Nick Sirianni

Q. After watching the film there, looked like the interior offensive line was a little bit leaky at times. How’d you evaluate those guys and is there any concern about C Cam Jurgens and G Landon Dickerson coming off the injury-plagued seasons? (John McMullen)

Nick Sirianni: I think we did some really good things throughout offensively, defensively, special teams. Obviously, there’s things to work on. I thought at times we got really good movement and push, and at times we gave up some pressures and that’s an entire offensive issue, not just one spot or one area. I think there were a lot of good things in there. The question you asked me with those guys — just like everything, especially in a first game, there’s a lot of things to clean up and that’s what today was about. We were able to get in there as a group, as a team first, as offense and defense second, as positions third, and go to work to try to get everything fixed so we can continue our rise to get better.

Q. I want to ask you about TE Dallas Goedert. Just what kind of, I don’t know, luxury I guess, or necessity is probably a better word, to have a guy like that you can rely on to make the tough catches over the middle, get in the end zone, things like that. (Martin Frank)

Nick Sirianni: Dallas has been so consistent over my time here and even before that. He just has a knack to make plays. He’s been very solid in the run game; thought he was solid yesterday in that as well. I think Dallas has had different versions of his game shine at different times. What I mean by that is yesterday you got to see him catch the ball over the middle in space and get to the right spot, be a big target, make plays and finish. You’ve also seen through Dallas’ career how much of a dangerous runner he is when the ball is in his hands and how hard he is to bring down. You got to see that a little bit yesterday on the third down. We didn’t quite get the first down, but him being tough and finishing on the sideline, you think about that. I mean, that play didn’t go for a first down, but he got us darn close.

But you think about that and the Giants and the ’22 playoffs on the sideline, the playoffs in the ’24 season against the Packers where he finished on the sideline. There are elements of Dallas that when he has to win one-on-one matchups that he’s been able to do it on crossing routes and sail routes and different things like that. Even lining him up on the outside on occasion and throwing him some outside receiver routes. He’s been a threat in the red zone every year, particularly last year. That just speaks to a lot of different versions of his game that we’ve been able to see here. I don’t think there’s a secret. I think he works his butt off and is obviously highly talented to be able to have that ability to when you do work your butt off to take it to another level.

He’s a great teammate. He’s consistent. Guys love being around him, so it was good to see him have a good game yesterday. I was pumped for him, and obviously all the things he did to help our football team win last night.

Q. RB Saquon Barkley had 15 carries. He had the big one, 42 yards, but eight of his 15 carries went for one yard or less. Just wondering what you saw from him in the running game. I guess a side question to that would be, it was a little surprising to see RB Will Shipley in a high-leverage situation, fourth quarter get a couple carries, one point game. What went into that decision there? (Reuben Frank)

Nick Sirianni: As you saw right there, one thing that I always as a head coach talking to people about how a defensive game goes or whatever, it’s like, ‘Man, he only averaged this many yards on this many carries.’ I go, ‘Well, the math doesn’t add up there. What about this one?’ And he’s like, ‘Well, yeah, take away the 46-yard gain.’ Well, those count. Being committed to the run game, sometimes that’s the way it goes. Not every play can be an explosive play in the run game. You want to make sure you’re staying ahead of the sticks. Now, that doesn’t mean that we ignore the issues that happened on those plays that averaged whatever. Some of them were negative plays, some of them were one-yard gains, some of them were six-yard gains. We’ll take those six-yard gains, but those plays count. When you’re committed to the run game like we are, you reap the benefits of that when you stick with it of getting an explosive in a situation, which we were able to do and that ended up setting up a touchdown.

As far as Will, Will was obviously in on some of the third downs. Sometimes in third-down and you convert; you get on the ball. When you get on the ball, you don’t want to sub, you’re trying to do something. You’re trying to take advantage of something when you get on the ball and go tempo. Obviously, we’ve done a lot of tempo here in my time. I’m not going to get into, ‘Hey, here are the reasons we get onto the ball,’ but there’s different reasons for why you get on the ball at different times. In that situation, if you sub, they’re allowed to sub. You’re going to get on the ball and run a play there. He ended up getting those two carries in a row when we were back-to-back on that one. But it’s just the way that game worked out.

I think the best way to say, ‘Hey, why did Will Shipley get carries in those situations?’ Because we trust our backs. We trust every one of those guys. They’ve all shown to be able to make plays in different aspects. Obviously, Saquon’s our lead guy, as you guys know, and we’re really comfortable when [RB] Tank [Bigsby] and Will are in there and they’re getting carries and they’re getting protections. We’ve got a lot of faith in that group, and we’ll continue to have faith in that group because they continue to show us the things that they can do on a consistent basis.

