Eagles’ Nick Sirianni Focused On Fundamentals In Preparation For Divisional Round
For the first time in Nick Sirianni’s NFL coaching career, he has a bye week during the opening round of the playoffs. On the other side of the bracket, Andy Reid has a bye for the seventh time as a head coach and the ninth time in the NFL.
This is routine for Reid. It’s new for Sirianni, who is tasked with effectively navigating the scheduling, messaging, preparation and practice without having experienced it before.
“You like to think you invented an idea or something like that. In actuality, you take little bits and pieces from each coach you’ve been around,” Sirianni said. “Whether that’s the good things you’ve been around or the bad things you have been around.
Then, because I haven’t been in this scenario, obviously now it’s calling the coaches that I trust, calling the coaches that have experienced this before, asking them how they handled it. At the end of the day, just like I have to do with everything, I have to take a little bit of information from everywhere. … I have to make the decision that I think is important, that benefits the team the most.”
Sirianni gave the coaches off on Monday. They’ve since devoted the early portion of the week to self-scouting. The end of the week will turn to preparing for four potential opponents: the Cowboys, Giants, Seahawks or Buccaneers. The Eagles played the Giants and Cowboys in recent weeks, so they have a good idea of their personnel and schemes. Seattle and Tampa Bay will require more work. Philadelphia will play the lowest-seeded team that advances.
The coaching staff has a fixed self-scouting routine that it uses during in-season bye weeks. Sirianni offered the example of watching the plays when the Eagles have been sacked. They seek common denominators, with different coaches offering input. Then they spend the next few days trying to fix them.
Sirianni compared it to his taco soup. His kids don’t like the soup, so he brainstorms how it can be improved and tinkers along the way.
“I didn’t give them enough Fritos on the side,” Sirianni said. “So maybe then I’ll add a couple of Fritos.”
Sirianni anticipated a football eureka this week — or, perhaps, a Fritos-like moment — when they find something that will improve the system.
When the Eagles return to practice later in the week, the focus will be on fundamentals. Sirianni compared it to training camp or spring workouts, when it’s less game plan-oriented and more time is devoted to individual drills.
“Fundamentals are going to be a big part of winning in the playoffs,” Sirianni said. “This player is a good player, that player is a good player, this coach is going to call a good play, that coach is going to call a good play. What it comes down to is your fundamentals.”
There will also be more portions of practice spent on situational work. The Eagles will practice end-of-game plays, get-in-position plays and backed-up situations so they’re prepared for what to do in key moments of the game. They usually work on these in walk-throughs; they’ll have more time to allocate these sessions during full-speed practices this week.
“If we’re going to do all the things that we want to do in the playoffs, that’s literally winning the first game and then taking it from there, there’s going to be situations,” Sirianni said. “It’s going to be the smart football teams where it’s going to come down to things like that.”
The 2017 Eagles benefited from their bye week, when players requested padded practices to raise the intensity levels and the coaching staff watched old Nick Foles film to discover concepts where he could thrive. That week was credited as pivotal to the Eagles’ Super Bowl run.
Eagles coordinators in demand
The Eagles’ offensive and defensive coordinators are already popular on the interview circuit with head-coaching vacancies growing around the NFL.
Shane Steichen has fielded requests from Carolina, Indianapolis and Houston, according to multiple reports. Jonathan Gannon is on the list in Houston, where he interviewed last offseason and was considered a strong finalist.
These requests are no surprise, given the Eagles are tied for the best record in the NFL and finished No. 3 in offensive DVOA and No. 6 in defensive DVOA. Gannon received interest from multiple teams last season, and Steichen’s profile has grown as the Eagles’ play caller and with Jalen Hurts’ development.
Gannon was viewed as a potential head coach even before the Eagles hired him, and the interest he received last offseason despite an inconsistent 2021 by Philadelphia’s defense shows that he has leadership attributes appealing to decision-makers.
Steichen’s background working with young quarterbacks will make him especially appealing to teams who are looking to develop a passer. Steichen has spent the past two years as Hurts’ offensive coordinator and was Justin Herbert’s offensive coordinator in 2020.
Eagles offensive coordinator Shane Steichen has drawn interest from several teams with head-coaching vacancies. (Bill Streicher / USA Today)
Per league rules, they are allowed to participate in virtual interviews on Wednesday. After Wednesday, the next available date for interviews (if the Eagles remain in the playoffs) is Jan. 30.
That way, there won’t be a lingering distraction during the postseason run. Past examples (such as Kevin O’Connell in Minnesota) suggest teams are willing to wait for a Super Bowl assistant if they want to hire him.
