Nick Sirianni

Q. Kind of a big picture coaching question here. I know you’ve said in the past that when you build your offense, you do it around the players’ strengths and weaknesses. I was wondering, as a coach, how you balance running something that’s their strength versus doing something at times that might be their weakness, but it’s what needs to be run against a certain look, and how you get them to buy into something like that. (Eliot Shorr-Parks)

Nick Sirianni: I feel like our players can do a lot of different things. We have a lot of strengths on the team, so we’re able to do some different things because we’ve got talented guys. But make no mistake about it, you always want to be doing the things that they do the best. If we ask them to do something we didn’t think they could do, even though it might draw up well on paper against a certain team—there are different ways that you can attack different looks.

You’re always thinking about what they do the best. That’s why you’re constantly evaluating the players. But like I said, we’ve got talented guys that can do a lot of different things, but when you ask a guy to do something they can’t do or that they might not be as good at, it doesn’t really matter how it draws up. It is always a balance, but we’re always trying to do the best thing schematically and always trying to do the thing that they do [best.]

Q. Last we talked, you said you’d be evaluating everything. What have those evaluations looked like, especially since you have more time with the coaches, I would presume, than the players? Any changes or is it business as usual? (John McMullen)

Nick Sirianni: I always want to answer your guys’ question as much as I can. Obviously, we’re evaluating everything. You don’t have as much time as you have in a normal bye week, but it’s a mini-bye and so everything was being evaluated. We will think about some different things that we want to do all over the place: scheme, everything. I don’t think it benefits us for me to share in particular what that is.

Just know this: We want to get this thing fixed more than anybody. We live it, breathe it, and [are] involved in it every waking second of our lives. That’s what we’re working on right now.

Q. We’ve asked you a lot about Offensive Coordinator Kevin Patullo and the play calling position, and your answer has consistently been, ‘The blame is never on one person.’ You did change play callers on offense in ‘21 and on defense in ‘23. I’m just wondering, why is this situation different? (Reuben Frank)

Nick Sirianni: I do believe that both of them are different scenarios. I know it was a change of play caller, but slightly different, particularly on the offensive side. Again, it isn’t just one person, it’s the ultimate team game. Like I said, we’re working through everything. I have a lot of faith in all the players. I have a lot of faith in all the coaches. We’ve just got to execute it better and scheme it better, and that all can be true, we’ve got to call it better. It’s every area that we need to improve on. That’s why we always say we look internally through all these things. Like I said to you guys, if all that’s not gelling, to me, that’s on me first. It’s my job to do whatever I need to do to help get it fixed and that’s what we’re working on right now.

Q. So just to clarify, Offensive Coordinator Kevin Patullo still is the play caller? (Tim McManus)

Nick Sirianni: Yeah.

Q. In respect to QB Jalen Hurts, his rushing numbers are down. Is it related to the fact that he wanted to rush less this year? (Tim McManus)

Nick Sirianni: We’re always thinking about how to protect Jalen and make sure that he is healthy for the long haul. Different plans have different reasons of why you run different things, and like I said, we will do everything we need to do to help this offense get rolling. Jalen’s talented in running the football. He is talented in also holding the backside when he doesn’t run the football, so a lot of different ways to do that. Again, always looking at everything and how we can improve.

Q. I’m sure you’ve heard the comparisons between this season and 2023. I’m not sure what you make of those, but when you think back to that 2023 season, are there some lessons you take from it to avoid a similar outcome this year? (Dave Zangaro)

Nick Sirianni: Yeah, I think you saw a lot of that the lessons we learned in ‘23 resulted in what happened last year. So of course, you always take lessons in everything of win, lose or draw. You’re always constantly trying to learn and get better. Sometimes that sting of the loss, or like you said, the 2023 season, has even more impact, which is why I’m grateful for adversity and looking for an opportunity to get better from the adversity. I think that most definitely those have lasting lessons, [and I] won’t be specific about it. I have very specific thoughts and [have] written down exactly what we learned and how we learned it and what we did for that. Obviously, those lumps that you take, if you allow them to, can knock you down and keep you down, or those lumps that you take can let you rise up above everything.

Q. You mentioned about scheming things for what players do best. There was another example of TE Grant Calcaterra being asked to block a defensive end one-on-one. I know it was on the backside, but it blew up the play. We’ve seen this multiple times and yet there he is doing it again. I’m wondering if that’s the best use of Grant in that circumstance. (Jeff McLane)

Nick Sirianni: On that play and the one you’re talking about, they obviously brought the nickel off the edge and kind of stunted the other guy down in there pretty far inside, which is going to be a tough block regardless of who’s in right there. We have a lot of faith in Grant and the things that he can do. Like I said, it’s always our job as coaches to first start them off in positions that they can succeed. Sometimes the loss is drawn up to execution. Sometimes the loss is drawn up to the scheme. Sometimes the loss is drawn up to, you might’ve loved your scheme, but they did something that made it really difficult to do and I think that was the case right there.