Q. At this point in his career, is G Landon Dickerson physically capable of playing at a high enough level that this team needs? (Dave Zangaro)

Nick Sirianni: I think what you see with Landon is his extreme power. He’s a big man who is able to move guys off the spot. If you go back and you look at — so he gives up some pressures, but he also caved in the side on Saquon’s long run on that third down and just did a really good job of pushing their defensive tackle and displacing him, which is a big job description for him. He’s tough as heck. We’ve won a ton of games with Landon and there’s a lot of good things that he can do. Just like every player on our team from yesterday’s game and every coach for that matter, there’s good moments and there are moments that we’ve got to fix. That’s where we are. Can’t tell you how much I think of Landon and the player that he is, and particularly that power and that size where he can move guys off the spot against their will.

Q. We saw QB Jalen Hurts do some things that maybe he hasn’t done previously. There was a seven step drop from under center. How do you think he did on some of that kind of technical stuff that had not really been a part of his toolbox before? (Jeff McLane)

Nick Sirianni: I think he did a really nice job, had a really nice game and made a lot of plays. He made plays that only Jalen Hurts is capable of making at times across the entire league. With some of those new things that we were doing, I though he did a nice job. Now, not a surprise to me. I was talking to somebody; we had 46 days or 47 days in training camp to get ready for that first game. We’re seeing that on a daily basis, that improvement. I get it, you guys don’t get to see that on a daily basis like we do. I thought he handled those things well. To be quite honest with you, we wouldn’t have put those things in had we [not thought] he could function them at a very high level. I thought he did a really nice job, and like I said, played a nice game.

Q. How do you feel like WR Makai Lemon did in his first game? Do you feel like you guys have to find more ways or different ways of getting him involved to get him in the flow of the game? (Cayden Steele)

Nick Sirianni: There’s a lot of things that Makai did in that game that don’t reflect on the stat sheet. We constantly talk about that. What are you doing to help this team win the game? Particularly if you’re a skill guy that might not be able to be seen in a stat book or to the naked eye. He’s always done a good job since he’s been here of blocking, doing the right things, being in the right spots. Obviously, the ones that went to him yesterday didn’t equal out to be big yardage gains, but he did little things to help us win the football game that sometimes are unseen and unnoticed. Why that’s really important is while a young player is continuing to get used to the NFL and being able to make an impact, you have to trust that player.

We trust him because he’s constantly doing the things without the ball that we need to help us win and that we know is going to help us win. That just builds confidence and allows players to develop, because I’ve been on the other side of that where maybe you didn’t trust the guy and you didn’t want to put him in there and then it was hard to get that guy going. So because of that trust we have in him, I think that’s going to help him continue to develop as a football player as we continue on through the season.

Q. Hey Nick, why didn’t WR Hollywood Brown play? (Brooks Kubena)

Nick Sirianni: With yesterday, we have our rotations that we’re doing. Hollywood could obviously help us, and we want to get him into the football game because his speed is real. It just didn’t work out that way yesterday. There are games like that. There are games where you get shut out in catches. Unfortunately, there are games that get shut out in reps, but we know that Hollywood can help us win football games and his speed is real. And quite frankly, just from my end, we want to get him in the football game. We’ll make a better effort to do that next time because I know the play making ability that he can bring with his speed but was pleased with how the wide outs played as a whole. Of course, there were things that you want back. They made a lot of plays down the field with different things with their job description. But I do want to see him in that football game and getting reps and contributing to this football team.

Q. In the past four years, you were honest with us about the target distribution and the top three guys kind of getting the ball. It was spread fairly evenly yesterday, four guys between four and six targets. Is that how you anticipate it going this year? (Zach Berman)

Nick Sirianni: We’ll see. I think every game’s a little bit different in how you go about it. Just like a guy who’s rushing the passer at a highly effective level, they’re going to get a little bit more opportunities to continue to rush a passer in must-pass situations. Well, it’s the same thing with a pass catcher. You feed the hot hands sometimes, same thing with a runner. Every game goes a little bit differently. I think that we have so much faith in the entire room, but [WR] DeVonta Smith is one of our best players on our football team. Dallas Goedert has continued to show that. Thought [WR] Tay [Wicks] did a really nice job yesterday of making plays. I would say one of the guys I was so excited about throughout camp was Tay, and excited for the game that he had yesterday.

Like I’ve said from the beginning with this group, I’ve got a lot of faith in this group. We have a lot of play makers that are able to make plays. Every game’s a little bit different, and we’ll see how that goes as the year continues.