Nick Sirianni

Q. I know you’re very intentional with your messaging. I noticed you’ve been using the word “joy” a lot recently. You used it post-game, post-game locker room, and this morning in your interview. Is there a reason you’re deciding to focus on that word in particular? Is it part of a larger message? (Eliot Shorr-Parks)

Nick Sirianni: No, I’ve always thought that’s very important. I’ve said that from the very beginning. You can go into a building and say, ‘Man, I’ve got to go to work today’ or ‘Man, I get to go to work today.’ That joy is part of it. In professional football, there are all these pressures and there’s all these ups and downs and everything like this, but we got into this game because we loved it. I think that’s a really important thing. I got into this through the grace of God of doing something I love for a living. I think that in the world, you can let things beat you down a lot and not really give knowledge to all the things that you have going on that are really good. I think that that’s just part of it. I think that’s just a healthy way to live, it’s healthy for your life and it’s healthy for a football team.

Q. What did you like about the way QB Jalen Hurts ran the ball on Sunday against the Raiders? (Martin Frank)

Nick Sirianni: He got a lot of yards and a lot of first downs. But he was really efficient with that, and he does a good job of protecting himself. He does a good job of taking what the defense gives him. He’s got great football knowledge and football IQ in everything that he does, and the run game obviously goes hand in hand with that.

Q. The fewest penalties in the game this season on Sunday, what do you attribute that to? (Brooks Kubena)

Nick Sirianni: I thought this was a clean football game for us all around of our fundamentals and our detail. You attribute that to the amount of work– that doesn’t just happen by chance. You’re trying to consistently get better throughout the year and hopefully those things are going to happen. Our fundamentals, our penalties, all those different things, I thought were clean and we need to look to build upon that.

Q. What have you seen from QB Jalen Hurts in terms of under center and throwing when he’s been under center? (Jeff McLane)

Nick Sirianni: I think he can be very successful and efficient any way he needs to go and play. Whether that’s the gun, whether that’s in pistol, whether that’s under center, he’s shown the fact that the ability to be able to win and be efficient with everything from all different levels. Whether that’s on the move, whether that’s slightly on the move, whether that’s a drop back and right in the same area, I just think he’s been efficient throughout [the] course of his career and everything that he goes through.

Q. Under center isn’t something he did very much of until he got to the NFL. It was something he had to learn. You got him very early in his career. What have you seen over the last five years? (Jeff McLane)

Nick Sirianni: Of course he hadn’t done a lot of that in college, but he’s just somebody that’s going to continue to work hard at everything. He works hard at everything that he does and loves this game of football and puts everything into it. Anything that he’s doing, he works really hard at. Obviously, this is no exception.

Q. Commanders QB Marcus Mariota was here in 2023. What do you remember about his impact in quarterback room, his impact on QB Jalen Hurts? What did you like about him? (Jeff Neiburg)

Nick Sirianni: Marcus, obviously, had played a lot of football and has been in this league for a long time. 2015, I think, he came into this league. I have so much respect for Marcus. The person, first and foremost, the player, the teammate. Marcus was just a great pro, and I’ve just got nothing but the highest amount of respect for him and the things that he’s done in his career. Like I said, top-notch teammate. A lot of respect for Marcus.

Q. The sack numbers are way down in the last six weeks or so, how much of that is the O-Line, maybe guys getting healthier, how much of that is QB Jalen Hurts’ decision making in the pocket, and what other factors go into that? (Reuben Frank)

Nick Sirianni: I think everything. This is the ultimate team game, so everything attributes to that. I think we’re getting good contributions; receivers getting open [and] doing good things there, good protection, Jalen reading the defenses and getting the ball where it needs to go. I think everything contributes to that. It’s hard to move the ball forward, it’s hard to score points when you’re not consistently moving the ball forward. That goes back to our negative runs that we’ve talked about, but that’s also sacks. So, everything contributes to that, and we’ve got to look to continue to build upon that.

Q. The amount of short week games in the season, that’s your most since you’ve been here. How have you, the coaches, the players, navigated the lack of a Sunday-to-Sunday routine? (Zach Berman)

Nick Sirianni: That’s life in the NFL, especially for a team that’s had the success that we’ve had. We understand that. Like everything, whether you’re on a short week, long week, you have these processes that you go through and you constantly tweak them and try to make– I love our short week schedule right now. I was just saying that to the coaches. I don’t want to play 30 of these, but you adapt the schedule and you adapt your process to try to get better each time. I know I say that all the time, ‘try to get better,’ but you try to do that every time. There’s always a teachable moment for you to do that. We did something a little different last week, coming off a Monday night game on the west coast, that we may not have done in the past. We kind of mirrored that a little bit today.

I always want the players to get their rest that they need because we can do all the schedule stuff we want. Their bodies are still coming off of a short week. Our strength and conditioning staff, our doctors, our trainers, they do a great job. We’re all in this growth mindset and that’s something [where] we all have to think that way. That can’t just be me, it can’t just be the players, it can’t just be the coaches. The whole buildings in this growth mindset. I take a lot of pride in that. [There are] different things that we’ve done. The players, we gave them a little bit more rest last week. We’ll give them a little bit more rest this week, whether that’s sleeping in or a couple periods off with practice. It’s all in attempts to make them be as fresh as possible and have our plan to be the best plan we possibly can have.

