Nick Sirianni

Q. You talk a lot about the operation over at Lincoln Financial field with the new coordinators. How did that work out from your perspective? (John McMullen)

NICK SIRIANNI: The more we can get over there and do things like that and even simulate that over here at practice, which we will, is good for us. We’re going to be able to do that again Thursday.

But that is always such a good operation to be able to go through. [Offensive Coordinator] Kellen [Moore] calling the personnel, the coaches reacting to it, [Defensive Coordinator] Vic [Fangio] being upstairs as the defense goes. You know, just the communication between Kellen and I of, ‘Hey, here is what I’m thinking on fourth down,’ you know, as far as us going for it.

‘Hey, how does that look on third down,’ and just being in that — clicking over and say, ‘Hey, [Special Teams Coordinator] Coach [Michael] Clay, here is what I’m thinking on fourth down.’

So, you can’t get enough of that, that type of practice for us. I’m not even to the players yet. That kind of practice for us is what we do during the game, right?

And so, for the coaches it’s outstanding. For the players it’s outstanding, too, because they’re in the flow of a game where it’s call it periods. Sometimes you know what play is about to be called because some plays in practice are scripted. Here they don’t. They have to react to the situation, the play call, the personnel call. So that’s so beneficial for us.

Then just being able to get our new guys out there that haven’t played here in Philly to be able to see our fans and how passionate they are and how many people showed up to for our practice. That’s outstanding and gets everybody fired up. It’s like, ‘Hey, this is when home field advantage feels like in Philadelphia.’

Q. What have you seen out of RB Will Shipley now that he’s got the pads on? (Jeff McLane)

NICK SIRIANNI: You know, Will, we thought very highly of Will coming out and the things he could do. He obviously had a really outstanding spring. He’s started off really good as far as the fall camp.

As the pads come on, we’ll keep getting more and more information as that goes. He plays big, I think. When you look at him, he’s built, right? His lower body is really built.

I keep saying it to our coaches, like there are things about him that remind me of [former NFL RB] Danny Woodhead, just the style of his body. Danny was a little shorter, but I think just the way they’re kind of built reminds me of each other, and some of the things that they do.

I look forward to him continuing to progress. We’re really excited about him. His running back group is excited about him and excited for him to get some good reps in the game coming up and this week’s practice.

Q. Now that you have seen T Mekhi Becton for a few days at right guard, what are your impressions of him there and what does he have to do to earn a starting spot? (Dave Zangaro)

NICK SIRIANNI: Consistency is a big thing we want. I thought he had a good scrimmage– that we went through it like a game. Gave grades like a game, gave plays — the plays they had grades, everything like that. We thought he played really well.

And so, I like the things he can do, but we’re so early in this. We’ve only had the pads on what, three days, two days? We’ve got a lot of football left to play. I don’t want to say, ‘Hey, he’s got to do this to earn this.’ He’s in a competition for his job.

Excited about the possibilities that we have there with the other pieces that we have there.

Q. Any concerns about the defense? Seemed like the offense on Thursday night just kind of marched straight down the field… (Ed Kracz)

NICK SIRIANNI: That’s how camp goes. Camp is back and forth. My experience with practice is it’s never as good as you think and it’s never as bad as you think. Like, offense had a really good day; it’s never as good as you think. There were mistakes that were made. Defense had a really good day. Never as good as you think. Vice versa for both sides.

So, we’re not tackling out there. There are plays out there that I’m like, ‘Well, that was a tackle.’ I know the crowd went crazy and maybe I don’t know how Eliot [Shorr-Parks] counted it as your stats – [to Shorr-Parks] you’re doing a great job with that by the way.

I don’t know how that plays itself out. There are arm tackles they get through. They’re not tackling the quarterback, so the rush is different at times. You can’t get caught up on, ‘Hey, this is what this looks like.’ You just got to fix the mistakes that happen.

Again, like I said, it’s never as good and never as bad as you think. I thought there were some good back and forth in that scrimmage that we had. Again, when the quarterback is not live, not pushing up in the pocket, when the defensive tackles aren’t thrown to the side and getting a tackle on, there are plays on the offense that appear that they’re probably bigger than what they are.

