Sean Mannion
Q. Sean, why do you think, as a whole, you’re struggling against — especially in under-center stuff, and how can you coach that better or how can that change or get better? (Cayden Steele)
Sean Mannion: I think it’s commitment to the fundamentals, and I think just cleaner execution. That starts with us as a staff and making sure we’re doing everything possible to, A, put our guys in the best position possible, and B, making sure we’re coaching the details, the fundamentals, [and] the communication [that] needs to take place so that can operate at the level that we expect it to. We’ve got to get better there. We’re attacking it each day. I think a lot of it comes down to fundamentals, execution, [and] communication, and for us as a staff to always look to put our guys in the best position possible.
Q. Do you still feel good about the under-center stuff, or is that something that has to adjust or change in terms of scrapping it or changing how much you do it? (Cayden Steele)
Sean Mannion: I do still feel good about it. Obviously, things to clean up, but I think in terms of the schematic, what it is schematically, I’m still a believer in it. Every week, you may approach things differently based on the opponent, based on your own personnel, based on your own tendencies that you may be trying to break. I’m still a believer in it, but like any week, you’re always being as flexible as possible and thinking about what the opponent’s doing to you, how you may need to adjust as well.
Q. When Head Coach Nick Sirianni says that everything’s on the table in terms of fixing the offense, what does that mean to you? (Jeff McLane)
Sean Mannion: I mean, every week, we go into our game plan meetings as a staff, and we’re looking at anything that we can be doing to give ourselves the best opportunity to win. I think that approach has really been there for us throughout the year. Obviously, we haven’t yielded the results that we want or expect as an offense thus far, but our mindset in terms of looking for every advantage that we can bring to ourselves, in terms of what we’re studying from our opponent, from what’s happening around the league, and trying to bring as many good ideas, fresh ideas to the table, put our guys in the best position possible — That mindset really, is not a departure from anything we’ve been doing throughout the year. We’re always looking to do everything we can each and every week to give ourselves the best chance to go out there and execute better.
Q. Now that you know there’s QB Tanner McKee for the rest of the year, what’s the process to cater the offense to him? (Dave Zangaro)
Sean Mannion: He’s been getting better and better. I think that’s the one thing. Obviously, we had a competition through the offseason in training camp, but we’ve had six weeks of the regular season of practice, and the guy’s been improving. I think he’s really sharp mentally, he’s accurate, [and] he gets the ball out of his hands quickly.
I think he does all the things that you ask of a quarterback in terms of his pre-snap operation, and being able to use his cadence [and] being able to handle things at the line of scrimmage if you need adjustments. I think he’s strong in a lot of those areas, and I think it opens up some things for us offensively. I think what he did, obviously, [it was] kind of a week where midweek, he knows he’s getting the call. I thought he handled himself really well from a mental perspective. I think he’s going to continue to improve as we move forward.
Q. What gives you the confidence that you can get this offense where you want it? (Reuben Frank)
Sean Mannion: Because I think you look at a lot of the things that we need to improve, and I think they’re totally fixable. It’s a double-edged sword, right? You look at that, and you can get frustrated by it. You can also look at that and put a silver lining on and say, ‘Man, if we just handle our simple stuff, we’re going to yield a better result.’ Like I said, it cuts both ways. On the one hand, you’re like, ‘Man, guys, we should be able to execute this better. We’re right there if we just fix a handful of things that are holding us back.’ So, it frustrates you on the one hand. The other hand, you’re like, ‘If we just master our own stuff, I think it’ll make compounding improvements across our offense.’
Q. Has QB Jalen Hurts been in the meetings with you guys and is the plan to have him serve in some kind of capacity to help you guys during the week? (Tim McManus)
Sean Mannion: He’s been around, and I know — Just speaking on the Jalen thing, obviously, just want him to get healthy and just care for the guy and the work that he puts into our team each and every week. Certainly, want him to continue to be around and be a positive impact for us while he’s getting himself healthy. That’s the ultimate priority. He was around last week, and I know he’s tackling the health stuff he’s got going on, but he’ll still be a big positive impact anytime he’s around the team.
Q. As a quarterback yourself, you mentioned QB Tanner McKee Wednesday. QB Jalen Hurts was still in the mix, so it was midweek for Tanner. How much getting a full week does that help at the quarterback position? (John McMullen)
Sean Mannion: It’ll help. I think Tanner has done everything that you can do in that backup capacity to be as prepared as possible. He’s super engaged at practice, super engaged in the meetings. I think the difference is now you get those physical reps in practice. Obviously, he didn’t get that on Wednesday’s practice last week. That’s a difficult thing to substitute for. I think Tanner’s approach has gotten him as close as you can be in terms of staying after practice, standing behind the play, getting the vantage point for the quarterback. I think having the full slate of reps will help him grow more and more comfortable going into each week. He’s done everything he can to get as close as he can be, but that will help moving forward. It’ll be different this week that way.
Q. I hear from coaches that you practice how you play in games. Have what you’ve done in the games be representative of how you’re practicing? (Jeff McLane)
Sean Mannion: I think we’ve had good energy at practice. I think the attention detail has been great at practice. I think throughout the week, you’re always introducing a new thing here, a new thing there, and you just want to get better from Wednesday to Thursday, Thursday to Friday, Friday to Sunday. I’ve been really happy and pleased with how we’ve looked at practice.
Like I said, going back to the previous question, that’s part of the frustration is there when you feel like there are things that are so within our control that we can clean up. Our attention to detail and effort at practice has been outstanding. That’s the one thing, and I say it every week to you guys, I say it to our unit: I never, ever question the effort that our guys put in the game. That’s really true of the effort our guys put in at practice. These guys work their butts off, and they’re locked in every time they’re in the meeting, every time they’re on the practice field, we just got to take to the game field.
