Eagles football is inching closer, and the team is preparing to get back on the practice field and back in the weight room, starting with the rookies and tryout players. Head coach Nick Sirianni spoke to reporters after the first practice of rookie minicamp and talked about his process for on-boarding new players and explained how they evaluate so much talent in a short time.
Here’s what the head coach had to say:
On OC Sean Mannion
“I think he’s just got a good confidence, calm confidence, conviction about the way he goes
about it, very detailed, and it has been fun. It’s been fun sitting in the back of the room listening to him talk, listening to him at install, and building a connection with the guys. He’s done a good job so far and just got to keep stacking days upon days.”
On individual players
DT Uar Bernard
“Excited to have him here. Really excited about that. You talk about being able to develop habits and things like that. There [are] things that are brand new to him, so that’s an exciting thing. Excited to have him here and look forward to working with all these guys.”
WR Makai Lemon and TE Eli Stowers
“Both of those guys did a nice job today, did a nice job in meetings, being able to answer questions both in position meetings and in offensive meetings. Just like you are, looking forward to getting to know them better and looking forward to continuing to see them grow as players.”
On his onboarding process
“I think at the end of the day though, this weekend with these rookies is about establishing the behaviors that are important to winning football games and trying to get those behaviors [to] become their habits.”
Sirianni explained that they show and tell them what they think, but says the ‘tough, detailed, together” is the easy part. The hard part is being relentless with those things every single day.
“But it is a very important part of the process to make sure that the job description’s very clear. Again, like I said, you’re just trying to develop these habits that you know are important, that result with wins and losses.”
Sirianni also talked about how they make sure to get a good evaluation on 30 tryout players in such a short window of time. He explained that they want to get the guys working, get habits started, and get them running plays.
“I know that some of the league doesn’t do rookie minicamp quite as much. We still think that’s an important part of the process for many different reasons.
We think it’s really important to be able to bring guys in because they’re not in football shape right now. We think it’s important to bring a wide variety of guys in so you’re able to practice because if you just had one deep in this camp, we’d wear these guys out pretty darn quick. It is important, and it’s important to also be able to cast a wide net and have different types of players in here that you’ve had your eye on or that have popped on tape for different things, and to be able to get a look at them and see if you can steal a guy that way.“
On the veterans
“They’re hungry and they’re hungry to be back here. They’re hungry to continue to connect with each other, connect with their new teammates. I’ve really seen them spend a lot of time together knowing how important this phase of the offseason is to be able to come together as a team. Sometimes in the season, you don’t have these opportunities that you work till midday and then you’ve got a long portion of the day to be able to do some things with your teammates.”
Sirianni went on to emphasize how hard they are working at connecting and starting to build together, as well as working really hard in the weight room.
“Everything starts right back at the beginning and we’re building it as if we’re starting from square one again. Not only in the schemes, not only a new scheme with offense, the same [with] scheme on defense, same [with] scheme on special teams, same thing with our strength and conditioning, same thing with our core values, same thing with our relationships.”
Other notables
- Sirianni was asked about Alec Halaby leaving the organization, and the head coach said he really enjoyed the time they worked together and he was valued and will be missed. He noted that Halaby gave him great insight into his perspective and was able to communicate those things.
- The head coach said that there isn’t too much different about coaching up a left-handed quarterback – rookie Cole Payton – and noted that his son is also a lefty and a QB, so the biggest challenge is trying to mirror the motions.
- He confirmed that the team did NOT ensure that Luke Akers was assigned No. 2, the number worn by his dad, legendary Eagles kicker David Akers. Sirianni that it was still pretty cool that it worked out that way, and noted that Luke punted the ball really well during his tryout.
- Sirianni was asked about the Eagles not scheduling the fully allowed number of OTA and minicamp days, but he pointed to the big picture when it comes to both the players health, and to making sure there was enough down time in between at this point of the offseason.
