Nick Sirianni

Q. When a player of T Lane Johnson’s caliber misses a little time, is there a learning curve even for a veteran like him, or do you feel comfortable with that? (Rob Kuestner)

Nick Sirianni: Lane can pick things up very fast and [is a] phenomenal football player. I’m not concerned there. You get to see a little portion of each day out at practice, but there’s 12 more hours of the day where they’re in walkthroughs, they’re in meetings, and things like that. There’s so much more going on than the things you guys get to see here. They’re working hard in the classroom, they’re working hard in the walkthroughs, and obviously [are] coming out here and able to put it all together during practice.

Q. You got an extended look at T Markel Bell while T Lane Johnson wasn’t here. What did you like and what did he need to work on? (Dave Zangaro)

Nick Sirianni: Early on in camp, [T] Fred [Johnson] and Markel did a nice job, and I think that [Offensive Line] Coach [Chris] Kuper’s doing a nice job of bringing these guys along. What you see with Markel is just his length and how big he is and how hard he is to get around in the pass rush. Just working on getting on the same page with the combination blocks. There are so many things that go on there with the offensive line of having to work in tandem. It’s the greatest team sport there is. Those guys [are] having to work in tandem when they’re trying to block really good defensive linemen. I’ve seen progression there and that’s what you want with all your players.

Q. In the small sample size that we’ve seen of the offense so far and Offensive Coordinator Sean Mannion being able to do things like incorporate more motion, et cetera. What’s the next step forward that you want to see out of these guys as we continue camp? (Krystle Rich)

Nick Sirianni: We’re not looking at things as in benchmark things. We’re just looking to get better with our detail every time we step out here. Get better with our togetherness, get better with our toughness. When you’re going over your base offense, you’re really looking to perfect the detail. The progression, you want it to go like this, but it’s going to feel a little bit like it’s going all over the place. Inevitably, you’re going to go up a little bit, you’re going to come back, you’re going to go up a little bit, you’re going to come back and go up a little bit.

As long as we’re on that, that’s what I’m looking for as far as, if you want to say benchmarks, is just, ‘Hey, are we getting better at the things that we really emphasize on a daily basis?’ Whether that’s defensively tackling, whether it’s taking the football away and opportunities to punch at the football, offensively being on the same page, not having mental errors and that getting better every day, pre-snap penalties, all those different things.

Q. The pre-snap penalties, what’s been the issue with that so far? (Zach Berman)

Nick Sirianni: We’re really stressing them, and we’re trying to make it as hard as we possibly can for them at practice. You hear the crowd noise, that it’s very loud, and it’s going to be really loud at a lot of the stadiums that we play this year. We’re trying to put a lot of pressure on them now and do some of the things now of working some of the noise, so we make it easier for them as the games come up. We want to bat 1,000% when it comes to pre-snap penalties. Anytime we have a pre-snap penalty, we’re upset about it because we think that’s something that requires no talent, something that we can control.

What I’ve appreciated with the offense and the offensive staff is [that] they’re out here a little bit earlier doing quarterback-center exchange and the things that they’re doing to improve it, because that’s all you’re worried about right now is how do you continue to get it better? We’ll correct it in meeting rooms, but what’s the plan moving forward to get it better? We’re on a good progression there, but we’ve got to go out there and do it today, the next day, and so forth.

Q. When it comes to contested balls for receivers, what do you look at in your group? (Jeff McLane)

Nick Sirianni: Obviously in the NFL, the contested catch rate goes way up. I mean, there are DBs — Speaking from college to pros, I think that’s one of the toughest things for a young receiver to get accustomed to, that everything’s a bang-bang now. We work extremely hard on that portion of the game. My philosophy is that if you think that you’re going to go out and get a contested ball and catch it without doing any of the drill work that [is required] to get it, that’s going to be really hard. Obviously, you can’t simulate the full contact portion of it in practice, but if you look and watch some of our guys, you’ll see towels around their arms and being pulled. You’ll see guys with sticks hitting them. You’ll see that in routes versus air. You’ll see that in individual work. You’ll see that in their post-practice and pre-practice work because I think that’s really critical to be able to do. Especially with the DBs that we have, there’s so many bang-bang plays.

I think [WR] Darius Cooper had a really nice one the other day. [CB] Tariq Castro-Fields made a really good break on the ball and he caught a contested catch. Tay [WR Dontayvion] Wicks has been making really nice contested catches. If you look at [WR] Makai Lemon’s college tape and what we’ve been able to see so far, he has an ability to make the contested catch. We’ve all seen Smitty [WR DeVonta Smith] make plenty of contested catches and turn his body, twist and turn, turn his body to make these great catches. That’s something that you’ve got to work extremely [hard] and be very diligent on because it’s not something that comes naturally, and I think our guys have been doing that.

