Nick Sirianni

Q. WR Quez Watkins, LB Kyzir White, DT Jordan Davis, do you have an update on those guys? (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: Still working through it. You know you don’t get much injury information from me.

We’ll see. They’re progressing well. We’ll see what happens.

Q. CB Avonte Maddox, how much does it mean to have him back? (Ed Kracz)

NICK SIRIANNI: Obviously he’s a big-time slot [cornerback] in this league. When he’s ready to go, we’re going to be excited to get him back out there.

[CB] Josiah [Scott] has done a nice job filling in for him, made some nice plays. We’re hopeful for [CB] Avonte [Maddox] this week. But we’ll see how it goes. Today is a walk-through. Tomorrow will be a big test.

I’m just happy that we got him back out there practicing right now and we’ll take it one day at a time.

Q. You haven’t allowed yourself to peek ahead to Super Bowl. You do have guys in the locker room that have won it, you brought in a couple guys who have won it, and you have a couple assistants maybe that have won it. How important is that? Do you ever ask those questions of what it’s like to play that far ahead or to have the type of culture in the building? (Jeff McLane)

NICK SIRIANNI: Not even a little bit am I thinking about that. Just really all I’m thinking about is this next game, really how we get locked in to play this good football team that we’re going to go out there and play.

Now, last year when we got into the playoffs, I remember saying something like, hey, we’ve got some guys that have some really good experience here, with the guys that have won Super Bowls on this team, the guys that played in NFC or AFC championships, the guys that have played in national championship games. I remember saying that before we played Tampa last year.

When that time comes, maybe I’ll think through that. Every game’s a big game. To have guys that are sitting in these seats out here that have played in big games, that’s huge, right?

This is a division. We know how awesome the division rivalries are here with New York and Dallas and Washington. Just happy to be part of that. I’m glad we have guys in this building that know what it’s like to be in big division rivalry games because that’s the next one.

We know we have a really good team we’re about to play this week. We’re going to have to be on it to go out there and get a victory.

Q. How do CB James Bradberry and CB Darius Slay complement each other at cornerback? (Martin Frank)

NICK SIRIANNI: The complement is that, hey, we’re going to attack this guy. Well, you can’t. We’re going to attack this guy. If you think we’re going to attack the guy that’s the weak link, we don’t have a weak link. Those guys are playing strong football, and they are both really good players.

[CB] James [Bradberry] was our player of the week this past week, against Tennessee had a great game. They complement each other well because there’s not one side you can go and pick on.

James has just been awesome. [CB Darius] Slay has been awesome. Not only taking the ball away, but denying the football, right? They’re both intelligent players, both highly skilled players.

That’s one of the first things you think about on offense, what corner can I go at? What defensive end do I have to protect against? You think about those things. I’m just glad we’re deep at those positions. They really complement each other well in that manner.

Q. QB Jalen Hurts won player of the week second week in a row. He’s done it in such divergent ways. You have been around a lot of good quarterbacks. Have you ever been as versatile as far as your offense? (John McMullen)

NICK SIRIANNI: He’s had two really good games in a row. Like you said, it’s been really different of how he’s done that, right?

Man, I don’t think so. I know [former Chargers and Colts QB] Philip [Rivers] wasn’t running for all those yards like that. You talk about the good quarterbacks I’ve been around. Philip was more of a pocket passer. [Former Colts QB] Andrew [Luck] was a little bit more of a pocket passer, but had the ability to move and get out of things. But those were two more pocket passers.

Again, Andrew could do some of those things. But [QB] Jalen [Hurts] is so dynamic as far as both the things he’s doing, right? You guys would know the stats better than I would, how many guys have actually thrown for that many yards after a game where they ran for that many yards? Setting a team record in rushing yards, then coming out and doing that.

It’s pretty special. Obviously, you love that as a coach, to be able to work it both ways because you saw the effect it had on the defense. Without getting too much into it, there was a major effect.

The way he ran the week before had a major effect on how the Titans played us. A major, major effect. Now the teams are going to have to look at that as well, how the Titans played us, how we played against them.

It really helps you as a coach. It helps the entire team, obviously, when he’s doing the things he’s doing like that.

Q. There was a report linking you guys to WR Odell Beckham Jr.. Want to see if anything is there? (Tim McManus)

NICK SIRIANNI: Really happy with the room that we have. One of the best wideout rooms, yeah, the best wideout room I’ve ever been a part of in the NFL. We’ve had some good ones. This is the best one we’ve had.

I love what obviously [WR] A.J. [Brown], everybody knows what A.J. and [WR] DeVonta [Smith] are doing, right? Then you have [WR] Quez [Watkins] who is continuing to come on and continuing to make plays, continuing to be that big speed receiver that we need.

Then you have [WR] Zach Pascal, who is very critical to a team, the type of play he brings. Your fourth has to be a special teams contributor, which Zach is. He has to be willing to do the dirty work and be able to back up every single position, which he does. And have a specialty role, which he does, too, have that.

