The Eagles are 1-0 as the begin preparing for the Titans in Week 2, but head coach Nick Sirianni spoke with reporters on Monday after having a chance to watch Sunday’s film. He explained why Hollywood Brown didn’t play, and why they have to do better moving forward, as well as why Dallas Goedert is so clutch, and what he saw from the running backs against Washington.
When asked about certain individual performances, Sirianni kept coming back to this being the first game and everyone having things
they need to improve. He spoke in support of Landon Dickerson following a rough performance, but shortly after the press conference, we learned the starting left guard was headed to IR.
Here’s what the head coach had to say:
On Hollywood Brown’s usage
Sirianni said that they were rotating guys on Sunday, and while they know Brown could help them, it just didn’t work out. The head coach emphasized that they want to get the WR the ball because his speed is real, but there are some games in which players get shut out of catches, and some games that they get shut out of reps.
“And quite frankly, just from my end, we want to get him in the football game. We’ll make a better effort to do that next time because I know the play making ability that he can bring with his speed but was pleased with how the wide outs played as a whole. Of course, there were things that you want back. They made a lot of plays down the field with different things with their job description. But I do want to see him in that football game and getting reps and contributing to this football team.”
On Dallas Goedert’s ability
Sirianni had a lot of positive things to say about Dallas Goedert, noting that the tight end has been so consistent throughout his time with the team.
“He just has a knack to make plays. He’s been very solid in the run game; thought he was solid yesterday in that as well. I think Dallas has had different versions of his game shine at different times. What I mean by that is yesterday you got to see him catch the ball over the middle in space and get to the right spot, be a big target, make plays and finish. You’ve also seen through Dallas’ career how much of a dangerous runner he is when the ball is in his hands and how hard he is to bring down. You got to see that a little bit yesterday on the third down.”
The head coach went on to talk about some of the more impressive moments from Goedert the past few years, highlighting some of his big sideline catches in critical playoff games. When the TE has to win one-on-one matchups, he’s able to do it in various ways on various routes, including some outside receiver routes and particularly in the red zone. Sirianni was sure to point out that Goedert’s success is not a surprise because he works his butt off to take his game to the next level.
“He’s a great teammate. He’s consistent. Guys love being around him, so it was good to see him have a good game yesterday. I was pumped for him, and obviously all the things he did to help our football team win last night.”
On the RB group
Sirianni disregarded the notion that Saquon Barkley’s 42-yard run was just an outlier compared to the rest of the performance, and insisted that the explosive play count just as much as the other ones.
“Being committed to the run game, sometimes that’s the way it goes. Not every play can be an explosive play in the run game. You want to make sure you’re staying ahead of the sticks. Now, that doesn’t mean that we ignore the issues that happened on those plays that averaged whatever. Some of them were negative plays, some of them were one-yard gains, some of them were six-yard gains. We’ll take those six-yard gains, but those plays count. When you’re committed to the run game like we are, you reap the benefits of that when you stick with it.”
The head coach also talked about Will Shipley being on the field in some critical moments. He explained that sometimes in third-down they don’t want to sub out a guy if they’re trying to go tempo.
“I think the best way to say, ‘Hey, why did Will Shipley get carries in those situations?’ Because we trust our backs. We trust every one of those guys. They’ve all shown to be able to make plays in different aspects. Obviously, Saquon’s our lead guy, as you guys know, and we’re really comfortable when Tank [Bigsby] and Will are in there and they’re getting carries and they’re getting protections. We’ve got a lot of faith in that group, and we’ll continue to have faith in that group because they continue to show us the things that they can do on a consistent basis.”
On Jalen Hurts’ development
“He made plays that only Jalen Hurts is capable of making at times across the entire league. With some of those new things that we were doing, I thought he did a nice job. Now, not a surprise to me. I was talking to somebody – we had 46 days or 47 days in training camp to get ready for that first game. We’re seeing that on a daily basis, that improvement.”
He also admitted that they wouldn’t have put in some of the different things they did on Sunday if they didn’t think Hurts could execute at a very high level.
On Makai Lemon’s debut
“[Makai Lemon has] always done a good job since he’s been here of blocking, doing the right things, being in the right spots. Obviously, the ones that went to him yesterday didn’t equal out to be big yardage gains, but he did little things to help us win the football game that sometimes are unseen and unnoticed. Why that’s really important is while a young player is continuing to get used to the NFL and being able to make an impact, you have to trust that player.
We trust him because he’s constantly doing the things without the ball that we need to help us win and that we know is going to help us win. That just builds confidence and allows players to develop, because I’ve been on the other side of that where maybe you didn’t trust the guy and you didn’t want to put him in there and then it was hard to get that guy going. So because of that trust we have in him, I think that’s going to help him continue to develop as a football player as we continue on through the season.”
