Shane Steichen

SHANE STEICHEN: I think I’ll just start. I realize you guys probably want to hit on the Tampa Bay game. Obviously, not what we wanted as an offense. We’ve got to be more efficient on 1st and 2nd down. Coach [Sirianni] hit on that last week and I think anytime when you have so many three-and-outs, I think you look at the tape and you kind of look and see what you can improve on and do better. And I think, even dating back to the Carolina game, I think when [WR] Quez [Watkins] hit that big 3rd down, that kind of got us going. I think when you can have a big play or have someone make a big play, it kind of gets you in a rhythm. So, I think we need to keep continuing to grow as an offense.

Are we where we want to be right now? No, but we’ve got 11 games left and it’s going to start this weekend in Vegas and try to get back on the right track.

Q. Eagles Head Coach Nick Sirianni mentioned the lack of experience that he had had with zone read plays and I’m wondering does that affect ultimately production? Can it? (Jeff McLane)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think with anything, I think you look to grow and improve on everything. I think we’ve got a lot of good coaches, and when we’re looking at certain things, we’ve got a lot of guys that have good input. And we’re looking to get better every week with that stuff and that’s the main focus is keep growing as an offense and getting better.

Q. What’s been your experience with those types of plays? (Jeff McLane)

SHANE STEICHEN: I did it a little bit last year when I was with [Chargers QB] Justin Herbert, but other than that, that’s pretty much it because I’ve been around [Former Chargers QB] Philip Rivers most of my coaching career. So, last year was the first year I had a little bit of experience with it, but there are guys on our staff like [Eagles Tight Ends Coach] Jason Michael and [Eagles Quarterbacks Coach] Brian Johnson that have done it a lot, so it’s good to have those guys. And Stout [Eagles Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line coach Jeff Stoutland] has done it, as well.

Q. Is it something that’s really detailed or is it just easy as reading a defender? (Jeff McLane)

SHANE STEICHEN: There’s a lot of detail that goes into it because when you start running zone read a lot, teams are going to play you different. When you’re looking at teams and you’re scheming up certain things and you see what they’re doing defensively, they’re not going to always play the same way because of the quarterback we have. So, I’m not going to get into too much scheme on how teams are doing it, but teams do play it differently when you’re running that type of stuff.

Q. How much difference have you seen from say week one, when you guys were really successful, up to Tampa Bay, as guys shifted from a defensive standpoint? Has it been drastic when you’re talking about the zone read stuff? (John McMullen)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, I think we’ve done some really good things. Obviously, Atlanta was a great start for us. I think we moved the ball efficiently against San Francisco. Obviously, we didn’t score in the red zone, but I think we’ve had some ups and downs through the first six weeks, and I think we’re just continuing to grow and improve as an offense and get better.

Like I said, we’ve got 11 games left and that’s the biggest thing. We’ve got everything we want in front of us and our players know that. We’re just cleaning up the details right now and focusing on this week.

Q. How important do you think having a physicality to what you do is as an offense? (Geoff Mosher)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think you definitely have to be. Football is a physical game. You’ve got to be physical, you’ve got to be able to run it, and especially when it gets cold here and it’s starting to change, you’ve got to be able to run the football well in those situations. So, I think you definitely have to be physical.

Q. Do you feel like you guys have yet to show the physicality that you’d want? (Geoff Mosher)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think we’ve shown physicality. I think we really have. I think we’ve got to keep getting better at it, but we’ve got the guys up front. This offensive line – like I said, this is the best offensive line I’ve been around. Excited about the guys up front. The backs, the receivers, they’re blocking well, so we’ve got to keep improving.

Q. What’s the process for in-game adjustments with the staff? (Zach Berman)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think throughout the game, obviously, there’s a lot of good conversation on the sidelines. Obviously, you look at the services on what they’re doing and how can we adjust and make certain things. There are certain things that come up in the game that might not be in the game plan that say, ‘Hey, shoot, they’re playing this, we’ve got to run this.’ Those are stuff that’s in our offense that are staples that we like and those are the conversations that happen on the sideline.

Q. Obviously, Nick is the play caller, but as the head coach he’s managing the game while the defense is on the field, too. Is that you kind of leading the way there, in terms of those adjustments? (Zach Berman)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, we have a process that we go through on the sidelines that we talk about through the week on certain things, like ‘Hey, let’s talk about our next series of runs that we want, here’s our next pass that we want. Hey, what screen do we want up?’ So, we talk through all those things and then we have a plan going forward.

