Nick Sirianni

Q. After kind of reviewing everything that went into last week in joint practices, is there something you want to get out of this next week of joint practices that maybe you didn’t get to do or accomplish this past week? (Mike Kaye)

NICK SIRIANNI: I actually felt really good about the schedule and the organization of joint practices. So much so, that we’re using a very similar format against the Jets this week. Just got off the phone, not too – before practice with [Jets Head Coach] Coach [Robert] Saleh and we worked some things out.

So, again, I really liked what we got out of that work against the Patriots and looking to duplicate that this week.

Q. We obviously saw QB Jalen Hurts out there today. What have the last few days been like for him? (Dave Zangaro)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, just resting his body, as you would with any illness, and getting himself back. He went through walk-through yesterday. Recovering his body, and obviously he was out there and slinging it around today at practice.

Q. After watching the tape of the game on Thursday night, who stood out in a good way that maybe you didn’t notice during the game? (Bo Wulf)

NICK SIRIANNI: You know, I think really, we didn’t play well, as we all know, right? We didn’t block well enough. We didn’t tackle well enough. We didn’t get off blocks well enough. We didn’t catch well enough. We didn’t teach our fundamentals well enough as coaches.

So, it wasn’t pretty, as we all saw. But through that, you still do see some performances that you like, and there was definitely that. In particular, I think a couple of the linebackers played well and I thought a couple of the tight ends played well.

Q. With Jalen Hurts not able to go in the preseason game on Thursday, has it changed your calculus at all about the upcoming preseason game as it applies to playing him and a couple of the other starters? (Tim McManus)

NICK SIRIANNI: Again, that’s going to be something we evaluate every day. We’re going to get two – we had a great practice today, a very high-energy, competitive practice today in our indoor facility that we just got out of.

Then, obviously, tomorrow is a travel day – a walk-through day and travel day for us. Then we’re going to get two really good practices against the Jets. So, that’s something we’re going to continue to evaluate.

Again, like I said for the past couple games, I’d hate to give you an answer and then it not play out, so that’s something that is under constant evaluation. We are going to see how the work goes against the Jets and make a decision after that.

Q. Three weeks from today you’re going to open your season, and a lot of the young guys talk about the details with which you teach them, not only on the field, but in the meeting rooms, stuff like that. Are the young guys and Jalen Hurts with the offense where you want them to be at this point in the preseason heading into the last three weeks getting ready? (John Clark)

NICK SIRIANNI: I think you’re always going to be like – you know, especially when you’re not ready to – you’re not playing tomorrow, right, or playing today? You’re always going to be like, ‘Hey, we got more work to do, we got more work to do, we got more work to do.’ And I think that’s – anybody that’s in a growth mindset is going to think that way.

So – and that’s what we are. We want to get better every day and our success is not on, ‘Hey, did we win this practice here?’ ‘Did we get better today?’ is really our mindset. So, we look at it as we have three more weeks to get ready for that first game.

Are we where we want to be right now? No, because we have three more weeks to go until we get there, and we’re anticipating ourselves getting better every single day. That’s been the players’ motto and my motto is like, ‘Hey, your rent is due.’ I know Jalen said, ‘Your rent is due every day,’ and when you pay your rent every day, you get better every day.

Q. Not trying to read too much into results but you speak a lot about situations and third downs in both these preseason games have been a problem. Defense hasn’t done much stopping them and you haven’t converted them. Is that a matter of game planning, that when you have plays installed it’s different, or is that an area you think you need to I guess fix right now? (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: Both answers, yes, right? You know – getting the game plan, when we get into game planning a little bit more for the season games, then, yes, we’ll get our guys in better positions, attacking the coverages that we want to attack. Same thing on the defense, attacking the protection schemes the way we want to protect them and matching up their route concepts.

But, we also know we’re not good at it right now. We’re going out there with our base calls against probably the team that we’re playing’s base calls, right? So, our base calls without game planning so much and their base calls without game planning so much, we’re not winning. That’s as simple as that.

So, we have made an emphasis – you know, I think you guys saw when we were out at practice today the third down jamboree, and we’ve actually done that after both games, and we started that – before that game, too – that we’re just trying to put extra emphasis on it.

So, yeah, it’s not where we want to be, and so, again, yeah, the emphasis is on it during practice like it was today.

Q. Is there kind of a silver lining — you never want to lose your quarterback before a game and you’re not game planning. As you said, it was all base offense versus base defense, but is it a teachable moment to say guys got to be ready, anything can happen? Did you kind of use that? (John McMullen)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, of course. Yeah, everybody has to be — if you’re a backup player, if you’re a second team player, you’re one snap away from going in the game and one snap away from playing meaningful snaps.

