Nick Sirianni

Q. Hey Nick, the Bears. What do they do well, and does it complicate things when you don’t know who’s going to be playing quarterback? (Jason Dumas)

Nick Sirianni: They’ve got great players all around. Some really, really good players. I think the coaching’s outstanding. [Bears Head] Coach [Ben] Johnson, [Bears Defensive Coordinator] Coach [Dennis] Allen, [Bears Special Teams Coordinator] Coach [Richard] Hightower all do a phenomenal job. They’ve done a phenomenal job throughout this league through the past decade. A lot of respect for them and how they play.

You go into each game and you’re thinking, ‘Who’s the quarterback? How do you affect them?’ All those different things. Every quarterback’s a little bit different, but you do what you do best, and you go there. It gives you a couple more layers to think through, but that’s life in the NFL. There’s always a guy that could play or couldn’t play each and every week at every position, and every coordinator has to plan accordingly. That’s not new for us, and we’ll go through our process like we always do in that situation.

Q. Last year, after they beat you guys, Bears Head Coach Ben Johnson ripped his shirt off. In the offseason, he said some things that were pretty bold, pretty brash. You yourself can be emotional. How do you balance as a coach — (Mike Sielski)

Nick Sirianni: Thank you. [Jokingly.]

Q. How do you balance, as a coach, being authentic, being who you are? And maybe, I don’t know, crossing the line may not be the right phrase necessarily, but acting in a way that may have people going, ‘hmm.’ (Mike Sielski)

Nick Sirianni: The last thing that you can worry about as a head coach is trying to please anybody outside your building. You’ve always got to be yourself. You’ve always got to do it within the rules. I tell our guys that all the time: be yourself, have fun, enjoy this, do it within the rules. You can’t worry about pleasing anybody outside the building because regardless of what you do, if you take your shirt off, if you don’t take your shirt off, if you’re emotional, if you’re not emotional, some of the people are going to say, ‘Man, I like that.’ Some are going to be like, ‘Man, I don’t like that.’ That’s leadership. That’s what it is. Your job is to be yourself and do everything you can do as a head coach to get your team ready to play and to get your team better on a daily basis. You can’t look outside to see how you can please [them] because it’s an impossible task. Just win games.

Q. How much of a challenge is their running game and what are your thoughts so far on your run defense? (Reuben Frank)

Nick Sirianni: They obviously provide a lot of different things in the run game that are challenging. Like I said, I’ve got a lot of respect for their coaching and how they go about it. Obviously, their players, I think [Bears OL Darnell] Wright’s a really good player. [Bears RB/former Eagles RB] D’Andre [Swift]’s playing really good. I really enjoyed being around D’Andre for the year that he was here. He has a great ability to have these one cuts, if you overplay him, have these one cuts to be able to make you miss if you over-pursue. Again, just got a lot of respect for that, the way they go about it and the problems that they can provide. We’ve got to play with great fundamentals. We’ve got to play with great discipline within that. It’s always going to be about block destruction and blocking it for the O-line, D-line. Those are going to be critical this week.

It’s a process, right? It’s a process of getting your run defense, your pass offense, whatever it may be, run offense, pass defense to where you want it to go. I feel like we’re making steps. There’s a reason that we’re in pads once a week because the league rules allow you once a week, and then later on in the season you’re not able to every week, but there’s a reason we’re going to be in pads every Wednesday. Unless it’s a significant week where it’s a short week, because that’s how you get better at block destruction and blocking. This is a big day for us today of working our block destructions when we have our pads on, and you’ve still got to be able to do that with your pads off as well. This is a very important day for us to be able to work those things to continue to get better at what we need to.

Q. What’s it like having TE Zach Ertz back and how do you see him fitting in and if he’s going to be ready to play on Monday? (Martin Frank)

Nick Sirianni: We haven’t practiced yet, as you guys know. We’ll go out there today, and like with every player, trust is built through practice and through reps. We’ll see where he is. I’ve seen Zach plenty of times and this will be new for [Offensive Coordinator] Sean [Mannion] and [Run Game Coordinator/Tight Ends Coach] Ryan [Mahaffey] to see him go to work. We’ll go out and practice today, see where he is and see how we need to play this thing out. I’m excited to have Zach on the roster moving forward.

Q. What are you seeing right now in TE Zach Ertz’s understanding of the system that you guys are two weeks into and what he can do now? (Brooks Kubena)

Nick Sirianni: I haven’t quizzed him yet on anything. We’ll go out there today and see how he lines up. As far as the knowledge of the system, there’s a lot of plays that are similar throughout the NFL in offenses. It’s just about getting — You’re speaking one language and then now it’s about speaking another language, right? You’re speaking English and now you’ve got to speak French or whatever it may be. Now, it’s a little easier in a game plan week. You learn the origins of where all the words come from and then you don’t have quite the whole playbook to have to learn. We’ll see where he is. It’s too early to say in my mind where he is, but we will quiz him and figure out where he is on different things. You also see that in practice and walkthroughs of how he’s coming out of the huddle and everything like that.

Q. I know you’re practicing in a little bit, but with RB Saquon Barkley, any update on that? Is there any long-term concern with practice today? (Eliot Shorr-Parks)

Nick Sirianni: We’ll get you guys the injury report. I know Saquon does everything he can do to get himself ready to play each and every week. Love that about him and his work ethic, and we’ll see where we are.

Q. You’ve spoken highly about DB Kenny Moore in the past. What’s your background with him and is he someone who can play safety even though he hasn’t really done it? (Zach Berman)

Nick Sirianni: I think the world of Kenny Moore. He is a really good football player, really good person, great teammate. Being able to add him to our team is a big deal, and I’m pumped about that. I was able to spend three years with him, he was highly competitive [when I was] the offensive coordinator, not the head coach at that time. I could see the battles that he had with our receivers in different scenarios. I love his competitiveness. Him and [former Colts WR] Zach Pascal would go at it on a lot of block destruction things within practice — another former Eagle. When you get around guys like that, it’s a no brainer.