Q. On the stuff that you say is fixable, when you say a lot of it’s simple stuff, can you volunteer some of the simple things that you think are fixable? (Jimmy Kempski)
Sean Mannion: I don’t want to get into the details of the scheme, obviously, just for the competitive piece of that, but I think ultimately, [we] always look — Are we communicating with each other properly, are our fundamental sound, and is our level of execution where it needs to be? Usually, it can kind of fit into those three buckets as a kind of a broad strokes to answer your question. Those are really the three main focal points for us, I think, to execute at a higher level [are] communication, fundamentals, and then the actual act of getting it done with your execution.
Q. Is QB Tanner McKee a fit for this scheme or do you have to adjust the scheme to Tanner? (Zach Berman)
Sean Mannion: Tanner’s a good fit for us. I think he’s gotten better and better really going back from April to now and yeah, absolutely.
Q. QB Tanner McKee said after the game that he needs to do a better job of settling in faster as his play caller, either before the game, during the game, what are some of the things that you can do to assist him in that? (Olivia Reiner)
Sean Mannion: As an offense, we all want to do better this upcoming week. You talked about getting a quarterback in rhythm. Certainly, especially when you have a quarterback going in there for his first start of the season, that’s a focal point for us. We stubbed our toe really out of the gate on the first play and weren’t able to do that as well as I was hoping to when we scripted the openers for Tanner. I think it goes down to the same things. I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but if we just execute a little bit more consistently, I think we can get him into a rhythm and get ourselves out of the starting blocks more efficiently than we did on Sunday.
Q. Have you identified a fix for the communication, particularly upfront? Is it something that where you have to streamline or what do you focus on when trying to improve it? (Tim McManus)
Sean Mannion: With anything, I always look at myself first and say, ‘Am I doing the best job I can in terms of my teaching, in terms of how I present the plays to the offense?’ I always want to be self-reflective first on that. A lot of it comes down to just the communication, I think, throughout the week of the plan and exactly what we’re trying to get done and then taking that communication to the field. To answer your question, it’s a little bit of both, but I always want to point the finger at myself first and what can I be doing better as a teacher, as a leader of this offense, in terms of what schemes we’re putting in and making sure it’s crystal clear in terms of who’s supposed to be doing what.
Q. What kind of resource can QB Jalen Hurts be in the building for QB Tanner McKee over these next period of weeks? (Reuben Frank)
Sean Mannion: With Jalen, I don’t know the exact number off the top of my head, but he’s got a ton of starts in this league, especially going against a slate of division opponents coming up. He’s played against these guys a bunch. I know Tanner’s been around for that too, but I think the insight that you have from being on field is so valuable. Jalen’s been through the fire of the regular season and Tanner I think it was his third start last week. I think just any veteran quarterback, because that’s what Jalen is, there’s always going to be insight in terms of, ‘Hey, this is how the preparation for a Monday night game week can look. This how you can use your extra time. Hey, we played Dallas last year. These were the things I felt in my preparation there. These are some of my old notes.’ There’s so much insight to be gained from a quarterback with Jalen’s experience. I know Tanner, Jalen, [QB] Cole [Payton], [and], adding [QB] Joe [Milton] to the mix, these guys all work really, really well with one another in that QB room. That makes it fun to be around on a day-to-day basis. It’s just the game experience and the insight of playing specifically these upcoming opponents. I think Jalen will be able to give Tanner some great help there.
Q. Head Coach Nick Sirianni said you will continue to call plays, but did you change anything under you or the way things are divvied up in terms of game planning, game day helping you and call plays to maybe take a little bit off your load? (Jeff McLane)
Sean Mannion: No. I mean, I feel confident in the approach we’ve had throughout the week. I think we’re always looking at what we can be doing schematically. As a staff, we’ve worked really, really well together. I feel totally confident in that. There hasn’t been anything that’s, I think, earth-shattering this week as opposed to the previous six weeks there. Like anything, you get sharper and sharper and more and more refined as a unit, [and] as a staff working with one another. I have total confidence in how we’ve been preparing and working with one another, working with Nick and operating on game day.
Q. It’s important for you to be reflective of yourself. So, through six weeks when you evaluate how you’ve done, where you feel good about versus where do you feel like you need to get better as a coordinator so far? (Cayden Steele)
Sean Mannion: I feel convicted in the process by which we’ve been doing things. I feel convicted in the things that we make a point of emphasis with our guys in terms of what we’re doing fundamentally and with our play style, with what we’re doing schematically. For me in terms of, like you said, just looking at myself, it’s always, am I adjusting and teaching in the best way possible? I really feel like I’ve been doing that for the most part, but you always have to ask yourself each week, can I be doing this a little bit better? Is there something I can be doing a little bit differently?
I feel good about the process that we’ve had to date. I don’t think it’s anything necessarily earth shattering, but I think it’s just every week at the end of the week, ‘Hey, is there something we can be doing a little bit different, a little bit better?’ I don’t know that there’s anything earth shattering of note there, but it’s always a process of looking at yourself and saying, ‘How can next week be better than this week?’
Q. Do you feel supported by Head Coach Nick Sirianni and the organization to allow yourself to kind of get the team out of this rut? (Dave Zangaro)
Sean Mannion: Absolutely. Absolutely.
Q. How do they show that? (Dave Zangaro)
Sean Mannion: I mean, it’s been since day one, Nick’s support, Nick’s help, his advice on an offensive unit meeting, in staff meetings, at practice, just the collaborative effort between Nick and [Executive Vice President/General Manager] Howie [Roseman] and everybody in the building. Everyone’s pulling in the same direction here. I’ve felt that since day one, [and] I still feel it today.