Q. RB Saquon Barkley had the comment after the game of, ‘We didn’t allow the defense to dictate what we do.’ Just kind of curious how you interpret that and if that’s something that you guys have grown in over the course of this year. (Tim McManus)

Nick Sirianni: There’s always things that you want to do with who you are and your identity. Yes, you want to get these certain things done, you want to get these certain things in the plan, and there’s always a fine line of that. It’s like, ‘Yeah, we’re doing this, unless they do this and then we’ve got to do that.’ There’s a time and place to not run a bad play [or] a play into a bad look. But there’s also aspects of, ‘Hey, you’ve got it, rip it and let’s see what happens.’ There’s a fine line to that, but there are still true identities that you want to have and press them into what you’re doing. There’s a little bit of both there and I think that’s what he’s speaking of.

Q. How much of that has to do with whether they have progression reads or not? (Jeff McLane)

Nick Sirianni: I’m not going to get into how we read things or anything like that, but everything plays into that. I don’t think that’s good business for me to say, ‘We’re reading this play that way or this play that way.’ I would say that you have a bunch. We have different styles of reads, just like everybody does. Whether it’s a progression, whether that’s– whatever. I feel like I get too much into it, but we have probably the same reads as a lot of teams in the NFL have, and some more than others. It goes into the same thing.

Q. In a general sense of your shotgun runs. I mean, you guys did have success with that and with your running backs. What is, in a general sense, the benefit of running out of those looks? (Brooks Kubena)

Nick Sirianni: I think we’ve predominantly been a shotgun run team here. I think in ’22, we led the NFL in rushing and in ’24 we led the NFL in rushing. So, two out of these last four years we have. There are benefits, and like I said, there’s not just one way to do things. Then there’s under center thought process, or pistol thought process. There’s just a bunch of different ways to do it. Again, I don’t want to get too much into scheme or say this is why we do this. I don’t think that’s good for business either. But there’s reasons why you get in the gun and there’s reasons why you get under center.

There are multiple ways to do different things. I probably didn’t learn that until [the] middle of my career. It’s been like, ‘What I used to think is whatever I think and then whatever I’m sold on is this.’ It’s like, no, there are many different ways to accomplish things. I think that just comes with time and with wisdom. There’s a lot of different ways to be a successful offense.

Q. I know we’re going to get an injury report later today, but QB Jalen Hurts got hit there at the end of the game. How’s he feeling and is it safe to assume he’ll play on Saturday? (Eliot Shorr-Parks)

Nick Sirianni: Yeah, we’ll give you everything here later today after we go through our process. You’ll see, you guys will see that.

Q. QB Jalen Hurts is usually pretty steady in terms of the way that he presents himself. When you see him react like he did after the WR A.J. Brown touchdown pass, what’s your reaction? Do you ever sort of nudge him to show that a little bit more? (Bo Wolf)

Nick Sirianni: I want everybody to be who they are and show the personality that they have. This world is great because not everybody’s exactly the same. That would be a boring world if everybody was exactly the same or if Jalen was telling me not to get as excited as I get, right? Same thing, I see emotion from him. I see emotion from him a lot when he makes a play or he is pumped up about a play. Everybody has their own way of celebrating things. I love when he shows emotion and I love when he goes to the sideline and plays the next play. I am good. Show your personality, show who you are, and that goes for everybody on our team, within the rules of the game. Don’t get a penalty.

Q. Going back to the running game. How do you think the efficiency was? You talked about QB Jalen Hurts, but the more traditional aspect, you got a good look at RB Tank Bigsby and RB Saquon Barkley. How do you think the efficiency was? (John McMullen)

Nick Sirianni: When you’re being successful on third down, you’re able to get more of those runs called. Drives are extending. We were also in a [17], I think [17], play drive at the end of the game where we obviously had a lot of runs and I think [only] three, maybe two or three, passes in that area. I love the one-two punch we have with Saquon and Tank. Both are great runners. When Saquon needs a break, Tank goes in and that shows itself throughout some of these long drives. You’re really grateful that you’re able to have that one-two punch that we feel like we have.

Q. After the game, QB Jalen Hurts spoke about the attention that comes to him as a quarterback. What do you think makes him so capable of dealing with all that attention? (Dave Zangaro)

Nick Sirianni: I think that playing quarterback in the NFL, you’re going to get a lot of attention. Positive, negative, all attention. When that happens– we talk about this a lot as a team– any little thing [that] distracts you [or] what can distract you, you need to block out. I think that why Jalen can handle it so well is because he’s so locked in and focused and not distracted by things to be able to lock in onto what he needs to do to get himself ready to play.

Q. What’s impressed you most or stood out to you most about the job that Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio has done in year two with you guys? (Johnny McGonigal)

Nick Sirianni: I think what impresses me most with Vic is that he’s had so much success in being a defensive coordinator through decades of the NFL, but he just continues to grow as a coach. I’ve never heard Vic say, ‘Well I’ve always done it this way.’ All I’ve ever heard Vic say is, ‘What’s the best way to do this, this time, this game?’ That’s so impressive. I think that you can get into that sometimes. ‘Yeah, I’ve always done it this way.’ It’s finding out ways to win and to be the most successful each and every week. I think he’s shown different ways that he’s done that all year, and that’s kind of how I view how he’s been throughout his career. Man, I’m glad we have him.