When [Executive Vice President/General Manager] Howie [Roseman] came to me and asked me what I thought of the guy — Howie obviously watched the tape. I got to watch a little bit of the tape and then, ‘Hey, what do you think of the guy?’ Everybody said the same thing. I obviously have had some Indy guys here in the past and currently, and everyone’s report of what they said all matched up and it’s no surprise because everybody at his old place really thought the world of him because of who he is on a daily basis consistently.

Q. Where will we see him? (Zach Berman)

Nick Sirianni: We’ll see. We’ll see. I think that he has ability to be versatile, which is really important, especially with guys that are backing up and everything like that. We’ll see where he is. We’ve got to get some reps, and those things get answered within practice and with reps. Today’s an important day for many reasons, obviously with that as well.

Q. Why do you think you guys don’t have a takeaway yet? (Dave Zangaro)

Nick Sirianni: Sometimes those come in bunches. We work like crazy on it. I wouldn’t say that we’ve had a ball that I felt like we dropped as far as an interception goes. We’ve had a couple scrambles against quarterbacks that are good at getting out of the pocket with our first two opponents. You haven’t had a couple of those strip-sack fumbles that you get sometimes in those scenarios.

You get more tackling attempts than you do takeaway attempts in a game. So, your tackling fundamentals come first, always. You don’t want to put the tackle at risk by going after a strip-attempt. We chart this every week: ‘Hey, here’s how many strip attempt opportunities there were. Here’s how many times we took an attempt at it.’ You can’t score points unless you shoot the ball. Those are judged by us as far as when we tell them to take these strip attempts, but you never sacrifice the tackle in any case.

Some of them have been attempts, as far as I think we’ve done a good job of taking attempts that were there. There just hasn’t been as many. You guys would kind of be surprised at how little there actually are in a certain game. That’s why it’s so important that when you have those opportunities, when it’s a strip-attempt opportunity, you take advantage of that.

We’ve had some good attempts at it, and they’ve had some good ball security there, and we’ve just got to keep going through our process. We drill it unlike anybody at the end of the day, and we talk about it. We’ve just got to stick to the process, and I think that’s such a key. Can you stick to the process when you’re not producing results? Can you stick to what you know is going to get the ball out when the results aren’t there yet? That’s a key in not just takeaways, but everything. Can you stick to that thing knowing that the work’s going to be what gets the ball out when you have those opportunities in the game?

Q. When TE Eli Stowers went on IR, was there a contingency plan? Is that what’s led to TE Zach Ertz? Knowing TE Dallas Goedert’s injury history, what you might do in an event like this? (Brooks Kubena)

Nick Sirianni: You discuss everything as you go through things. I don’t think you look at anything and say, ‘Hey, this guy could…’ You just let it play out. Everything’s discussed, everything has a plan. That’s what you appreciate so much about Howie. That’s what I appreciate so much about Howie, everything’s thought out, everything’s got a plan. Here we are today in the situation we’re in, and Zach being here. I’m excited about that opportunity for him.

Q. Given how the last game against the Bears went, what’s your approach this week in terms of, are you emphasizing that point, how it went on the ground and maybe from a physicality perspective or not? (Tim McManus)

Nick Sirianni: Again, each week brings different keys to victory, offensively, defensively, special teams-wise. There are unique things each week based off of the opponent that you’re playing. We never really get into revenge. I think I’ve talked to you guys about that in the sense of that lasts about a minute, and then your habits and your fundamentals take over. This is the 2026 Eagles versus the 2026 Bears, and both teams are going to battle. Both teams are good football teams, and this week’s going to be about the same thing: ‘Hey, what does it take to win this week?’ There’s going to be certain things, but then there’s always common things. We’ve got to win the turnover battle. We’ve got to win the explosive play battle. We have to play with great fundamentals. Those are keys each and every week. There are keys for one game and then there’s keys that are your general keys week-in, week-out. Those are the things that are consistent throughout the year: playing with good fundamentals, playing with good effort, playing together, all those different things.

Q. If you look at the two backup running backs, why the committee approach there and what do you like about those two guys? (Zach Berman)

Nick Sirianni: I think they both bring a unique skill set. We trust the heck out of both of them. They’ve both made plays. [RB] Tank [Bigsby] made a great tackle on special teams in the game. [RB] Will [Shipley]’s made plenty of tackles on special teams. I think it’s just trust. You trust those guys and they both have earned reps and they both have different things that they bring to the table. It’s kind of like the same thing with a receiver. Why throw this guy this one and this guy that one? Not to say they both can’t do different things, but they both have different skill sets that you try to utilize within a game. Obviously, that proved to be majorly helpful this week to have the backups that we have when Saquon was not able to continue to go. I love that room and I love the depth of that room, and I love the closeness of that room. It’s just a good, solid running back room.

Q. This summer, was there a time when you saw something from WR Dontayvion Wicks where you thought, ‘We might have a steal here?’ (Pat Gallen)

Nick Sirianni: I think that happens when you’re watching the tape prior to him even getting here. That’s why Howie was aggressive to go and get him, because we saw the potential of what he could be, and then we knew about the person with the guys that were in Green Bay. When he started doing the things that we saw on tape, it wasn’t a surprise because there was a lot of work that went into identifying that, and the words that were being said by Sean [Mannion] and Ryan [Mahaffey] were matching what we saw on tape. He’s been a great addition. I love his physicality within the game of football and his mentality and competitiveness for football. Forget about how