The Eagles are getting ready for a business trip to Tampa Bay and head coach Nick Sirianni spoke to reporters on Wednesday about the safety room, Jordan Davis’ development, and why he respects the Bucs so much.
He also mentioned that every decision they make, including the one to leave a day earlier for Tampa, is to try and put the team in the best position to win. They studied some things in the offseason with regards to playing in the heat, and opted to go a day earlier to acclimate.
Here’s what the head coach had to say:
On C.J. Gardner-Johnson reunion
“I really am excited about the [safety] room that we have. I think they’ve done a really nice job to date. Got a good young player in Andrew Mukuba, who continues to get better, and I think that having Reed [Blankenship] next to him is helping him get better — just how Reed got better with Marcus Epps in the building.”
Sirianni went on to name Sydney Brown as another guy doing a good job on special teams and getting some work on defense. He reiterated that he’s pleased with the group of safeties they already have in the building.
On Jordan Davis’ journey
Sirianni talked about how everyone wants instant gratification, but that’s just not realistic in this sport, and if anything, Jordan Davis’ journey has highlighted the importance of patience.
“It’s just a good example of a guy continuing to work, continuing to get better, because he should be playing better football now than he was when he first entered the NFL — he’s put a lot of work into it, and he’s played a lot of meaningful games, and went against really good players in practice. That all contributes to that.
But, I think at the end of the day — we always talk about in the draft process, you want to find guys that are tough, Jordan Davis is that, both physically [and] mentally, plays with relentless effort, and you want to find guys that love football, because God-willing, those are the guys that tend to reach their ceiling. And I think that’s what you’re seeing, and why he keeps getting better.“
On preparing for the Bucs
They look back at film from previous games against the Buccaneers and will think about the things they did well that they might try to replicate. Similar to the Chiefs, the Bucs are another team Sirianni has faced a handful of times as a head coach, so there’s a lot of tape to look back on.
“That’s a really good football team.”
He went on to talk about how much respect he has for Tampa Bay head coach Todd Bowles, and mentioned several of the times during his 10-plus year career that they’ve competed. Sirianni said that Bowles always does a good job of presenting problems, and then he also has his teams playing with good fundamentals and great detail.
“I think they’ve done a good job building the team. They’ve got playmakers everywhere. Those two backs they have are really good. I think Baker Mayfield is playing outstanding football, and receiving corps, offensive line. I mean, Vita Vea, whose been there forever, or at least feels like he’s been there forever, and the things that he can do. Two good corners with [Jamel] Dean and [Zyon] McCollum. [Antoine] Winfield made a ton of plays. Levonte David has been a star in this league for a long time. So, they know how to win.”
Other notables
- Sirianni said there’s no one thing lending to the offense not being as efficient in the run game, but it’s something they need to work on both how they call it and how it’s executed. He later reiterated the point, and said there are some different ways they can go about being more efficient in that part of the offense.
- The head coach pointed to a couple of plays over the past two weeks that show how much Jalen Hurts has developing reacting to pressure, and with more experience every day, he’ll continue to feel even more comfortable and make even more plays.
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