Nick Sirianni

Q. About LB Devin White, how did he take the news that he wasn’t going to be starting linebacker? (Ed Kracz)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, all my conversations with players that I have in private, I keep private. I know you guys can respect that.

But he’s been a great teammate and done everything that has been required of him, and I really have a lot of respect for him. We’re going to need him. We’re going to need him this year. It’s a long football season.

Obviously, [LB] Zack [Baun] and [LB] Nakobe [Dean] are our linebackers, but Devin is going to have to contribute this year if we want to go where we want to go, and that goes for all the guys that are one snap away from going in.

Q. You talked about the extra time you had, maybe now instead of being in offensive meetings so much, to look at two-minute offense, four-minute, all that stuff. What about the schedule? Week 1 you got the weird schedule, Week 2 it’s like a mini-bye, Week 3 you’ve got a short week. Have you delved into that? (John McMullen)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, we’ve been doing that for — being involved with [former Indianapolis Colts Head Coach] Frank [Reich] with the schedules there in Indy, I’ve been doing that stuff for the last six and a half years, right, just being able to — every schedule — there’s so many different scenarios that you have to play.

What do you do on a Monday night game? What’s the schedule? Then at the end of that, you debrief, and you say, ‘What could we have done better, what did you guys really like?’ And you talk that over with your coaches in staff meetings, you talk that over with your leadership council, and then you have individual conversations with players, as well.

After every one of these unique schedules, we talk about it, and that’s been going on here for the last four years.

We feel like — is our schedule and our process perfect? No, your process is never perfect. You’re constantly trying to get it better, get better, get better. Every year calls for a little bit different thing.

After all these things — fortunately we’ve played a lot of Monday Night Football games here, and so we’ve had a lot of discussions like this to help make sure that we’re putting ourselves in the best positions to win.

Then you do that with a short week, and then you do that with a Thursday night game, and then you do that with Christmas, all the things that require — now, Brazil was new. We didn’t have a real good plan for that, but it worked out.

You try to do that with everything, and that’s constantly on our mind. Our message this week has been — we’re talking about details, and that’s the details in how we play this game of football, like our fundamentals. And if we want our players to be detailed in everything that they do, we sure as hell better be detailed in everything that we do.

Q. What’s the reason for changing the time that you guys practice this year? (Bo Wulf)

NICK SIRIANNI: Just, again, going through our process the last couple years. Just because things have gone well — one of the worst things that I hate about — if a coach says this, ‘We’ve always done it that way.’ Stupid. No. How are you trying to get better? We feel like this portion of this is helping us get better with not only the way we practice, but the way we meet and with the way we walk through.

We talked about it, and this is where we felt we were.

I’ll just say, and I’m just going to keep the whys in, but we’re not ever afraid to change different things, whether it’s schedules, whether it’s scheme.

Now, core values that you see every day, those are set in stone. Through hard times, through good times, we’re going to keep going back to those. But schedules can constantly change, schemes can constantly change, and the attempts to just keep getting better.

Q. When you evaluate Week 1, at certain positions and certain players, how much do you have to factor in the field conditions? (Dave Zangaro)

NICK SIRIANNI: Good question. You know, obviously both teams played on the same field, so it wasn’t — I don’t want to say too much what I felt of the field or anything like that. That’s not really relevant. I know what you’re trying to do, you’re trying to get me to say a little bit —

I’ll say it this way, and it’s not this extreme, but I remember when we first got to Indy. Indy had played a game at Buffalo, and there was four feet of snow. It was insane. In 2017. Whatever the score was, but we were watching that game, and we were like, ‘Maybe we should watch another game to evaluate the players, maybe take this one out.’ I see a picture of — I always watch that one of Shady [former Eagles RB LeSean McCoy], the game that he had here against Detroit. What an unbelievable — some unbelievable runs that he had in that snow-covered field.

Again, we are not in the business of blaming anything. We are about accountability — that’s the only way you get better. Let’s talk about missed tackles. Did some of the missed tackles happen? Did some of them happen because a guy slipped? Yeah, the result of the guy slipping, that happened, but there’s also a way that you approach the running back. That’s what needs to be fixed, you can’t do anything about the field.

It’s the same thing as a wide receiver. When a wide receiver slips in a break, well, you know that the field is a little bit sloppy, so you have to play with better fundamentals to go through that way.

Yeah, you still can evaluate it, and I gave you two sides. I gave you one where we didn’t do it at all, I gave you one where Shady was making all these unbelievable plays. But we have to evaluate the approach to it, like the approach to the ball carrier. That’s why we might have missed a tackle or slipped in a route or whatever it might be.

We still use that. Like we’re evaluating hard off that tape.

Great example for us that there are going to be adversities this year that we have, that we have zero control over, so put it out of your mind and focus on what you’ve got to do, control the controllables, and let’s go to work.

