Nick Sirianni’s confidence in his players matters

The Eagles head coach said he doesn’t trust his players blindly, noting they’ve earned it through months of hard work.

The Eagles pulled off an impressive win over the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday afternoon and continue their win-streak with eight in a row.

There were a few questionable moments for the offense throughout the game, but head coach Nick Sirianni explained some of those decisions afterward. Notably, the head coach talked about the call to go for it on 4th-and-inches late in the game and how both C.J. “Chauncey” Gardner-Johnson and DeVonta Smith encouraged him to put his trust in the team’s offense and defense.

Sirianni admitted that the 3rd-and-1 call on the previous play gave him confidence to go for it, but as he was debating the implications of the decision, his players gave him the nudge.

“So, the guys that gave me a lot of confidence is Chauncey [Gardner-Johnson], like, ‘Just trust us. We’ll stop ‘em if we don’t get it.’

And then, DeVonta [Smith] is like — I love when DeVonta tells me to just go for it, ‘We’re gonna get that quarterback sneak.’ [Jokingly] DeVonta has nothing to do with us getting the quarterback sneak, even when he’s on the field. But, he’s like, ‘Coach, go for it.’

I love that about our team, that they have confidence in each other. I have confidence in them. They have confidence in each other.”

He made sure to point out that none of that is blind faith, it’s all based on the months of tireless work they’ve all put in and seen each other put in.

This isn’t the first time Sirianni has shown trust in his players. He often talks about it, but last week we got to see the real-time implications of one of those decisions. In the Eagles mic’ed up video from the Rams game, Zack Baun was seen telling Nakobe Dean that if the head coach is aggressive, that means he trusts them, which Baun admitted, “I love that.”

Sirianni then found the linebacker duo on the sideline and confirmed that the reason he declined a penalty was because of the trust he has in the defense. To see Baun react to that in real-time gave a little insight into just how much it means when the head coach makes those choices.

It seems safe to say that Sirianni has won fans over with the team’s resurgence this season, particularly after the bye week, but he never once lost the locker room. As we learn more about the relationships he has with his players, it becomes increasingly obvious why.