Your fifth guy better play special teams. Our fifth guy is our returner who had his best game as a professional last week.

So, yeah, I’m really excited about that room. I’ll leave it at that.

Q. At this time last year, you spoke about having the team peak late in the year. When you’re 11-1, is there another gear to hit? (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, of course, we think you always have room to get better and get better and get better and get better. That’s why we’re trying like crazy to stay in the moment, how we get better today to put ourselves in 1-0 this week.

You always can get your detail better. You always can do something a little bit better. So that’s what we’re on them about. Hey, these things that we’re doing are really well, but we’ve got to clean up these things.

That’s the constant thing you’re trying to do as a coach and as a player, is just improve, improve, improve, improve, improve. When you live by that every day, then hopefully you do this the entire year until you’re not practicing any more, right?

It’s just the way we go about business here. So, there’s nobody that’s content with anything because we haven’t done anything yet. Our job is to get ready and go win this game this week and forget about what’s happened in the past. We’re going out there to play a good opponent this week, and how do we win that game.

Q. DT Fletcher Cox has had a sack in each of the last two games. He alluded to having a nagging injury he was fighting through. Are we seeing now a healthy Fletcher Cox? How much of an impact has DT Ndamukong Suh and DT Linval Joseph made in terms of reducing his snaps a little bit more? (Ed Kracz)

NICK SIRIANNI: You want to be as fresh as you can in those positions and keep a wave of guys coming at them. As you know, we’re really deep at that position. That’s huge, right?

You’ve seen how good our defense has played these last couple weeks, really throughout the whole season. The body of work of the entire season has been really good.

[DT Fletcher] Fletch [Cox] making plays obviously, in this city, that’s what he does. He just makes plays. When the defense is going because Fletch is doing what he’s doing, that’s a really good thing. I feel like that’s the last couple games has been like, hey, the play making has been running through him. That’s what you want out of your captain on the team. It’s running through him, he’s making plays, everybody is feeding off of that. He’s a dominant football player. He’s been a dominant football player in this league for a long time.

Everything on D-line can’t always be judged on stats. I know that we do that at times, that’s just the way it is. But he changes the game. I would say when we’re showing the tape today, out of the 10 plays I showed of just the defense to the team, three of the good ones were impacted because of what Fletch did. Maybe he didn’t make the play, but what he did by knocking back the guard, or knocking back the end, or knocking back the tackle or the tight end.

I just think he’s continuing to play good football. He’s just been playing good football. Now he’s getting some stats to go along with it.

A really smart play by him, I think what you saw on the sack, first of all you saw the extreme hustle he plays with. Every time we put up our all-hustle team for the week, Fletch is on it, which is saying a lot about the man’s character, the way he goes about his business.

If you look at that play where he had the sack on [Titans QB Ryan] Tannehill, he not only gets out of the stack and runs down a very mobile quarterback, but then he wraps him up for a three- or four-yard loss on a third down. Where guys have this tendency to carry that body weight into him on the sideline, Fletch has the ability to say, I got the sack, I’m going to pull myself – that’s really hard, what he did – pull myself off of Tannehill. The sack is already done, I don’t get a late hit, we get the ball back.

Since I’ve been here, I’ve seen him do that over and over again. Through different ways, right? Not always is it on the stat sheet, but it’s always felt. I love that he’s on this team. I love that he’s one of our captains. Yeah, he’s playing good football.

Q. You have an all-hustle team? (Dave Zangaro)

NICK SIRIANNI: It’s not exactly labeled that. It’s called something a little bit different. But it just shows who’s going out there and ripping it on defense. [Defensive Coordinator Jonathan] Gannon and the defensive staff put it together. It’s something we’ve done for a long time. We did it in Indianapolis, as well.

It’s just like, hey, who is getting to the football essentially on backsides, all different things. It’s not called ‘the all-hustle team’. I thought that was the easiest way to say it to you guys.

Q. The Giants are having a pretty successful season here, especially their head coach, Brian Daboll. You have been in his shoes recently. How impressive is that coach to coach that he’s been able to turn things around his first season? (Breland Moore)

NICK SIRIANNI: No surprise. I think you guys know this, [Giants Head Coach] Brian [Daboll] is one of my biggest mentors as far as what he taught me. I wish I had more time with Brian than just the year that we had.

When you go 2-14, and one of your biggest mentors is one of the guys on the staff from that 2-14 team, you know he’s teaching me a lot in that sense [smiling].

A lot of my development as a coach came from him, so no surprise the Giants are playing the way they are because I know how good of a coach Brian Daboll is.

I don’t know if he was picking between Miami or the Giants. I knew there was that talk, that he could go to Miami or the Giants. I wanted him to go over there to Miami because I just know how good of a coach he is. He’s phenomenal.

He’s done a great job. He’s done a great job. His team plays sound. They win tight games. They don’t screw it up. He has those guys playing well. They got good players over there.

Him and [Giants Defensive Coordinator] Coach [Don] Martindale, I think that they’re really good coaches and they’ve got them playing sound football. So, I’m not surprised.