Shane Steichen

Q. Through the first few days, how do you think the passing offense has looked? (Eliot Shorr-Parks)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think it’s been good. I think we’ve had some ups and downs at times, but I think, honestly, [QB] Jalen [Hurts] has looked really good. He is efficient throwing the football right now, he’s getting the ball out on time, and the receivers are making plays.

There are always things to correct. When you look at the practice tape there are always things we can get better at, but that’s what training camp is for. But it’s been good.

Q. What have you seen from RB Miles Sanders so far? (Tim McManus)

SHANE STEICHEN: Explosiveness. I mean you see it, right? We know he’s an explosive player, but even in individual, the way he’s running, he’s running hard, he’s taking care of the football, he’s hitting it, he’s seeing it well. He made a few plays the other day where he jump-cut through the line of scrimmage and hit it. I mean, it’s been good to see.

Q. What kind of impact are you seeing that WR A.J. Brown is having on the receivers and also with him and CB Darius Slay going against each other? (Martin Frank)

SHANE STEICHEN: It’s awesome to see. His physicalness that he brings to this football team, he’s got great play strength. He caught a slant the other day and I had a flashback watching his tape when he was in Tennessee catching some of those slants. It just brought me back to his tape in Tennessee where he catches that ball strong with his hands and then he creates those plays afterwards. He can run a guy over or make a guy miss, but his play strength is very impressive.

Q. Where are WR A.J. Brown and QB Jalen Hurts right now? They are obviously very close friends, but there is a rapport they have to build. Where are they in that process? (Dave Zangaro)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think they’re making great strides. They’ve spent a lot of time together in the off-season, obviously in spring and then they threw again in the summer. It shows up, the timing, right?

With anything, wide receivers and quarterbacks, it’s not like it just happens overnight. It’s been good to see. They’re talking through things right after every period. They are talking about, hey, we got to run it more like this and this ball needs to be here. Those things take time but its been good to see and the progress has been really good.

Q. What’s different for you during the games with calling the plays? (Howard Eskin)

SHANE STEICHEN: Right now, not much. The communication that [head coach] Nick [Sirianni] and I have has been great. This is Nick and I’s sixth year working together. We worked together for four years in San Diego/L.A., and then last year obviously and then going into this year. Me and Nick are on the same page. We have great communication in the meetings, on the field in practice, and on game day, so it’s been good.

Q. Do you share ideas on the headsets on what the play could be? (Howard Eskin)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, absolutely. Like I said before, when we are going through a game, we are talking about when we want to call on the sidelines. When we get into a situation and we are in a drive he might say, hey, let’s run it here or let’s throw it here. He might give me a specific play that he wants; if not, I roll with it and we go.

Q. Yesterday, Nick Sirianni talked about Jalen Hurts’ first three interceptions. The second one he said was the one that probably bothered you guys the most. … How do you go about correcting that with him? (Jeff McLane)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, I think this: Like in practice, we want to treat practice – just like we always do – we want to treat it like the game, right? Because in practice sometimes there is no consequences because it’s not going against another team.

I think in practice we want to treat it just like the game. Be smart with the football. If you got a chance to make a play, make a play, but if you don’t have it, throw it away and live for another down, especially on third down. If we don’t have it, let’s throw it away and punt it and go.

Q. WR Quez Watkins said yesterday he’s the fastest guy in the NFL. Do you agree, and how is he looking right now? (Les Bowen)

SHANE STEICHEN: Well, he is really fast. He might be. He might be. He’s looking really good, he’s looking explosive. His speed and the way he goes up and tracks the ball is really, really impressive, so he’s doing a good job.

Q. What’s the value to you guys with the walk-throughs? (Reuben Frank)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, I think the walk-throughs are invaluable. I really do, because you get so many reps in those walk-throughs, and you can give multiple looks. There is all these problems solvings that you got to have. You can give them a base look, but you want to give them multiple looks in those walk-throughs so when they come up in practice or in the game we are ready for them. It’s been really valuable.

Q. So much of practice is structured. How do you prepare for off-schedule plays for Jalen? (Zach Berman)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, I think some of those things, right, it naturally happens where he scrambles, but sometimes we got to add that into practice, too. It’s like, hey, we got a drop-back pass here, whether it’s in 7 or 7 or team. Like, hey, let’s work a scramble drill here so we get it.

Q. Is that new for you considering the QBs you worked with in the past? (Zach Berman)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, well, we did it last year. We started doing that, involving that in practice last year, so we want to continue to do that. Some of those things happen organically, right, in practice, but sometimes we script it in to where we get those off-schedule plays.

