Sean Mannion
Q. What’s WR Makai Lemon done during these days that he’s missed to try to keep up and how’s that going? (Reuben Frank)
Sean Mannion: It’s been going well. It’s an unfortunate part of camp. Sometimes you lose a guy for a few days, but he’s been super engaged in the meetings. Out at walkthrough, he has a script, he’s following every play. He’s kind of mirroring the alignment of his position in the offense. He’s been making the most of a situation where you obviously want guys to be out there, but he’s been super engaged. I know he’s attacking his rehab to get back out.
Q. How big of a priority is it to you to get plays in quickly and give QB Jalen Hurts and the offensive line a chance to get up to the line, see what they see and go? (Reporter)
Sean Mannion: It’s huge. It’s managing substitutions, getting the play call in quickly, monitoring what the defense has on the field. These call-it periods in practice have been huge for that, both for our operation by position groups on the field and then also as a staff, just to manage kind of the lines of communication that’ll take place on game day. It’s critical. We want to apply pressure to the defense at all times. Part of that, frankly, is how you break the huddle, approach the line of scrimmage, get lined up, begin your motions if there’s motions on that specific play. It’s a huge weapon and a huge part of our offense that we work on every day.
Q. What’s been your impression of WR Darius Cooper? Is he someone that’s carving out a role in the passing game? (Cayden Steele)
Sean Mannion: He’s done a great job. He unfortunately was recovering from injury in the Spring, but it’s been great seeing him out on the grass. He’s done a lot of nice things. We love his skillset. He’s part of a position group where, kind of like we spoke about last press conference, we have a lot of guys that bring a lot of different attributes to the table. We’re excited about all of them. For me, not having been here last year was fun. This first week or so of camp to see Coop for the first time in a live setting, he’s done a nice job, along with the rest of the guys in the group.
Q. We have seen those call-it periods a lot so far. How helpful are they in the play calling aspect for you? Just kind of the urgency of it? (John McMullen)
Sean Mannion: It’s been massive. It’s been massive. Like I spoke before, going through my process of calling plays on game day, going through our process as a staff in terms of managing the substitutions, we want to make those feel as close to the game as we can within a practice setting. So far, we’ve achieved that and we’ll keep leaning into that today.
Q. QB Jalen Hurts described WR Dontayvion Wicks as someone who’s basically beaten down the door to kind of improve, how have you seen that? (Brooks Kubena)
Sean Mannion: Wicks is a great worker. He’s got a ton of talent. He’s off to a really good start. One of the things I’d like to highlight about really our whole wide receiver group is these guys are blocking in the run game at a really high level. The effort they’re putting in — Wicks is certainly a huge part of that. As a group collectively, again, everybody is attacking each day, ready to get better. When Jalen says that about Wicks, that’s absolutely true. Really, I think it applies to the group as a whole. You notice after practice, guys are out here staying. Yesterday post-practice, [WR] Hollywood’s [Brown] running routes for Jalen, you have Coop [Darius Cooper] running routes, everybody’s on the jugs. It’s something that [Head Coach] Nick [Sirianni] has preached since day one of how do you find the extra time to perfect your craft? That position group and Tay are certainly the embodiment of that.
Q. What’s your stance on the tush push? (Jeff McLane)
Sean Mannion: It’s going to be a part of what we do. It’s been an extremely effective play here, and we’re going to lean into that. It’s something that this organization has executed at a high level. So along with many other elements to our offense, certainly it’s something that will be a part of it.
Q. How do you go about coaching a young quarterback like QB Cole Payton who hasn’t been afraid to let it rip a little bit? (Dave Zangaro)
Sean Mannion: He’s done a really nice job. Obviously, there’ve been a couple days where [he’s got] to protect the football a little bit better, but I’m very, very happy with where Cole’s at in his development. There’s kind of some growing pains to any young quarterback. This is his first exposure to NFL football and NFL defenses. With that, you take some bumps and bruises along the way, but he’s made tremendous improvement in terms of timing, rhythm, accuracy. He’s really, really sharp, which doesn’t always maybe show to you guys on the practice field, but he’s super engaged at practice, understands the play calls, understands the footwork. The challenge for him is you don’t get as many reps as you might like, but he’s doing everything he can post-practice in the meeting to maximize his opportunity. Day by day, as you guys have seen, he’s gotten better and better with that.
Q. On that note, what’s your philosophy when it comes to quarterbacks of trying throws in practices that maybe you wouldn’t try in a game versus practicing how you want them to play on Sundays? (Eliot Shorr-Parks)
Sean Mannion: For me, regardless of position, you want to treat every practice as if it were a game. You want to try to take yourself through a game day process in terms of execution, in terms of substituting from the sideline. I don’t really subscribe to, ‘Well, we’re going to treat practice with a different level of aggression.’ You want to, as best you can, create a game day-type mindset for each player in each position group, quarterback or otherwise, within a practice setting.
Q. We’re not going to talk to you again before the first preseason game. What are you looking to get from that experience? (Olivia Reiner)
Sean Mannion: For ourselves as an offense, I want to see execution. I want to see play style. Those are the two things I want to see. We talk about play style a lot, the effort, the physicality, the strain to finish. Then offensively, just can we have a clean operation? Can we line up? Can we execute the offense? Those are the major things I’m looking for.