Q. As you come back from this mini-bye week, what are some of the biggest takeaways from the offensive performance so far? (Dave Zangaro)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think the biggest thing, I just hit on earlier, is just efficiency on 1st and 2nd down. We had some really good conversations as an offensive staff on Friday, and, obviously, we self-scout ourselves every week, but, obviously, we had some extra time this weekend to look through some certain things on what we can get better at. I think we’re going to be all right. I really do. I think we have the right coaching staff. Coach does a heck of a job, he’s a great leader, and we’ve got the right players to get this thing turned.

Q. You guys run a lot of zone reads and RPOs and that’s been attributed to having RB Miles Sanders get the ball. Why hasn’t he gotten a lot of it early on, especially on 1st and 2nd down when it comes to designed run plays? (Chris Franklin)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, I think that’s something we’ve looked at. That’s something we’ve been looking at on doing some of those things, and so even like the ones we hit last week, obviously, we popped some late in the game where he popped them, and those could have been called runs, they could have been RPOs. From the naked eye just looking at it, you don’t really know.

Not trying to get too schemey with it, but [RB] Miles [Sanders] is a heck of a back and we’ve got to get him going.

Q. No more former Eagles TE Zach Ertz, obviously, getting moved. How does that change things for you and the offense? Obviously, that’s a veteran guy. (John McMullen)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, first and foremost, I just want to wish [former Eagles TE] Zach [Ertz] the best. Being around him the short time that I was during training camp and these first six weeks, he was an ultimate pro, did everything you wanted, studied the game, loved the game, worked hard and I wish him nothing but the best.

Obviously, [TE] Dallas [Goedert]’s role will probably pick up a little bit more and then obviously [TE] Jack [Stoll] and [TE] Tyree [Jackson] and [TE] Noah [Togiai]. All those guys are going to be able to step up and make some plays.

Q. We’ve never really seen TE Dallas Goedert be the No. 1 guy for an extended period of time. What’s your level of comfort in him being that guy and how do you think he’ll do? (Dave Zangaro)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think Dallas will do a heck of a job. He’s explosive, he’s got really good hands, he’s strong, he’s powerful, he’s good in the run game. So, really excited about Dallas moving forward.

Q. We asked you earlier in the season about QB Jalen Hurt’s lack of passes in between the hashes and I think there’s a stat out there that it’s probably the lowest in the NFL. At this point, is that a trend? Is that something that you guys view as an issue that needs to be corrected? (Jeff McLane)

SHANE STEICHEN: No, I think with anything –I think I hit on this earlier – I think when you’re looking at plays and what defenses are doing defensively from a coverage standpoint, are they giving you the middle of the field? Are they giving you middle of the field? If they are, we’re going to take it, and if they’re giving us one-on-ones on the outside, we’re going to take that. So, I think that’s a game-by-game basis.

Q. Do you feel like teams are trying to take that away from you guys? (Jeff McLane)

SHANE STEICHEN: Sometimes they are, yeah. Sometimes they are.

Q. We’ve seen Jalen Hurts just miss some guys that I’m sure are throws he’d like to have back, open guys. What can you do to get him through that? Is it mechanical? Have you seen anything with his footwork? What are you seeing there? (Reuben Frank)

SHANE STEICHEN: I think you just continue to work it in practice and repetition. You go back and look at the tape and you talk through it mechanically, fundamentals and all that stuff, and then you just keep working it in practice to get him better.

Q. You talked about the 3rd down play that WR Quez Watkins made against Carolina. Do you feel like he could be even more involved in the offense? (Bo Wulf)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, I think a lot. Like I said, we want to get everyone involved. Quez has got big play ability. Obviously, [WR] DeVonta [Smith] is a big-time player, Dallas is a big-time player, Miles is a big-time player. As much as we can get everyone involved, we want to do that.

Q. I don’t know how much the players have been around the past 24 hours, but I guess how has T Lane Johnson been since he’s been back? How does that add to the offense? (Zach Berman)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, it’s great to have Lane back. I just saw him for the first time yesterday. Obviously, he’s a big part of our offense and we’re excited to have him back.

Q. What will he bring to your line, kind of stabilize it to come back there at right tackle? (Geoff Mosher)

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, I think Coach will handle those questions, but we’re excited to have him back.