But like I said, have a lot of faith in him and what he can do, and he’s been a part of a lot of winning football here and he has been part of the reason why we’ve done a lot of good things here.

Q. You mentioned the not just one person. I’m just curious from behind the scenes and the collaboration on offense, what are Quarterbacks Coach Scot Loeffler and Passing Game Coordinator Parks Frazier bringing to you? Brought them in as well over the offseason to kind of help out with the offense. Where are they in the work of this and how is that process working? (Brooks Kubena)

Nick Sirianni: Yeah, this is a team sport that’s not just on the field, that’s in your collaboration for when you start to think about plays and how to coach it and how to attack. Of course every guy is involved as we sit in there and go over the game planning. I know you asked particularly about Scot and about Parks, but [Tight Ends Coach] Jason Michael and [Running Backs Coach/Assistant Head Coach] Jemal Singleton and [Wide Receivers Coach] Aaron Moorehead and [Offensive Quality Control Coach] Eric Dickerson, you name it.

Everyone’s in there talking through everything and that’s what you do. You have to have a guy that’s leading the charge, but those coaches meetings are so valuable of how you kind of go through that because you want everybody on the same page. You go through it with everybody together and naturally, everyone’s looking at it as a slightly different vantage point and so everybody helps in those processes. It’s just like saying, ‘Well a practice squad guy, he’s getting our guys ready on offense and defense to play the game this week.’ Every piece of a football organization is going to be important for the outcome and for what you become as a football team. That includes coaches, practice squad players, you name it.

Q. I know you were asked about this after the game, but now that you’ve had a chance to review everything, what did you see in the run defense? I mean, in the four games before this, you guys have been really good against the run. For the Bears to have 281 yards rushing, what kind of broke down do you think? (Martin Frank)

Nick Sirianni: Again, never just one thing that you get into. Obviously, we’re not going to say, ‘Hey, this is what hurt us,’ or ‘This is what we struggle with.’ I don’t think that benefits us to talk through that. At the end of the day, fundamentals come into play. At the end of the day, having different things to help the guys out come into play. It’s always going to be the same thing with that. We’ve got work to do on the practice field when we get back out there, in the meeting rooms as we’re sitting in here right now.

Even if the fundamentals aren’t done well, we look at ourselves as coaches and say, ‘How do we do that better?’ I know that’s how the defensive coaches, when I met with them on the game, that’s what they were thinking. How can I help get these guys better to accomplish what we’re asking them to do? It’s not just a scheme thing and it’s not just a fundamental thing. It’s also how we think of it as coaches of, ‘How do we help them execute their fundamentals even better with the drills that we do and the different things in the meeting room that we do with them.’

Q. I wanted to follow up on Tim McManus’ question about the design quarterback runs. How do you balance that kind of desire for self-preservation with also like, ‘Hey, this is something that QB Jalen Hurts has been really good at throughout his career and has been able to unlock other aspects of the offense through his ability to run.’ How do you kind of weigh those two things into your decision whether or not to call more designed runs for the quarterback? (Olivia Reiner)

Nick Sirianni: Good question. Again, you’re always thinking first about what the players do well, especially with your quarterback, how do you make sure that you’re keeping them safe on those? Even when you think about those, there are quarterback runs you can run that are a little [safer] than another quarterback run. But it’s still football and you still [face] a risk at with every snap that you take, and that’s on a drop back, too. But again, you look at the defenses, how you want to attack, you look at what you do well, how to protect the guys, and you’re just looking for the best way to go about that. I don’t think anybody wants to come out of a game with Jalen having 15 carries, design carries. But again, we’re looking at everything, and we’ll see how that looks going forward.

Q. Specifically, do you think this staff is creating schematic advantages on offense, and philosophically, do you think a schematic advantage is required to succeed on offense? (Zach Berman)

Nick Sirianni: As we go through game planning, we’re always thinking about how we help guys do their jobs better, how we attack versus different looks, what you do well, what you don’t do so well. Obviously, as we think through it and look at it, we’re hypercritical on ourselves as well and say to ourselves, ‘We might’ve thought this was the best going in, but as we look at it, we have to change some things, too.’ You can’t just keep doing the same thing over and over and over again and expect different results.

So, we’re hypercritical of ourselves and we’re looking for ways to help the guys be able to execute better. It always goes hand in hand right there. What necessarily worked for us in the past doesn’t always mean it’s going to necessarily work for you in the future. That’s what the weekend was about. Looking at ourselves first because we’re going to ask our players to look at themselves, and everyone looking internally.

So right now, as far as your question goes, of course none of us are doing a good enough job right now. We all have to look internally and get better. When I say that, hopefully you guys always understand that I’m looking at myself first, I’m looking at the coaches to do the same thing, and obviously the players to do the same thing. I’d say I’m hard on the coaches to make sure they’re thinking about that as well. I think that when you get into these adversities that you’re in, you can band together as a football team, or you can get into a blame world. If we’re all looking internally, that’s what it’s all about. We’ve all got to do better, and that’s everybody.