Q. As a follow-up to that, from a play calling perspective and it being your first time, what are you trying to achieve in that game? (Zach Berman)
Sean Mannion: Just really sharpening the process of the game day logistics for me and for our staff. There’s so many different roles on game day that go on behind the scenes. You have your position coaches, obviously, they’re managing their group from the sideline, communicating in between series, managing substitutions, but there’s so many other elements. You have someone who’s giving you the down and distance from the box, somebody looking for personnel, somebody who’s charting things upstairs. We’ve mapped all that out. We have a super detailed plan for what exactly every single person on our staff is doing. It’ll be through the first and really all the way through the preseason, working through those logistics in real time and making sure it’s as sharp as we need it to be come Week 1.
Q. What are you seeing from some of the young offensive linemen who’ve gotten a chance with the first team? Like T Markel Bell and C/G Drew Kendall seem to have gotten a lot of time there as well. (Martin Frank)
Sean Mannion: It’s a great position group. Obviously, we have [been] kind of headlined by a lot of veterans who have played in this league for a long time at a high level. But I’m glad you asked because there’s a really good group of young linemen that we’re really excited about as well. Some of the names you mentioned, Markel, Drew, there’s a whole bunch of them. They’ve all done a really nice job. It’s been exciting in this training camp to see them grow as players and see them get more and more opportunities. It’s a group with great players in the starting lineup who are more veteran, but there’s a really good crop of young players as well. It’s been exciting to see their growth so far this camp.
Q. RB Saquon Barkley said that he thinks this offense can open up some things for him that maybe he hasn’t been able to show his career. What do you think this offense can help tap into when it comes to Saquon? (Tim McManus)
Sean Mannion: Well that’s the plan. Saquon, he’s a tremendous player. Everything we do offensively ultimately is about how do we put all of our players in the best position to succeed. Obviously, Saquon’s a focal point of our offense, that goes without saying. We carry that mindset into everything we do schematically, what we’re repping at practice and all the different facets of that go hand in hand. As we build the run game, as we build what we’re going to do formationally, you want the play pass game, the keeper game to play off of that. All of these things need to marry with one another. We’re always trying to maximize our players’ skill sets. Saquon obviously chief among them, and then all the different things kind of spawn off of that.
Q. Cadence is a weapon. How would you describe that as a part of — you talk about getting to the line quickly. How does cadence go with that and how’s that been implementing that in practice? (Brooks Kubena)
Sean Mannion: It’s been good. We get to dictate offensively when we snap the ball, that’s kind of the advantage built into the rules for the offense. Now we have to use it properly and master it. There were a couple days early on where we weren’t as sharp as we need to be, but we’ve had incremental growth each day, and we just need to keep pushing for pre-snap perfection. That’s what we talk about, and that will make cadence the best weapon it can be for us.
Q. In terms of designing the offense with players in mind, in the passing game, do you sort of start with WR DeVonta Smith? (Bo Wulf)
Sean Mannion: We look at all of them. DeVonta, obviously, is a tremendous player, but kind of like I spoke to before, really across every position group, we have a ton of guys with a ton of talent and complimentary skill sets. DeVonta, obviously, will be a big part of everything we do, but so will many other players. So it’s really, it’s about all of us. It takes all 11 and that’s our mindset going into everything. Certainly, Smitty, we’re excited to get him involved.
Q. Why do you think there was such a rise last year in 12 and 13 personnel usage? And then, I don’t know if you saw in the draft, but a bunch of wide tight ends went really early in the second, third round. (Geoff Mosher)
Sean Mannion: It probably varies a little bit team to team in terms of their mindset towards it. Tight ends are very versatile pieces of the offense. There’s always a little bit of a cat-and-mouse game in terms of how a defense reacts to more tight ends being on the field. Probably league-wide, you see teams really placing a premium on that and investing in that position. Certainly, our tight end group is one I’m really excited about for all those reasons.
Q. How has QB Jalen Hurts adapted to there being more full-field progression reads? (Jeff McLane)
Sean Mannion: He’s done a nice job. He’s done a nice job. The other day in the indoor, he had a great example of playing on time. He rips an end cut to Darius with anticipation, with timing. He’s been growing every day in that regard and has really been handling it well and we’ll keep working with him on it.
Q. You talked a lot about receivers, WR Elijah Moore specifically getting those added reps. Silver lining, what have you seen from him? (John McMullen)
Sean Mannion: He’s done a nice job. With all these guys, I think seeing them all out in training camp, it’s exciting to see what they can do. It’s different than — there’s just some barriers within the OTA setting, but he’s off to a great start in training camp. He’s done a really nice job. He’s a versatile weapon for us, a part of a group that we’re really excited about, but he’s done a nice job.
Q. Have you seen TE Eli Stowers getting more comfortable and if so, where do you see that progress? (Cayden Steele)
Sean Mannion: Absolutely. Eli’s off to a really good start. He’s a young player. We’re excited about — kind of speaking about the tight end position earlier, there are so many different things asked of that position specifically. Some of them may be a little bit harder to see to the untrained eye. You’re asked to line up in multiple positions, you’re asked to block, you’re asked to catch, you’re asked to run routes. There are so many different facets to the tight end position. He’s done a really nice job with all that and he’s going to keep growing day by day. He’s got the right mindset. He studies hard. He’s a total professional and he’s off to a good start.