“You hire guys like Shane and Jonathan that are committed to the team. Also, obviously, they want to be able to do what’s best for them and their families,” Sirianni said. “I know that first and foremost, is that these guys are committed to this team.
You have some time off here later in the week as far as we’re not grinding until 10 o’clock, maybe every night. There is some time that’s happening later in the week for them to be able to do that.”
Sirianni has made efforts to prepare Eagles assistants for opportunities by meeting with them weekly to go over situations specific to a head coach. Frank Reich similarly groomed Sirianni.
He’s also taken steps in preparing a succession plan. Last January gave Sirianni a head start in contemplating ideas for defense.
“That is a very important part of being a head coach, is who you replace guys with,” Sirianni said. “You’re hoping that you have success. You’re hoping you lose guys for the benefit of them and their career and their family.
… It’s the same scenario here. Of course, I want to keep these guys, they’re great coordinators, but in the event that I lose them, I have an idea of what I want to do at both spots. The answer is sometimes, yes, it’s in the building, sometimes it’s outside of the building. But I feel like we have a lot of good options, and I feel like we have a lot of good options in the building that we’d be excited about if that were to happen.”
Potential internal replacements at offensive coordinator are quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson and passing game coordinator Kevin Patullo. (Johnson has also been rumored to be a candidate elsewhere this offseason.) On defense, secondary coach/defensive passing game coordinator Dennard Wilson and linebackers coach Nick Rallis would be potential candidates.
Sweat ‘trending in the right direction’
The Eagles could have Josh Sweat in the lineup when they host a divisional-round playoff game in two weeks. Sweat left the Eagles’ Week 17 loss to New Orleans on a stretcher with a frightening neck injury, although teammates were encouraged when Sweat spoke on the field. Sweat was released from the hospital a few hours after the game and was back with the team last week.
He didn’t practice, but Sirianni said Sweat even pushed to play in the Eagles’ regular-season finale and is trending in the right direction for the playoffs.
“I know he is feeling better,” Sirianni said. “That’s obviously a long way from when we all had to watch him have to be carted off. … We felt like it wasn’t in his best interest to play last week health-wise. Are we hopeful that he’ll play in two weeks?
Yeah. Again, just like you said, I don’t want to say yes, he’s going to play. We’re really hopeful and feel good that he will. Anything can happen, but we know he’s trending in the right direction of getting healthy. That’s a good thing because he brings so much to this defense. We feel his presence every time that he’s out on that field.”
Sweat had a career year, with 11 sacks and an interception returned for a touchdown while playing 16 games. He missed the playoffs last season because of emergency surgery for internal bleeding when an artery ruptured while Sweat was at home in the days before the game.
Hurts hurting
Jalen Hurts was “sore, as expected” after the quarterback’s first game back from a sprained shoulder, according to Sirianni. He said he doesn’t know what level of pain Hurts will endure in the playoffs after Sirianni acknowledged that Hurts was “hurting bad” on Sunday.
“We didn’t feel like we were putting him at any more risk of getting more injured, but we knew it was going to hurt him like hell, he knew it was going to hurt him like hell,” Sirianni said. “That’s the kind of player he is, that’s the kind of teammate he is. He fought through it because it was important for him to be out there, he knew how important it was for him and his teammates to be out there.”
Hurts said after the game that the bye week gives him a chance to heal. The Eagles don’t play again until Jan. 21 or 22, which will be more than a month since Hurts first injured the shoulder.
Quinn’s chance to validate trade
The Eagles’ splashiest midseason acquisition was Robert Quinn, one of the NFL’s top pass rushers of the last decade.
Quinn missed four games with an injury and did not record a sack in his other six games with the Eagles. Certainly, the team expected more production from the 32-year-old with 102 career sacks.
“They brought me over here for a reason,” Quinn said last week. “Hopefully, I can do what they expected me to do when they brought me here.”
There’s still time for Quinn, who looked quicker around the edge in his first game back in Week 18. The statistics back that up; Quinn’s four pressures were his most of the season (including his time with the Bears), and he had a pressure rate of 28.6 percent.
Gannon joked that Quinn has “fresh legs and a new knee.” During Quinn’s lull in production in November, Sirianni said he thinks Quinn will still make “a big-time play in a big-time situation.” That could come in the playoffs. Quinn has only played in two postseason games in his career. He now has his best chance yet of a deep run — and a big play could validate the fourth-round pick the Eagles spent to acquire him.
“I’ll tell you about that when we get to the postseason,” Quinn said. “Hopefully I have a better story for you about that in a few weeks.”
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