Q. What was your approach with the guys since you got back from Brazil on Saturday up until today as far as getting them in here or giving them rest time to make sure they’re all recovered from a grueling weekend? (Reuben Frank)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, you know, when you — one of those weekends, the last weekend prior to games starting, most of the NFL has off Saturday, or Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Obviously, we didn’t. So, they needed some time off, that’s for sure, especially with the travel. Coaches needed some time off. When you got off the plane on Saturday, we were all tired. Some guys slept great, some guys didn’t sleep, some guys watched the game, whatever it was. So, everybody had to kind of adjust.

So, getting them that time off was important. Then when we came back to work, getting them lifting and hanging out together in some meetings, that was important.

Sometimes I think you don’t want to go too far ahead, either, on a team. Coaches can, but you want the players to be fresh, and that’s just our philosophy.

Now we’re starting here today as a normal — you can start here today, we end up starting here today as a normal Wednesday, even though it’s a Thursday. My mind thinks in all those– like today is Wednesday to the rest of the world. That’s how football coaches and football players think. It’s Wednesday. You can argue to the death with a football coach. He’ll tell you today is Wednesday no matter what.

Q. There’s been conversation about Falcons QB Kirk Cousins coming off the Achilles injury maybe not having full mobility yet. What’s the tape showing you and what are you expecting? (Tim McManus)

NICK SIRIANNI: That Kirk has been an unbelievable football player in this league for a long time. A lot of respect for him. He’s a great football player. So, we’re going to have to be ready.

Again, not something you can control, if he was feeling good one day, not feeling good the other day. We have to be ready for the player that we know he is, because he’s a heck of a player, and we’ve got to be ready for him because he can make teams look bad because of his talent.

Q. I know week by week, day by day – (Dave Uram)

NICK SIRIANNI: But I want to take you to another place besides where you’re thinking [laughing].

Q. Well, looking at the totality of the schedule, Monday is only one of two games you guys have at the Linc through October. You’re really not there much until the latter half of the season. What do you make of that? (Dave Uram)

NICK SIRIANNI: Obviously we love playing in front of our fans. That’s something you can’t control, so I don’t try to think too much of it. I do think that when you look at the positives, you think about the positives like, ‘Oh, my gosh, we get to play a home Monday night game in Philadelphia as our first true home game.’ That’s pretty awesome. Monday Night Football.

Monday night was the night, when I was 13 or younger, was the one night I was able to stay up past my bedtime. Dad would be like, ‘Hey, okay, you can watch the first half.’ I get a little bit older, I can watch into the third quarter; get a little bit older, I can watch into the fourth quarter. Being in high school and sometimes in middle school, I can watch the whole game. What an unbelievable experience to have with your dad to be able to watch Monday Night Football with him. And it’s kind of cool that you get to play in front of that knowing that there’s other kids around the country that love this game of football that are going to be able to do that same thing, as well.

Again, I showed a schedule today of what the schedule is, and I blurred it out, because nothing else matters. Who we played last week doesn’t matter, who we play next week doesn’t matter, who we play in November doesn’t matter. All that matters is our preparation today for the Atlanta Falcons. Good question, I respect your question, but we are truly focused on it and excited about the opportunity we have this week.

Q. With the Rams, former Rams Defensive Coordinator and current Falcons Head Coach Raheem Morris adopted some of Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio’s tactics presumably because Rams Head Coach Sean McVay wanted it, and former Rams Defensive Coordinator Brandon Staley had run it beforehand. I know it’s not a lot of film, preseason and just one game, but is that still the same defense that he’s running? (Jeff McLane)

NICK SIRIANNI: Again, like you said, there’s not a lot to study. You look at their preseason, and they were in one personnel the whole time. Then you look at last week’s game — speaking offensively even — last week’s game, they were in a completely different personnel. You guys can do the numbers on that.

Again, we know there’s a lot of unknowns. It’s almost still like your first game of the year where there’s going to be a lot of unknowns because the way they played the Steelers isn’t necessarily going to be the way they play the Eagles.

But yeah, you see similarities to some of the Rams’ stuff that they were doing from last year, and I just know that — a lot of respect for Coach Morris, a really good coach, has done a really good job in this league as a defensive coordinator for a long time, so I know we’ll have to be ready to go.

Q. From your perspective, obviously the tape is out now like what you guys do on offense – (Martin Frank)

NICK SIRIANNI: Kinda. Same kind of deal, though. We didn’t show everything, either. There’s a lot of unknowns that they have to be ready for.

Q. I was going to ask, how is the process different now with you and Offensive Coordinator Kellen Moore kind of working on how to make those adjustments and what to show for next week and going forward? (Martin Frank)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, everything is discussed. Everything is discussed within the offensive group of how we’re going about attacking a defense, how we’re going about marrying things together. Obviously, Kellen is in charge of that, in leading the way through that, and we’re discussing through it. When I can be in there, I’m in there discussing it.

