Nick Sirianni

Q. What do you think about T Lane Johnson’s retirement? (Jeff McLane)

Nick Sirianni: Love Lane. I’ll miss him dearly and I wish him the best. Obviously, that’s not the end of mine and Lane’s relationship. I feel like that’s a relationship that will last through our lives but just want him to be his best. Like I said, love him and everything that he stood for and everything that he is.

I feel good about where we are in that room. I’m really excited for [T] Markel [Bell]’s opportunity. Thought under the circumstances of last week that he handled that really well and excited about the growth that he’s going to be able to have this year, and I’m excited for him.

Q. When T Lane Johnson announced his decision in training camp for this to be his last year and just the time since, what was it like managing that with Lane as he was managing those decisions? (Brooks Kubena)

Nick Sirianni: Again, it’s been a great run here with him, and every day that he was here was awesome. Obviously, a phenomenal player. Love the guy and yeah, it was just business as usual.

Q. How did you reset things with the team after you get news of one of the top players not going to be with you guys for the rest of the year? (Tim McManus)

Nick Sirianni: We went over today the things that we need to do to win this football game and went through that in front of the team offensively, defensively, special teams-wise. Went through those keys with the points. Talked about staying together, locking arms, staying together and just having each other’s backs in a situation. We’re on a two-game losing streak also, and staying focused on the task at hand and locking arms and not letting anything penetrate that and being together.

Q. What is the task like for you though when there is adversity like this early in a season to do all those things, to make sure the team stays together? How do you approach that? (Dave Zangaro)

Nick Sirianni: It’s crazy, but adversity — Every adversity that I’ve been in through my life, they’re not comfortable at the time, but they produce the most growth. I am truly, truly thankful for the adversities that I go through, even though they’re not comfortable at the time, and what a message I have to be able to send to the team, my kids, of that. I think that just being able to relay that and that message, and like I said, lock arms and let’s go.

Q. Even though T Markel Bell didn’t get a full season with T Lane Johnson, I mean, were you able to get a sense of just how much of an influence he’s had on Markel and how ready Markel is for this opportunity? (Martin Frank)

Nick Sirianni: I think Markel — Obviously, I love the draft pick that we had there [and] our decision to take him. He’s highly talented, and I’m so excited for his opportunity and what he can be. I’m just really excited for that for him and for our football team. When you’re around good players that you can learn a lot from, you guys have heard me say this before, you watch things on tape all the time like, ‘Oh man, that’s a really good strip attempt right there by [former NFL CB Charles] Peanut Tillman, right?’ Well, you don’t have that opportunity to sit there on a daily basis with Peanut Tillman or [49ers LB] Fred Warner, whoever it may be, but you do with [LB] Zack Baun, who had a lot of these, and you do with Lane Johnson and you do with [former Eagles C] Jason Kelce, [former Eagles DT] Fletcher Cox, all those guys. Those moments are invaluable and everything that you do helps. Every purposeful step that you take, you grow in. That certainly is one of those things that you can grow in when you’re around guys like that.

Q. When you look at the big picture O-line, obviously C/G Drew Kendall’s still a young player without a lot of experience. You might have a different left guard depending on Cam Jurgens and the protocol. How do you get guys — and then you might have G Landon Dickerson back in a week or two, how do you get the whole group to play together as a unit, which is so important for an O-line, when there’s so many moving pieces? (Reuben Frank)

Nick Sirianni: There’s no secret to that. It takes walkthrough reps, it takes practice reps, it takes meeting time, and it takes purposeful steps. That’s why every one of those things I just mentioned, walkthrough, practice, meetings, the time they spend together is so critical. There is no secret. It always takes work and that’s what we intend to do.

Q. As somewhat of a follow-up to that, you might be missing six offensive starters plus key backups. It’s not the offense you put in this summer in terms of personnel. It’s not the offense you practice with. What type of challenge is that? And I guess if you have to change what that offense is because of the personnel. (Zach Berman)

Nick Sirianni: This is life in the NFL. You are not in control of some things. You’re always in control of [being] tough, you’re always in control of the detail, and you’re always in control of the together piece. There’re some times that ball bounces a different way than you anticipated. You got the strip attempt, ball came out, and instead of bouncing into your arms, it took a bounce and it went into their arms. But you controlled all those other things that led up to it. You controlled your block destruction, being in the right spot, the attempt when you don’t sacrifice the tackle, sometimes the ball bounces a different way. It’s the same thing there. That’s nothing that’s in our control. We do everything that we can do to keep our guys healthy — there’s always a fine line — while also doing enough things in practice to get your team ready. That’s the weight I have to carry of what that balance is.

You don’t control how that goes, but you always control that ‘tough, detailed, together.’ Again, we’ve been healthy over the last however many years, and we’ve had stretches where we’ve had some guys dinged up. But my point is I can’t control — That’s something which [is] partly in your control with the practice and how you do it and how you get guys ready to play. This is life in the NFL, and we will do the things that we can control to put ourselves in the best position to win against a very good football team this week. Like I said to you guys the other day, you will never hear me use anything as an excuse. Our job is to go handle the things that we can control, tough, detailed and together, and put ourselves in the best position to win this upcoming week.