That’s definitely something we talk about. To be a good football team it takes all 53, and it takes even more than that, right? So, it takes the guys on the practice squad too, because at some point, it’s a long year, those guys might have to play as well.

So, 100% you preach that, that everyone has to be ready. Even if you are just on the practice squad, right away you have to be ready to prepare the first teams and the second units.

So, yeah, definitely that was a good moment for us to be able to at least understand that and see that. Again, my message to them on everything is that what the preseason does is prepare you. There is all these little things that prepare you for the season. There are all these things that pop up in the season that pop up here.

You don’t play good enough, you have to bounce back and play good the next day. Shoot you play good, like we talked about, you have a good practice one day, you have to bounce back and play good the next day. So that’s just one of the many lessons that come from training camp and preseason games.

Q. Kind of along those lines, a lot of your young guys, because you held out your defensive line and some guys on the offensive line, got to go against the Patriots starters and everything, what’s kind of the message to them? Obviously, they kind of had some rough moments. What do you tell them? (Martin Frank)

NICK SIRIANNI: The message is that you just create every play, regardless of who they’re playing against. You grade every play with attempts to get better from that play. If they did their job well, you praise them for it and let them know why they did it well. If they didn’t do their job well, you let them know about it and tell them why they didn’t.

That’s just a form of accountability that we hold our players and hold our coaches to as well. Every play and every game will be graded and graded hard. Really, the ultimate point of accountability is that we see it, we correct it or praise it, and we get better from it.

Q. How much more emphasis or value do you put on what you’re seeing out of guys in the joint practices when it comes down to roster decisions and competition and battles than you do out of what you see in the preseason games? (Rob Maaddi)

NICK SIRIANNI: I think it’s just another tool, right? I think that all of them are being — everything, even the practices that aren’t joint practices are being evaluated. Meetings and how guys are working in meetings and thinking in meetings and in walk-throughs, it’s all just a tool.

Some are weighted different than others, sure. Like I am saying the practices and the preseason games and the joint practices are weighed a little heavier than a walk through — a lot heavier than that.

But it’s just another tool, and it’s a good tool to have because the intensity — we think we practice pretty hard when we are out there. Regardless of the time we’re out there, we’re getting after it when we’re out there. It’s just another tool to have to evaluate guys.

We just think it’s more game like than a practice that would be between the Eagles and Eagles.

Q. I wanted to ask you, how much collaboration or input does the front office have in determining who or who doesn’t play in the preseason? And then conversely, how much input will you and your staff have next weekend when it comes time to putting this roster together? (Ed Kracz)

NICK SIRIANNI: Everything is a group effort, from — especially when we talk about who is going to make the roster. We all talk through everything, and that’s the same thing, we talk through everything together. What we want to see, who we want to see play, because we all have to help make that decision.

Both of those things are no different. We talk through everything, whether it’s the draft, whether it’s, you know, practicing, and talking through all that stuff, but it’s a group decision in everything that we do.

Q. A few weeks ago you and Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon mentioned the emphasis on playing physical, emphasizing turnovers, punching the ball out in practices. We’ve obviously seen some of that. We saw that today. But how receptive do you think the defensive unit has been? And I also wanted to get your opinion on, as a defensive back specifically, how you weigh the chance of wanting to emphasis turnovers, while also staying grounded and sticking to your assignments and responsibility? (Josh Tolentino)

NICK SIRIANNI: Sure. Yeah, and I think what you’re seeing, I think Jonathan said to the defense yesterday, ‘We need more strip attempts.’ It is a fine line of what you’re saying, being fundamentally sound with keeping what Jonathan is going to say and his defensive staff is going to say, ‘Keeping the cup,’ right, and keeping them inside the cup while also getting a strip attempt. One, it comes to keeping the cup first and then get a strip attempt after you’ve kept the cup.

So exactly what you’re saying. It’s exactly what you’re saying. If you just stress just taking the ball away or just punching at the ball you could take yourself out of position, but the first thing to stress is keeping the cup and then it’s the strip attempt.

So, we need to continue to get those strip attempts. We didn’t get quite as much as we wanted the other day. But what you are seeing is that we are getting one or two a game. I thought there were two out the other day. One was judged out, the other one wasn’t. Then there was two out the week before, I believe two out the week before; whereas — so that’s great.

You get two out, you got a chance to get those. On the other side, and I’m not saying this is going to be perfect throughout the year, but what you’re seeing is the way the defense is with our offense, like, yes, we have some interceptions, but the ball security, the fundamentals of ball security — and we had the snap that went over our head — but the fundamentals of ball security is paying off on the offense, because we haven’t got one out there yet.

That’s what our goal is, is that you get some out there for the defense and you don’t get them out for the offense, and that’s the habits that we create as we practice.