Nick Sirianni

Q. How has QB Jalen Hurts improved as a practice player since Training Camp? (Reuben Frank)

Nick Sirianni: Jalen is a guy that continues to improve. I think that’s just how he’s built. It’s in his DNA to get better and to use the good things that he does and get better from them and use the bad things, any mistake that he has to get better. That’s what I always admire about him. I think he just improves in every way. That’s a great thing for your leader to have because that’s all your goal is, is just to continue to get better, particularly through a season. I think he just does a great job. I think he’s continuing to do a good job of going through his progressions and getting to the right guy with the football and getting to his third, fourth reads. As you see, the ball doesn’t hit the ground very often in practice and that’s the way you want to see it.

Q. Talking to the players the last few days, it’s clear the message of focusing on next year has gotten through. When you were deciding on that message, why did you decide to look forward instead of saying, ‘You know what? We’re going to defend our title. We are the defending Super Bowl Champions.’ Was it about going forward? (Eliot Shorr-Parks)

Nick Sirianni: I think nothing that you did in the past– now you can look back at your past experiences and learn from them, but this isn’t boxing where it’s like you’re the champ until someone takes your belt away. No, this is football. Everyone starts off 0-0. I think two mistakes that you could make is resting on your laurels or looking too far ahead, right? Thinking too much about the past or looking too far ahead. I mean, that’s been our mindset since day one. [It’s] been to be where your feet are. Be focused on that because nothing that we did is going to influence anything that we want to do in the future.

So, it is about the daily work regardless of if you’re coming off of a 9-8 season, a 14-3 season, or an 11-6 season, it’s the work that you put in that is going to get you ready for the games here. So, we don’t– again, that’s just been our mindset. I don’t think anything’s changed. I don’t think that it’s, ‘Hey, I decided to do this this year with this message.’ No, this has been the consistent message all the way through and that’s just where our focus is.

Q. With the operation and how QB Jalen Hurts operates this offense, what’s been the mark of how you and Offensive Coordinator Kevin Patullo have kind of approached that with what you’re building here? (Brooks Kubena)

Nick Sirianni: Again, it’s about going to the right place with the ball. It’s about getting everybody on the same page, right? No different than a linebacker on the other side. It runs through, he touches the ball every time, playing with good fundamentals and again, everything starts with his communication to the rest of the team and then him touching the ball every time, every play.

It is critical that he takes care of it as a runner with the handoffs and then also as a passer. So, I think he’s doing a great job of getting to the right place with the football and really running the offense. We’re early through it, three days through it, but again, he is just going to continue to get better and better and better because that’s in his DNA

Q. DT Jalen Carter hasn’t been able to practice, what can you tell us about it? (Tim McManus)

Nick Sirianni: He’ll be out there today, so we’re not going to get too much into injuries or anything like that, but he’ll be out there today. Looking forward to having him out there today.

Q. S Andrew Mukuba doesn’t look like he’s practicing. What happened there? (Jeff McLane)

Nick Sirianni: [SVP, Communications] Bob [Lange] will get you all the injury stuff. Again, don’t have to do injuries right now. Not going to talk too much about that at this particular time. We’ll look forward to getting him back out there, but he was having a good start to camp. We’ll see when he gets back in there.

Q. Looks like G/T Tyler Steen has gotten all the reps at first team right guard. Is there a plan to maybe open up the competition a little more and play anyone else in there? (Ed Kracz)

Nick Sirianni: Everything’s a competition. We’re evaluating the twos and the threes. As of right now, it’s the same way we’re evaluating the ones, and we’ll see. Tyler’s done a nice job so far and has worked in there with the ones through OTAs and as training camp has started right here, but we’ve got a lot of good pieces there. We feel like there’s a good competition going on, and you guys don’t get to see all the walkthroughs and some of that stuff where you mix and match guys differently, but feel good about that competition. Tyler’s done a nice job so far.

Q. When there’s a young player like S Andrew Mukuba who misses some time now, what do you need to see from him when he’s not on the field? (Dave Zangaro)

Nick Sirianni: For us, we have to be very creative. Any player that misses practice reps, we have to be very creative in how we catch them up. When you’re in training camp, there’s a lot of time. Every minute of everyone’s day is accounted for, whether it’s rest and recovery for the players, whether it’s watching tape in that time where they’re resting and recovering and we’re watching tape, so we have to be creative with how we do some different things. We will look at walkthroughs as a big opportunity, extra meetings, extra focus there, extra walkthroughs with whoever we need to do that with.

It’s our job just to make sure that anybody who misses time, they recoup those reps somehow some way. And when they can’t do it physically, it’s got to be mentally in the film room and in walkthrough.

Q. How much does a hot day like today impact practice? (Dave Uram)

Nick Sirianni: It’s good for us. We’re always cautious of trying to keep the players safe in these conditions, so that’s where their preparation with their hydration and different things like that and their conditioning is going to come into play. But this is good for us to be able to practice in this heat. We’re going to play in this heat.

Everything that we want to do as a football team as far as how we play with physical toughness, mental toughness, relentless effort, great detail, together. It all starts with being in great shape. We’ve done some things– every day there’s a conditioning aspect to it. It just turns it up a little bit as the heat goes. And we will monitor as we go, but this is good for us to be able to play in conditions that we will play in early in September and in some hot states as the early season goes. So, we’ll use this as an opportunity.

