Nick Sirianni

Q. As an offensive guy, what stands out about Buccaneers Head Coach Todd Bowles the most? (John McMullen)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, he’s been a good defensive coordinator in this league for a long time. Have a lot of games where we have some plays that like, ‘Well that was good, that was good.’ Dating all the way back as far as 2014, I’m thinking about the game there, or 2019 before I was here.

Just a really good coordinator. Makes things challenging. Gets his players to play well. Obviously, a good head coach as well.

But just talking about the defensive side of it as an offensive coach, got a lot of respect for him and the job he does, the way he gets his players to play. He’s doing a great job as a head coach, and obviously been a good defensive coordinator in the league for a long time.

Q. What kind of challenges do Buccaneers WR Chris Godwin and Buccaneers WR Mike Evans present, especially for a young guy like CB Quinyon Mitchell? (Martin Frank)

NICK SIRIANNI: Well, both guys have been highly productive throughout their entire career. What [Buccaneers WR] Mike Evans has done is truly remarkable in my mind. What is he, ten seasons in a row? Is it ten? With 1000 yards. To me, that’s kind of unheard of. Who else has done that? Do you guys know? I don’t. I’m actually asking.

But truly remarkable the way he plays the game. Always been a big fan of how he plays. Catches the ball extremely well. Extremely physical, extremely consistent.

And then [Buccaneers WR Chris] Godwin, he moves around, being able to play in the slot, play wherever. Just a versatile wide receiver that’s had a lot of success in the slot.

So, yeah, they create challenges because they’re big time players. We’ll have to be on it. Like I said, I know [CB Quinyon Mitchell] Q doesn’t react – Q gets to go against [WR] A.J. [Brown] and [WR] DeVonta [Smith] every day. And Q is a guy that is not fazed by the moment. So this is a big moment in his career, but I know he’ll be ready to play and won’t be fazed.

I can’t say enough good things about those two guys, Chris Godwin and Mike Evans, and their style of play. Man, I’ve got a lot of those two guys on teach tapes, I know that. Just with the way they go about their business and the way they have gone about their business for years now.

Q. What have you made of the week of preparation from the depth receivers in the absence of WR A.J. Brown and WR DeVonta Smith? (Olivia Reiner)

NICK SIRIANNI: Obviously still waiting to see where they are and what their status is going to be. But a lot of guys have gotten some really good reps this week. We’ve obviously needed that.

If it does come down to those guys being out, then excited for these guys’ opportunity. They’ve worked hard. And it’s going to take everybody. Like I said before, it’s not, ‘Hey, here is how to replace DeVonta’s production.’ It’s going to take the entire group to do that. And that’s the entire group: wide receivers, tight ends, and running backs. Because obviously, he’s a special player.

And so, again, bummed if it does come to the case that they’re out, but excited for the guys’ opportunity because they’ve worked hard for this opportunity.

Q. Is T Lane Johnson going to travel? (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, we’re still waiting to see where he’s going to be. I know that’s a different way of asking me if he’s going to play –

Q. No, it’s asked that way because if he can be cleared while he’s down there – (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: Sure. We’ll see. These guys are doing everything in their ability to get back. Obviously different situation with guys in the protocol. Won’t comment on that.

Yeah, we’ll see. Today will tell a lot.

Q. I don’t know if you saw the story about Lions Head Coach Dan Campbell having to move his house. How hard is it for your family for you to be somebody who everybody in the city sort of has an opinion about? (Bo Wulf)

NICK SIRIANNI: You know, we’re good. You just try to block out anything. There is no way that – there is zero percent chance you can make everybody happy. That’s just the way it is. That’s the way leadership roles are. Leadership roles are what they are, and you do your best to lead the men in the room and not concern yourself with anybody on the outside’s opinion.

You just put with your head down, you work, you understand that there is not going to be instant gratification about anything. It’s a long process. You just continue to try to get better. That’s been my approach.

Thankfully, my wife doesn’t pay much attention to the media, fans, anything like that. One of my friends says she’s not as impressed with me as I would like for her to be [laughing].

But that’s a good thing. She is working on raising three kids. I’m not there a lot, and she does a hell of a job raising our three kids. I’ve got a great partner in this with her who has always, always, always been supportive.

But also, she doesn’t ride waves. I know that. She doesn’t ride the waves of the season. She is steady, and I need that. I need that when I’m able to go home and she is steady. You know, not too high after a win, not too low after a loss.