Now, do we have things to clean up on both sides of ball on defense? Yeah, but that’s on both sides of the ball.

Q. You create situations on the field during practice for your team. Maybe Thursday night, did you create situations for your coaches through your communication, or any other day? (Brooks Kubena)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, of course. We do that all the time. We really look at our situational football and our situational awareness as an advantage. We look at it that we spend a lot of the time on that, and we know when they come up in the season and when they come up during practice, we’re ready for it.

It’s our preparation for it. I want these guys to feel confident. I wish you guys could sit in a meeting during that aspect where I’m up there in front of the team and asking them questions. ‘Hey, what are we doing here in this situation,’ and how quick and fast these guys are answering the questions as if they’re in the game.

And so, we look at those things as a positive for us because of how much time we spend on it. So, it’s a good opportunity for coaches. Here is the thing on a situation: Coaches have to identify what situation we’re in. Here is the situation we’re in. Then we have to call the play accordingly. And then the players have to react to execute that play but also execute the things within a situation.

And that’s what we’re doing. We spend so much time — every meeting, there is a portion of every meeting devoted to that, a portion of every practice devoted to that, and there’s a portion of every walk-through devoted to that.

We spend a lot of time on that and take a lot of pride in it. We’re trying to be perfect in those aspects because we really believe that that’s an advantage for us.

Q. The clip of S C.J. Gardner-Johnson hitting the shot in the meeting, what’s the back story? Why C.J. in particular and how often do you do it? (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: I’ll tell you why Chauncey [C.J. Gardner-Johnson] in particular. We had an important meeting that day. They were all shooting beforehand. The guys are really connecting in that. Right before the team meeting there is a little bit of a break, and I noticed guys are in there hanging out. Guys are in there shooting. We have a PlayStation. When they have down time, they’re hanging out.

You can’t substitute connecting without spending time together. You got to spend time together. So, they’re in there and Chauncey hadn’t made a shot. He wasn’t even close. So, we really needed our meeting, and they were having a good time. Like you know what? Let’s put something on this.

‘Hey, team meeting is canceled if Chauncey makes this,’ and he drilled it. So, I don’t know if he hustled me. He may have been hustling me. But he hit the shot. Guys went crazy.

You can’t simulate — we made up the meeting the next day. They got a little bit of a break there, but we made up everything we needed to make up the next day.

But you can’t simulate those things. Those things are like, those are the building of the team. Like it’s all those little things, right? That little thing. The time they spend together in the meeting beforehand. The communication they have at practice. All those little things add up to build a football team, to bring guys together.

It’s not the best group of individuals that win. It’s not the best people on paper that win. It’s the best teams that win. And so, when you can kind of do stuff like that, it went in and I’m like, ‘Oh, my God. We needed to go over the stuff we went over in walk-through.’ Then I really thought about it and you could really see the guys coming together, them loving each other after that, and we made up the meeting anyway.

It was a hell of a shot by Chauncey. He hustled me.

Q. With team building, what have you seen from QB Jalen Hurts in his first few practices, this stretch of training camp as a leader? (Eliot Shorr-Parks)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, he’s done an outstanding job. He continues to lead through the way he works. He continues to lead through his communication with his teammates and bringing them along. He continues to lead by grabbing one of his teammates and making them better based off his play and the things he’s seeing.

He’s been awesome on the field with the things you can see and off the field with the things you can’t see. That’s just Jalen continuing to develop as a player in all aspects. Man, I’m excited for him to continue to grow as a player and be the best football player he can possibly be.

He’s had an outstanding start.

Q. How close is DB Cooper DeJean to getting back and how soon does he need to get back to really be part of the competition? (Bob Brookover)

NICK SIRIANNI: Obviously never going to put a timetable on these guys. He’s doing as much as he can to get back as quick as he can. I have utmost faith in our training staff and strength and conditioning staff that they’re doing everything they can do to get him back.

And Cooper’s attitude is he’ll do everything he can do to get back. Like I told you guys before, obviously him not being out there sets him back, right? Because he’s not getting these reps.