All these different things you can look at. We always want to embrace adversity and have that mindset at all times because we know that in a season there’s going to be ups and downs, so we’ll use this as a benefit to help our team get in better shape. Again, like I said, it all starts with being in great shape. If we want to play the way we want to play, it starts first and foremost with being in great shape.

Q. We’ve seen some tweaks in practice. You’ve run that little bracket drill where the defenders underneath and over top. What’s behind that and what is it designed to do? (John McMullen)

Nick Sirianni: Yeah, good question. Actually, we were talking about contested catches. [WR] DeVonta Smith and I were talking about contested catches, and he brought up a drill that they used to do at Alabama and that was the drill. Some of our Alabama guys had some old tape of it. I was able to talk to a couple coaches that had done that. And so, it started as a contested catch drill that really is a good competitive drill to make an open field tackle.

Whether it’s on the sideline, whether it’s an angle tackle out in space, we want to do ordinary better than anybody else because those are the things that end up winning football games. I think a lot of people can get enthralled by, ‘Look at this, how this play’s drawn up and that play’s drawn up.’ That’s very important, but at the end of the day, whether it’s my son’s football team, it’s a high school team, whether it’s a college team, winning football happens with teams that tackle better, the teams that take care of the football better, the teams that block better, the teams that take the football way better, the teams that block destruct better.

We focus on doing the ordinary better. And so, we were pretty good in our missed tackles last year, but we wanted to take an even bigger step. I think that drill started off as a thought for contested catch, but also now it’s something that we know is going to help us become a better tackling team. Again, like I said, all those things are what lead to the spectacular plays that we love and see so much on it, but you can’t see– for instance, [RB] Saquon [Barkley] won the ESPY for best play last year. Well, if you watch that, Jalen gets to his fifth read, that’s an ordinary thing. The blocking up front, the double-team that’s happening on the nose, [T] Lane [Johnson] one-on-one blocking on the outside, all those things contribute to that. We understand we just want to do ordinary better and that’s always going to be what wins football games.

We also know that when you tackle as good as we did and take away the football as good as we did, that other teams are going to prepare for that. So, we better be even better at tackling. We better be even better at taking care of the football. We better be even better at taking the football away. So those are the designs of all those different drills that we try to do and try to get better at those things and not say, ‘Hey, we were a good tackling team, do everything the same.’ No, how do we get better at that? And if I want our team to continuously strive to get better, even when they’re on top like they were last year, then I better be doing the same thing as the coach. Your culture starts with your actions, and they’ve got to see me doing the same things.

Q. Do we get to see a decrease in the number of carries QB Jalen Hurts has per games as a runner? Is that sustainable? Jalen Hurts carries the last four years as a starter; he’s had pretty much the same number of carries per game. (Jeff McLane)

Nick Sirianni: Has been so far, and we’ll continue to do the things that we need to do to win the games because I’m sure– and I’m going to say the same thing to whoever asked me that question about Saquon. I mean, I feel like I’ve answered this question a lot. We’ll rest them Monday through Saturday. We’ll get ’em ready for the game, we’ll get ’em ready for practices, and then we’ll do what we need to do to win football games. But we’re always cautious of Jalen with the schemes that we run with him to try to keep him as safe as possible. Now, it’s still football and there’s still obviously a risk of injury at any time, but we’re always thinking first and foremost when he carries the football, how do we keep that scheme safe to keep him out of harm’s way?

Q. In LB Jihaad Campbell’s case, what dictates when and how often he’ll get first team snaps with LB Zack Baun? (Zach Berman)

Nick Sirianni: Yeah, open competition. We’ll see how it goes. We’re constantly evaluating everything. That tackling drill is an evaluation. The team reps, the individual, the walkthrough. We’ve got the guys working in there right now, but that’s fluid and that can always change. And yeah, we’ll see how that goes, but everything’s being evaluated at all times, and [Executive Vice President/General Manager] Howie [Roseman] and I talk every single day and I talk with the coaches every single day. On an off day, we’re having staff meetings like everybody else in the NFL to discuss our team. That’s the fun part about training camp.

Q. Is it LB Jihaad Campbell’s health right now or his understanding of the defense? (Zach Berman)

Nick Sirianni: No, it’s just where we are right now. Again, that’s fluid and that can change. And again, not ready– we have a long time before I have to say, ‘Hey, this is who’s the starter.’ We’ve got a lot of great battles going on that are constantly being evaluated.

Q. Is it important for you to find a backup center whose name is not G Landon Dickerson this camp? (Geoff Mosher)

Nick Sirianni: Yeah, I mean, Landon did a phenomenal job last year. He played as our center in the NFC Championship game, one of the biggest games, obviously, of our season just because it was the next one and that deep into the playoffs. Again, we always look for versatility for our offensive linemen. Can they do different things? Again, just looking for these guys to get better.

We don’t care who the backup is here, we just have to prepare. All those things will play out. We’ve got to do what’s best for the team and the best guys will play, whether it’s if we had something happen and Landon’s the center, well, we’ve got a lot of confidence in him. Now we’re trying to build that with other guys and we’ll see how that goes.