[Passing Game Coordinator/Associate Head Coach] Kevin Patullo is in there the whole time, [Tight Ends Coach] Jason Michael, Stout [Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Coach Jeff Stoutland]. It’s just a very similar process. I think you look around the league, a lot of people have similar processes to the way they game plan, different things like that.

But yeah, it’s been obviously a longer week this week to get ready and to go through those things, but yesterday — sometimes it’s just fun locking yourself in that room and studying the opposing team and going through it that way.

Q. How well did you get to know Falcons RB Bijan Robinson in the draft process and what challenges does he present? (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, we showed some tape of him today of just how elusive he is. I think if you look, his first touchdown was like play 11 against Carolina last year, play 11 of the game of game number 1. They throw him a little swing pass and he makes the first guy miss, then he makes another guy miss, and he runs through a tackle. He’s a really good football player who can create on his own. Things can break down, and he still can make a play.

A lot of things remind me of when we used to — it felt like today in the team meeting when I’m showing those, it felt a little bit like, ‘Hey, these are the clips I was showing when we were getting ready to play the Giants and [RB] Saquon [Barkley].’ He’s really elusive and really fast, got good hands.

Yeah, enjoyed my pre-draft process with him. I always enjoy meeting good guys, good football players, and spending time with them, and he’s a heck of a football player that’s done a nice job so far in this league. We’ll have to be ready to tackle. We need to tackle better than we did last game, and it’s going to be a big deal in this week’s game, as every game is.

Q. You might’ve previously been entrenched in an offensive game plan meeting immediately coming off the game. As you came back from Brazil, what did you find yourself freed up to immediate go and do? (Brooks Kubena)

NICK SIRIANNI: Again, it’s a longer week so you have more time to do some things, but I guess immediately, the first thing is watch all the tape. Watch offense, defense, special teams, which is no different.

But then, I think my mindset goes first to the very first thing I think of instead of — I guess what I used to do is I used to get in here early before we even watched the tape and watch a couple segments of the next opponent’s defense, whether that was — it doesn’t matter what time it was, but that was my first thing. Like before I even go to watch the tape — I usually watch the tape at night after the game. But before I even go to watch the game with the staffs, I would have put the tape on of the opposing team.

I know the first thing I did is what should the message be this week, what should the culture be about this week. The culture is the same. We have core values that we believe in. But what truly needs to be dove into this week, and what are some things, some stories that I can tell, videos I can show, what are points that I can make within the tape of who we’re playing. And I think that’s where my week started this last week, as opposed to in the film room watching 12 personnel against the opposing team.

So yeah, still be able to get to that, but that’s where my first thought was as we started this week. That’s a good question.

Q. You said you want to see big improvements from Week 1 to Week 2. With that in mind, what’s the key to making sure that happens this week with your group and what are some of the big improvements you need to see? (Scott Grayson)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, you want to get better every week. That’s on the forefront of our mind every single time we step on the practice field, every single time we step in — game to game.

I’ve heard that before that people make the biggest adjustment from Week 1 to Week 2 as far as their improvements. We just want to continue — that’s hard to say and that’s hard to gauge, to say Week 2 you get better — you don’t know. Our goal is just to continue to rise, to continue to rise. We know we didn’t do a good enough job of that last year.

But we’re on to 2024.

But the thing that — we can’t be in the negative of the turnover — we’re the only team in the NFL this week that lost the turnover battle and won the game. 1-10. We’re the only team that won. That’s not sustainable. That’s not sustainable. So, protecting the football, taking the football away, the details. The details. We missed too many tackles. You guys heard me say that. We talked about it with the team. We reinforced it today. We’ll be doing drills out there when you guys are out there to get ready to tackle better.

So really the biggest emphasis is the details. You want to be the best in the world at something, it’s about doing the basics better. It doesn’t have to be real fancy. Who tackles better? Who gets off blocks better? Who blocks better? Who takes care of the football better? Who catches the ball better with their fundamentals? That’s football, and that’s football when I was growing up at Southwestern High School, that’s football wherever, in college, at Washington & Jefferson College where my brother is a coach, and that’s football in the NFL.

Q. You described Falcons QB Kirk Cousins as being a great quarterback. What in your mind puts him at that level? (Mike Sielski)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, you know, he’s a really accurate player, and he makes really good decisions with the football. I think that consistency that he has there is really — it’s been noticed because he’s done it for such a long time. He had his team in the playoffs two years ago. He’s had some good teams.

So again, I just really think his accuracy, his decision making. He’s able to get the ball where it needs to go consistently. Again, just got a lot of respect for him, and I think his track record speaks for itself.