Q. Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio acknowledged that playing 83 plays for the defense affected them down the stretch. How can you mitigate that and make sure that it doesn’t become an issue where the defense does have to worry about the number of reps it’s playing versus the offense? (Jeff McLane)

Nick Sirianni: You stay on the field as offense, right? I think the defense did a lot of good things through that game, and then late in the game, when we had a chance to put that game away, we’ve got to put that game away. But the defense comes back out there, and that’s a lot of plays. The way you combat that is by staying on the field offensively. I know the defense is going to say in that particular case, and as the head coach, the defense has got to do everything they can do to stop them if it doesn’t come to that point. But I think every game — there’s going to be a game where if the defense is on the field for a little bit of time, it’s because the offense stayed on the field. There’s always going to be differences in games of how many plays you play.

We can manage that on a Wednesday. Today will be a little bit different of a practice for us with where we are right now. We can manage that on a Wednesday to get ourselves back rolling. I’ve got a lot of good people helping me here as far as just information of — and like I said, I’ve got to do what I think is best for the football team to get them ready to play and manage the health. But you manage that portion of it on a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Then in a game, you play complimentary football to try to mitigate that as much as you possibly can. Now, if you’re scoring on one-play drives, and the defense has a long drive after that, you’re not going to complain about that. It’s still the same. Offense has to finish drives, and the defense has responsibility in that as well to get off the field on third down or to not give up first downs to get them off the field.

This is the ultimate team game and that’s why it’s so important that every one of us looks in the mirror. We’re 2-2. Everyone had a hand in the two wins. Everybody had a hand in the two losses. I’m not going to ever say it’s on this or it’s on that, because it’s football. We need to lock arms as a football team and understand the only way you get better — Maybe at the time, blaming something or someone helps you feel better, but all that does is distract from getting better. There’re always things you can justify. We can do that in all our lives. It’s like, ‘Man, I can justify why I got that speeding ticket.’ I don’t know. I’m saying something very — But at the end of the day, you’ve got to get better from that, or you’re going to keep getting it. You’ve got to get better from it, but the only way you get better from it is by putting your chest up, looking yourself in the mirror and saying, ‘This is what I messed up and that’s how I’m going to get better from it.’

Q. There is a G Micah Morris quote – ‘We were deployed near the goal line there.’ Is that a reflection of kind of what you had seen behind the scenes for them that warranted giving them a shot and whatever? (Brooks Kubena)

Nick Sirianni: You don’t put guys in the game if you don’t [have] trust in what they can do. Different parts of the game call for different things. Sometimes you put heavy offensive line in at the goal line. Sometimes you do it in short yardage. Sometimes you do it in the flow of the game. It just depends on the game right there. When a guy’s in the game, or even up on game day or even on this roster, there’s trust in that person and that’s why they’re here. Of course, they’re in the game because of the trust that they’ve been building up through being consistent every day.

Q. Yesterday, Offensive Coordinator Sean Mannion said he still had absolute conviction in the offense that you guys are installing. Given the personnel changes, do you feel that same conviction and why or why not? (Christiaan DeFranco)

Nick Sirianni: Yeah, I do. We’re early on in this season, and our job is to continue to find out what we do best, what we don’t do quite as good, and try to attack that way. I think quickly we forget that only a mere two years ago, in 2024, we sat in the same situation, and we made some adjustments and we got on a roll. I think sometimes we conveniently forget those things. We don’t up here, but you’re constantly finding where you are as a football team [and] what you do the best. Our job in situations is not to panic; it’s to find solutions. In those situations, the rest of the world could be panicking. We have to be able to look and find solutions.

My dad, when I was a kid, had cancer and I never even really knew about it. He put his chest up, put his chin up, and he kept going. If he was tired, he went to his room and didn’t show anything to me and my brothers. What a great example of being able to — when everyone seems to be panicking, just stay on the course and going through and controlling the things that you can control.

Q. RB Dameon Pierce. It’s reported that he got elevated to the active roster. If he needs to step into a role, what did you see from him this summer? (Tim McManus)

Nick Sirianni: I think you guys saw when he was in the game, he’s a good running back. I’ve been really pleased to have him and so excited that, even when he wasn’t on the roster with where we were, that we were able to keep him. Unfortunately, down [RB] Tank [Bigsby] right now. With Tank being down right now, we’ve got a really good back and you guys saw him run the football when he had opportunities in the preseason, and you’ve seen him run the football when he’s been the lead back.

I just remember how much I loved his college tape. I don’t know how much you guys have talked to him, but he’s an awesome, awesome kid and great teammate. He is somebody that’s really great to be around on a daily basis regardless of what his circumstances are. Of course, he’s an NFL starting running back. I maybe wouldn’t have said that when he was on our practice squad publicly in fear of losing him, but he’s an NFL starting running back that was on our practice squad, and put his chest up, got his head up and went to work and was still the enjoyable person to be around on a daily basis. So, excited for his opportunity. Obviously, bummed about Tank. I love Tank and what a great teammate he is, but excited for his opportunity.