But what he can do is get those mental reps in the meeting, he can get those situational reps we talked about in the meeting. Football is so different. You walk-through in football more than any other sport. You walk-through more than you actually play.

So that’s just the facts of all levels of football, you walk-through, because every day you have a walk-through, not every day do you have a practice. So, he’s getting those, and our job as coaches is to challenge him in different looks that he’s not getting at speed so when he gets out there he’ll be ready.

But you get better at football by playing football. There is to doubt about that. He’s missing some opportunities out here, but he’s doing everything he can do.

At the end of the day, we can only control what we can control, and I think he’s doing a nice job of that.

Q. S C.J. Gardner-Johnson, there was a thought when you guys resigned him that maybe the defense was missing some of his energy and toughness last year. In camp, how do you evaluate the toughness level of your defense? (Bo Wulf)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, we talk about that every day. Just the toughness comes in three areas we talk about it a lot. It comes in physical toughness which can be seen on field through the way we — just let’s just speak of defense — the way we tackle. The way we defeat blocks. Both at the linebacker level and at the safety level and at the defensive line level.

Then it can be seen through the mental toughness, and that’s just having the same attitude and effort and energy no matter what you feel like. We’re coming off a day off. How are we going to be today? It’s got to look the exact same because no one gives you, oh, you’re coming of a bye week. There are so many different scenarios like that. No matter what is going on in your life or anything, being the same guy every single day.

Then we talk about toughness and relentless effort and just hustling to the ball. We know if we hustle to the football and we have a motor to the football, you’re going to eliminate some big plays just by playing harder than other people.

And also, population of the football takes the football away. All our guys are working like crazy to do that. That’s on the team meeting every single day of the toughness, both offensively and defensively, and those three aspects that are shown, and I really like where we are right now with that.

Now, we’ve got to keep doing it. It’s two weeks in. Anyone can do it for two weeks. It’s being consistent with that toughness.

And Chauncey [C.J. Gardner-Johnson] just brings an element of toughness to this football team. He has relentless effort, right? He does do a great job of tackling and defeating blocks.

I think back to the last tackle really I’ve seen him make for the Philadelphia Eagles is that hit he had in the Super Bowl that was, ‘Man, I can’t believe that guy hung onto that football on that one.’ It was a great play by both guys.

But he brings that, right? He brings the knocking the guy out of bounds through the white to the other side that I’ve seen so many times from him.

And then he plays his butt off and plays hard. I love that we have him back. I don’t think it’s any secret I’m a huge fan of Chauncey and the things he brings to our football team because it represents a lot of things we want to be about here. He’s a great teammate and look forward to continuing to see him grow as a player.

Q. In the past you’ve picked out videos to show the team to help drive teaching points home. Is that something you’re still doing? If so, what kind of videos? (E.J. Smith)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, you always do stuff like that. I think we’re getting a lot of videos from our practice, right? This is what it’s supposed to look like. I don’t think there is any better coaching point — we can talk until we’re blue in the face, but coaching points are made in that film room, on the field, but they’re really in the film room showing them exactly what the standard is supposed to look like, what it can’t look like, and then constantly coming back to that.

It’s really never personal. It’s always “here is what met the standard and here is what didn’t meet the standard.” We’ll show videos all the time, but those are the main ones on my mind right now that are happening.

Then Bo, your question, another new addition to our team that I think brings an element of toughness with the way he plays with his motor, with the way he strikes blocks is [LB] Zach Baun. It shows not only on the defensive side, but it also shows during special teams.

Like this guy is a tough, tough dude that plays with great detail and great passion for this game with physicality.

Q. With S Sydney Brown, do you expect him back at some point in the pre-season? (Brooks Kubena)

NICK SIRIANNI: We’ll see. Again, never going to do a timetable on anyone. It’s not fair for me to say that to you guys and then there is a setback or advancement. It’s not fair to those guys either.

We’ll see. I know, again, he’s working his butt off. Nobody works in that training room harder than him and he’s really working hard because he loves this game, loves his teammates, and wants to be out on that field.