[She] doesn’t have time to be concerned about what anybody else is saying. I know what she feels about me. I know what I feel about her. And like I said, she’s a star because she doesn’t concern herself with that. All she concerns herself with are the things that she does on a daily basis. And the main thing she does on a daily basis is take care of our three awesome kids.

I can’t say enough about her, and I love her. [To his wife] I love you and she’s awesome. Coaches a lot of the times talk about we can’t do this job without the support of our loved ones. That certainly is the case with me.

I love her approach, that it’s, again, just steady. It’s exactly what we want these guys to be. Just steady and not ride the waves of the season.

We know everyone will have an opinion. My job is just to do the best job I can possibly do. Work my butt off to do the best job I can possibly do and let the chips fall as they lie. Is that the saying? Not really.

Q. You get to see a side of QB Jalen Hurts we obviously don’t get to see. In times he’s being criticized, the team is being criticized, what do you see from him behind the scenes on how he leads the team and maybe helps others? (Eliot Shorr-Parks)

NICK SIRIANNI: Again, I think he just does an unbelievable job of putting his head down. It’s the same deal, I think he just puts his head down and works every single day.

But we understand, that’s this business. The quarterback, the head coach, they’re going to be criticized, right? That’s what we signed up for.

But we do this for the people in the building. We do this for the team that we are on. I just see him consistently come to work, be the same guy every single day. He works so hard to be better, to continue to get better. Through everything that he does.

I told you what I felt about him. He’s a winner. With the record that he has, I laugh a little bit at criticism. I mean, look at his record. Look what his record is in the past – since the beginning of 2022. Take ’21 out of it.

Look at the three times he led his team to the playoffs. So I laugh a little bit at the criticism, but I also understand that there is – it’s not just [QB] Jalen [Hurts] getting criticism. Every quarterback, with any mistake they make, is going to get criticized. Criticism kind of appears more than the praise sometimes.

Our job is to win football games and not concern ourselves with anything else. I just think that he has done such a good job of being able to block out anything: praise, criticism. To be able to not eat the poison of that and just continue to go about – we’re judged on – he’s going to be judged on us winning and losing and playing good football.

And I think he’s played really good football. You know, it’s easy to point out some of the bad plays, but there have been so many good plays. Like I said, he just works his butt off to get better every day. When the leader of your football team is doing that, that’s contagious.

When the leader of your football team is busting their butt to get better every day, that’s super contagious, and the rest of the guys do it as well.

Q. RB Saquon Barkley seems to be doing a better job of getting north to south, south to north than maybe previous seasons. Is that a by-product of having a better offensive line, or is he consciously – (Jeff McLane)

NICK SIRIANNI: I know [RB] Saquon [Barkley] is consistently trying to get better. Saquon, like I said – I don’t remember who I said this to the other day, but he has this unbelievable ability, his shiftiness, his change of direction, his make-you-miss-ability is unreal.

Sometimes that can appear – he makes a move and then he gets vertical, and that’s how I’ve always seen him. And so, I just think he does a good job running behind his pads. I can’t speak for – obviously we watched the tape and we always watched him. I just never thought of anything negative about him except being an unbelievable running back.

And we’re seeing that now. He can make you miss. He can accelerate and finish. And he can put his pads down and finish the run like he did on the third down bubble against Atlanta.

Q. This week, WR Parris Campbell shared that he wasn’t interested in being on the practice squad initially, and then you gave him a call. What compelled you to call him? (Dave Zangaro)

NICK SIRIANNI: I love [WR] Parris [Campbell]. I’ve known him for a long time. Obviously had a relationship with him before the Philadelphia Eagles and got close with him there [at the Colts]. Again, everything we do is about relationships, right? And so, as his offensive coordinator and somebody that specializes in wide receivers, I got to be able to coach him and get to know him.

One thing I said – I won’t obviously share conversations I have with these guys – but one thing I will share that I said to him is, ‘We’re going to need you, man. We’re going to need you to make some plays. We’re going to need you – I know this isn’t how you wanted it to go, but we’re going to need you for this journey that we’re going on. We’ve got faith in you, and it’s just the way the numbers kind of worked out.’

And I’m sure glad that he decided he’d changed his mind. But I think that shows the importance of relationships. A lot that we discuss probably is more about the Xs and Os and not about the relationships.

But I’m not so sure that the relationships aren’t more important in a lot of the cases. That’s what you’re trying to do as a football team. That’s what we’re trying to do is build those relationships. Because when you have those relationships, that’s going to help you push a little bit harder. That’s going to help you ride through criticism. That’s going to help you ride through praise. There is nothing like being on a football team.