Q. WR Makai Lemon’s missed mini-camp and a portion of training camp. Do you have to adjust your early season expectations for him? (Tim McManus)

Nick Sirianni: It’s just, right now, how do we get him healthy? How do we get him as healthy as we can and get him back rolling? He’s doing the things in the meeting rooms. He’s watching the walkthrough portions of it and being diligent there. This isn’t new. This happens, right? You’ve got guys that are out for some time, or an extended period of time, or a short period of time, and they’ve got to make sure that they’re doing the right things. Us as coaches, getting that extra meeting time with them as well when they miss some of the time on the field. Excited about him, and we’ll continue to work like crazy to get him back.

Q. In the Spring, you mentioned increasing the call-it periods. Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio had mentioned that yesterday, or a couple days ago, as well. How do you think Offensive Coordinator Sean Mannion is progressing with that, and have you amped up those types of periods? (John McMullen)

Nick Sirianni: He’s doing a nice job, and we’re able to talk through different things. My job’s not only to coach the players, it’s to coach the coaches as well. There’s always these moments of being able to get on the same page as far as game management stuff or communication things within drives. We’ll continue to work on that. He’s done a really nice job so far, but the coaches are just like the players. We have to have this continuous curve of getting better. I think that’s where we are on the track. I’ve told you guys; he’s a relentless worker. You love that about him with a great knowledge of the offense and the expertise over the offense with every single position. Now, he’s just getting on the same page with some of those things and getting the practice reps here just like the players are.

Q. How much of an opportunity is it for some of the receivers who usually would not get a bunch of first team reps? I mean, how valuable is that for guys? (Martin Frank)

Nick Sirianni: I really like this receiver room. It’s a very deep room, and it’s good to be able to get some reps with [WR] Marquis [Hollywood] Brown, [WR] Elijah Moore, [WR] Darius Cooper, [WR] Johnny Wilson and all those guys, [WR] Quez [Watkins], to be working now in with the first team. It’s going to be important. It’s a long season and it’s not just important that your starting 11 have good chemistry. You’ve got to have chemistry with the entire group. You take advantage of those opportunities, and I think that’s what’s going on right now.

Q. Nick, do you expect T Lane Johnson to miss any more time in the future? (Brooks Kubena)

Nick Sirianni: He’ll be back out there today and excited to have him.

Q. [Regarding blocking responsibilities for TE Eli Stowers.] (Jeff McLane)

Nick Sirianni: Just working every day with him, and there’s things in the offense that are natural to him, things that he’s done, then there’s things, like any rookie, there’s going to be a learning curve for and getting used to doing different things and getting the coaching points of the fundamentals of how to go about doing those things. I really like his progression. It’s really easy to see his movement skills, his feel in the pass game. Just like we talked about with how different it is for a receiver to come out of college and the contested catches, I think that’s the same thing with these tight ends, going from college to the NFL, the guys that they have to block. We have a great EDGE group, a really deep EDGE group.

I know we’ve talked a lot about the receivers. I don’t know if I’ve had a big opportunity to talk about our EDGE group and how excited I am about that group. They get to go against some of the best in the world at that with the physicality of pads. There are differences between college and pro, but I like his progression of what he’s doing and how he’s working at the parts of his game that maybe he hasn’t had to sharpen as much, and how he continues to refine the things in his game that he has done a really nice job of.

Q. We don’t see Offensive Coordinator Sean Mannion in team meetings, but we do see him out here. He’s very hands-on in terms of when quarterbacks are running through, he’s behaving like an edge rusher. What have you seen in his style? (Rob Kuestner)

Nick Sirianni: He’s not only an expert — and this is what you want out of any offensive coordinator. He’s not only an expert at the position he played and the positions he’s coached. He’s an expert at every single spot. That’s so critical for the offense coordinator to be able to be because, just like I have to set the direction of the culture and make sure the job description’s extremely clear, he’s got to do the same thing for the offense. He’s got to be able to watch it and say what he’s expecting and what he’s requiring and making sure he explains that before he goes out. You’re seeing that not only with the quarterbacks, with him being the edge rusher to give those guys some extra fundamental work as they rip up through the pocket, but I see that with every position. One of the reasons why we hired Sean is just his conviction and his attention to detail of not only the skill positions, but every position on that field.