Shane Steichen

Q. When it comes to the running game, there’s a lot of talk about RB Miles Sanders and how little touches. Eagles Head Coach Nick Sirianni kind of explained RPOs are sometimes looked upon as runs. Is there a time, though, you have to have a conversation where maybe we just have to take the option out of it, hand the football? (John McMullen)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, those are conversations we’ve had throughout the week. RPOs do help us, but sometimes when we want to run the football, we do have called running plays. And so, we got to keep looking through those things and getting better at it.

Q. Is that part of your job to kind of monitor ratio or is that someone else? (Dave Zangaro)

SHANE STEICHEN: We talk about that throughout the week, especially in the game, on the sidelines. Those are conversations we have throughout series, you know, what we want to do on the next series. We talk about all those things.

Q. Nick said he doesn’t want to use pre-snap motion for the sake of pre-snap motion. But you had a lot of success against Atlanta using pre-snap motion, especially the WR DeVonta Smith touchdown. What made you go away from it in this game in particular? (Mike Kaye)

SHANE STEICHEN: I don’t know if there’s a certain reason. I think more than anything – I think Coach [Sirianni] hit on it yesterday. If we can get an advantage with motion, we’re going to use it.

Sometimes you motion to motion, for what? You know, we want to get an advantage. And if we feel we can get an advantage with the motion, we’re going to motion.

Q. As a follow up to that, what are some of the drawbacks that come with pre-snap motion or motion at the snap? (EJ Smith)

SHANE STEICHEN: Sometimes, if you just motion to motion, you don’t know how they’re going to adjust. That’s the biggest thing.

It’s like, ‘If we motion over here and we haven’t seen how they are going to adjust, it might screw us up offensively.’ So, if we know what they’re going to be in with the motion, that’s going to help us as an offense.

Q. Is that a philosophical thing for the systems you have always worked in, that there hasn’t been a lot of shifts and motions, pre-snap? (Jeff McLane)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, for the most part what I’ve been around, that’s true.

Q. You have a pretty young core of wide receivers, obviously. How do you kind of get them through the ups and downs, you know, starting out a season the way you have? (Martin Frank)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, that’s a good question. I think with all those guys, I think it’s just you got to keep working with them and talking through certain things.

And, again, we’re in Week 3, we got a lot of football left. Everything we want is in front of us. So, we got to keep working through those things and getting better as a group.

Q. You come in with a pretty extensive knowledge of facing the Kansas City Chiefs, obviously. How has their defense evolved with Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo over the last couple years and this year? (Mike Kaye)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, that’s a good question. We faced them in Mexico City when I was a coordinator there, and then the last two years. They’re very multiple defensively.

They give you a lot of different looks. And from a personnel standpoint, 32 [Chiefs S Tyrann Mathieu] and 55 [Chiefs DE Frank Clark], and [Chiefs LB Anthony] Hitchens and 95 [Chiefs DT Chris Jones], like, they got a lot of good football players, and they do a lot of different things that we got to be ready for.

And we’ve been practicing like crazy this week preparing for it and our guys will be ready to go.

Q. We’ve seen a couple instances where QB Jalen Hurt’s long balls have come up short. What are you seeing there? What’s the key to fixing that? (Tim McManus)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think that’s just repetition. Obviously, you want to put it out in front. Sometimes, you don’t make the throw all the time. It happens sometimes. But you got to put it out there a little more on that last one he had on Monday night.

Q. Overall, this offense has scored three touchdowns in the past two weeks. What needs to be better? (Zach Berman)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think, obviously, we need to be more efficient. More efficient on first and second down and moving the football.

We can’t allow ourselves to have three and outs like the past week. We got to run it and throw it. That’s the bottom line.

Q. We’ve seen DeVonta get a lot of targets the last couple weeks, the production hasn’t come with it. What’s it going to take to get that to happen? (Dave Zangaro)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think like Coach [Sirianni] said the other day, I think just easy touches and get guys going, you know, with whatever it may be just to get the ball in their hand and get them going, and then you get some confidence going. And then everyone starts bringing confidence throughout the game.

Q. You talk a lot about running backs getting in a rhythm. Is that a thing for receivers, too? (Dave Zangaro)

SHANE STEICHEN: Absolutely. I think so, too. With anything, running backs and receivers. Getting them touches early and getting them in the rhythm and the flow of the game.

Q. How have you found defenses have been playing DeVonta? Have they been trying to be more physical with him the last couple weeks? (Martin Frank)

SHANE STEICHEN: Sometimes. I mean, we got a lot of man coverage on Monday night versus Dallas. And that was their game plan going in.

Each team has a flavor of the week. Early in games, you’ll kind of see how they play you. And we’ll see that on Sunday with Kansas City.

Q. You mentioned the first and second down success. Third down, obviously, you guys didn’t convert I think until the third quarter. What are those discussions like during the game? Do you and Nick say, ‘We got to get something going, we got to convert, help the defense get off the field?’ How do those discussions go? (John McMullen)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, that’s pretty much on the sidelines. We look at the call sheet and we say, ‘Hey, what do we want to run on the next series, what do we feel comfortable with, what have they been playing defensively, what do we think is going to give us the best on the next series?’ That’s pretty much the conversation.

Q. The deep overs have been a big part of the offense. How has the implementation of that been going with this offense and with Jalen at quarterback? (Jeff McLane)

SHANE STEICHEN: It’s been good. Like I said, it’s still early, right? We’re in Week 3 and we’re continuing to grow.

And, obviously, those certain routes that we have up per game plan dictates — the coverage that they’re playing defensively is when we’re going to run certain routes. So those routes come up versus certain coverages we like.

Q. For the ineligible player downfield penalties, is that on the O-linemen or is that on the quarterback to get the ball off earlier? (Zach Berman)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, I think that’s a little bit – obviously, I’ll take responsibility for that. I mean, we got to be better there with that knowing that they could call those. So, we got to be better there.

Q. Is that a greater point of emphasis, you think with the officials this year? (Zach Berman)

SHANE STEICHEN: Absolutely. It’s being called a lot.

Q. You guys, obviously, you know, three offensive linemen down. How are you guys adapting, adjusting to that? (Martin Frank)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think it’s been fine. I mean, Stout [Eagles Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Coach Jeff Stoutland] does a great job with those guys. That group is tight knit and they’re doing a heck of a job, and it’s next man up and we’re going to be ready to go.

Q. You and Nick have worked in offenses that have used fullbacks pretty regularly. What made you go against those looks this year? (Mike Kaye)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think it’s as we’ve evolved and being in offensive systems and looking around the league and seeing what teams are doing, we think sometimes you can spread it out a little more and create a lighter box sometimes without having a fullback in there. But, I mean, teams use fullbacks. It’s still good to use a fullback, too.