Q. From your vantage point, how has WR Jalen Reagor handled working primarily with the second team, and as Coach Sirianni said, battling for a spot? (Bo Wulf)

SHANE STEICHEN: He’s done a great job. He comes out, he’s a hard worker, he battles every single day. You can still see everything he’s got, the explosiveness. He’s made a whole bunch of plays in training camp so far, so he’s got to continue to keep doing that.

Q. Going back to the off-schedule stuff with Jalen Hurts, how difficult is it in a practice environment, because you’re going to blow whistles, or you’re going to make sure you’re going to be very cautious obviously with the quarterback? (John McMullen)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think that’s a great question because it is a controlled environment when we are out here and he’s not getting hit. We’ve just got to do a really good job of working those things in the pocket.

When it’s third and 7-to-10, yeah, we can scramble, but everyone in the world knows we are throwing the football on third and 7-to-10. So when we work those third down periods, we want to work probably a little more 7-10 because if you look around the league, the most third downs are 7-to-10.

We had the most third and 4-to-6s last year. But to convert on third and 7-to-10, the league average was 33 percent, so we want to make it as hard as possible on us in practice so when it comes to game time we’re ready for that situation.

Q. What has been your approach with QB Carson Strong in terms of integrating him into learning the offense but also getting enough reps? (Jeff McLane)

SHANE STEICHEN: With any young guy you’re learning a whole new language. You got the spring, and then the summer he’s studying, then we come in there on this.

With anything it’s a transition, from college to the NFL. This is his first week of NFL practice, so he’s still learning and going through those things.

Obviously we want to keep it to where, hey, let’s get our base stuff in with him, and then once he gets a real good hang of it, then we can start incorporating a lot more things that we do.

Q. The flip side with Carson Strong is QB Reid Sinnett. He came in the middle of the season last year. What do you see from him getting to actually get him in training camp? (Bo Wulf)

SHANE STEICHEN: Reid is a really smart football player. He understands the game really well. He’s been really good in the meetings. He asks great questions. He’s a big, strong passer with a big arm, and he sees it well. So it’ll be good to see him in the pre-season this year.

Q. How is RB Kenny Gainwell’s role evolving this year? (Tim McManus)

SHANE STEICHEN: Kenny’s done a nice job. I think any time from year one to year two you want to see that jump and that growth, and you can see it on the practice field. Just the understanding of how we want to run things in ball handling, in the run game and in the pass game. Just how to set up defenders coming out of the backfield. He’s learning and he’s doing a good job.

Q. It’s your first summer with QB Gardner Minshew. What have you seen from him that you can’t learn when he’s on the scout team during the season? (Zach Berman)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, the thing about Gardner, he can process it really quickly and he gets the ball out of his hands really quickly. He’s played a good chunk of football and he’s had a lot of experience playing in Jacksonville obviously. But you can see the growth in him in learning our offense too with a year into it, just the decision making and getting the ball out quick.

Q. You only have five running backs, most teams have seven in training camp. How does that force you to be creative with the rotation in practice, with reps and everything? How is that an advantage maybe to RB Jason Huntley and RB Kennedy Brooks? (Mike Kaye)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think it’s exactly what you just said. I think it is an advantage. When you only have five, a lot of guys can get reps and you can switch those guys in and out whenever you want, and they can get more reps. I think that’s what you said, and that’s the valuable part of it.

Q. How has G Isaac Seumalo looked on the other side? (Dave Zangaro)

SHANE STEICHEN: Isaac looks really good. Isaac’s a really, really smart football player. He understands protections, the run game, the different looks, the different fronts. He sees it before it happens, and he’s a physical player and he’s playing good football right now.

Q. Year one, year two you were talking about with Kenny Gainwell. WR Devonta Smith, for whatever reason haven’t seen a ton of traffic to him in practice yet, but what have you seen from him to make that leap? (John McMullen)

SHANE STEICHEN: You know what, from year one to year two, just watching him in training camp, the explosiveness in and out of breaks, it’s stepped up. You can really see him coming out and sinking his hips, and the way he comes out of routes right now in creating separation has been really good.

Q. We’ve seen C/G Cam Jurgens a lot with the first team. Seemed like he had a pretty good day in one-on-ones yesterday. What have you seen from him? (E.J. Smith)

SHANE STEICHEN: Honestly, the way he moves. We saw in college the screen game, but when he works double teams with the guards inside, just the way he gets those double teams off and comes off to the next level is really impressive. So, really excited about Cam.

Q. T Andre Dillard made some changes to his body, how do you think he’s handled the reps that he’s been given? (Josh Tolentino)

SHANE STEICHEN: You know what, he’s done a nice job. He basically lives in this building. Every time I’m in here, he’s always in here working out, grinding away getting his body ready. But he’s done a nice job.