sirianni: I think that we just thought he’d had some good practices. We gave him some reps in there for some of our developmental periods. Right now, that’s what we thought was the best thing for our football team and in no way signifies that we don’t believe in [QB] Cole [Payton]. We do believe in Cole, and Cole has been the third, and he’s still developing. [He’s] a young player in this league as a rookie. I think it says a lot, obviously, that we’ve kept him on the roster and what we think of him throughout the entire season. Joe has a little bit more experience, and Cole is young and he’s continuing to develop. We’re excited about developing him, but that’s where we are and what we thought was best for our football team at this particular time.

Q. In addition to T Markel Bell, you guys are starting to get a lot of your other rookies playing now with TE Eli Stowers and OLB Keyshawn James-Newby in there. Just what do you see from those guys and also how difficult is it to put those guys in when they may or may not be ready and balance that out with winning and all that? (Martin Frank)

Nick Sirianni: When guys go in the game, we feel like they’re ready. We feel like they’re ready to go, and you go in there and they get an opportunity to play, and obviously, that’s huge for their development. Anytime we put a guy in there, we feel like he’s ready to go and ready to contribute for our football team. When the young guys are getting the reps that they’re getting, you’re seeing guys continue to get better. We talked about Markel. I think we’ve all seen the growth of [WR] Makai Lemon, who I think is really going to be a good football player and already is. We know he’s talented, but he has everything. He’s got all the right stuff in my opinion. He’s tough. He works his butt off. He loves this game. He cares deeply, and excited about that.

Then, Eli getting back and starting to get some run, and James-Newby getting in there and being able to contribute on special teams and then give some things to the defense. I think that’s all good. We put them in there because we believe in them and we trust them. Look forward for them to continue to develop, and it’s not just on — Obviously, you guys don’t get to see the practice that puts us in position to have trust in them to go out there and to succeed. That trust is built throughout the season, that trust is built Monday through Saturday for them to go out and play on Sunday.

Q. You’ve got your tight ends back, you’ve got G Landon Dickerson back, and for the first three and a half quarters. For three quarters, it looked like your offensive line turned a real corner. Is that something that you agree with, that you saw, and how can you build on that going forward? (Marcus Hayes)

Nick Sirianni: I thought that they played solid. I thought that the offensive line played solid. They were able to create running lanes for us in the backfield and had really good protection. I think that when you get into the fourth quarter, to your point, we’re down 10, we’re down two possessions. We’ve got to go as fast as we possibly can, so we lose that balance of being able to run the offense that was designed to be run for that, but you get into a no-huddle situation there. I thought they played solid. I thought they played hard. I thought they played tough.

We did a couple things that we’ve done. We did a couple new things that will be an addition to what we will do. I think it was a good step for us offensively with the game that they played. That’s no secret that’s been the secret to our success here and my time here. When we’ve been really good to a point where you get to Super Bowls, we’ve run the ball really well. When we made that turn in 2021, I mean, we ran the ball really well. Our best stretches of football were happening when we were pounding the football, being efficient in the pass game and being able to create explosives in the pass game. I think that, again, there is no moral victories, as we know in this, but there was a lot to build upon on offense. We’re pissed that we lost. We’re pissed about the outcome, but there was a lot to build upon offensively for the next game going ahead and so on and so forth.

Q. You’ve already seen one prominent player get traded, and there have been other reports about others being shopped. If a player comes to you that’s potentially on the block, what do you say to them? (Jeff McLane)

Nick Sirianni: Obviously, reports are reports. You can’t control anything there. We’ll always keep any conversation that I have with any player private. Theoretically speaking, I don’t have to get into theoreticals really unless they happen. In these situations, I guess what I would say is there’s a human element to this. I know these guys personally, and you go through the ups and downs with it. My job as a head coach is to be there for them in any and every situation, whether it’s a personal issue, whether it’s a football issue, because I think that is key to a football team, and then their teammates as well being able to do that. Then, on top of that, as a leader, can you connect with guys on a personal level and on a football level, and can you be highly demanding on them while still having this great relationship with them? I think both things are possible. That’s how I would handle that, is be there for them in any situation that they’re going through.

Q. I know you don’t have time to read and listen to everything, but I’m sure you can tell from the questions, the perception is that effort was a problem versus the Cowboys. You disagree with that, but I’m just wondering what you think of the fact that people are questioning the effort of the team. (Eliot Shorr-Parks)

Nick Sirianni: I think in that situation, everyone’s going to look to find answers in a five-game losing streak. Just because the result — If we win that game, do they still question the effort? I don’t know. I can’t — I’m not them. My job is to look at the daily process of it and the daily work and what objectively happened in that game and not react based off of the outcome. I get it. I would understand [that] everyone’s looking for answers. I don’t give you a lot of answers up here. I get that. I understand that. I do respect the job that you guys have to do, but I’m always going to probably keep it tight to the vest.

But again, it’s not about the outcome — It is. We’re outcome-aware — but it is about the process that goes [into] it, what happens Monday through Saturday. What happens Monday through Saturday is usually what happens in the game in my experience. That’s why you need great week of preparation, but I’m not letting the outcome dictate how I grade the film. I’m grading the film objectively based off of what I see on a weekly basis.