The Eagles had one last practice on Tuesday before their big travel day to Brazil, and head coach Nick Sirianni spoke to reporters ahead of taking the field. He talked about how he’s excited to see Saquon Barkley in this offense, he’s excited to play Friday Night Football again, and he’s excited to play in front of passionate fans in Brazil — while noting he’s bummed they’re not playing in front of the passionate fans in Philly.
As they prepare for a long nine-plus hour flight, Sirianni said that he typically falls asleep on long trips like that, but he and OC Kellen Moore, and Kevin Patullo, will watch some film and maybe a movie. He also doesn’t know exactly what the setup will be at the hotel and facilities, but said the Eagles organization has a wonderful staff that will keep everything as familiar to a regular road game as possible.
Here’s what the head coach had to say:
On playing a new DC in Week 1
Sirianni acknowledged that there will be a lot of unknowns and surprises around the league in Week 1 regardless of whether team’s had coordinator changes, but a team having a new DC does require digging a little deeper in their planning.
As for the Packers, Sirianni said that they looked back at DC Jeff Hafley film when he was the head coach at Boston College, and he’s someone that Sirianni has a lot of respect for.
“[Hafley]’s obviously done an unbelievable job to earn the opportunity to be the defensive coordinator – for the Green Bay Packers is obviously a huge honor too.
We’ll have to be ready for anything. Without giving up secrets of what we’ve done, we’ve looked at a bunch of stuff as well, but also knowing everything is alive, right. There are other guys on the staff that probably have influence as well of what they talk about.”
On seeing Saquon Barkley with the offense
“Yeah, [Saquon Barkley] made a run at practice yesterday and I just remember – I was wearing sunglasses, it was sunny, I was just kind of taking my sunglasses off and looking at a couple of coaches like, ‘Alright, this is awesome that we got him here.’ Not only for the play that he brings to the field and the cut that he made yesterday at practice, but also his leadership and the person that we have.”
Sirianni went on to say that as a coach, he’s excited for everything. He’s super excited about Barkley, but he also got goosebumps about playing a game on Friday night, taking them all back to Friday Night Football growing up. The head coach also admitted he’s excited to play in Brazil in front of very passionate sports fans – although, he is bummed to miss out on playing in front of Eagles fans in Philly.
“Man, there are so many things to be excited for, and Saquon a obviously a big one of those.”
On Jalen Hurts’ development
“[Jalen Hurts] dove into everything that he needs to do to be a great quarterback and continue to be a great quarterback in this league. He’s worked his butt off not only on the offense, but also with his strength and conditioning, with his leadership, with his accuracy, with his decision making.
And I’ve just seen him attack the off-season and the training camp like I’m so used to seeing Jalen attack everything. And I’m excited for him to be able to go out there and show everybody what he’s been working on, because he’s put so much time into it.
I’m excited for his season that he’s going to have and who he is as a player.”
On the Eagles’ DB coaches
Sirianni had a lot of good things to say about the team’s new defensive back coaches, pointing out that he’s worked with Joe Kasper before and has so much respect for him and everything he brings to the table. He was excited to have to chance to bring Kasper back under DC Vic Fangio.
He also talked about how much respect Christian Parker has around the league, and for someone as young as he is, that speaks to the impressive things he’s done. Fangio had worked with Parker in the past, but Sirianni noted that he’s exactly as advertised.
The head coach also pointed out CB coach Roy Anderson, quipping that Ravens’ head coach John Harbaugh raved to him about Anderson prior to the preseason game a few weeks ago.
“Again, the guys get their foot in the door potentially because someone had worked with them, or we’ve heard a good thing about them. Then you do the research on the person, and just a lot of good reports coming back on all those guys. And then you don’t know it completely until they get in the building, and they’ve just done a phenomenal job.”
