Eagles Starters Will Play vs. Steelers, Nick Sirianni Will Call Plays

Here's more on the coach and his playcalling past, Jalen Hurts and the left tackle position

PHILADELPHIA – The Eagles starters will play in Thursday night’s preseason opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Exactly how long, well, Nick Sirianni isn’t quite sure, yet.

“We’re still talking through that every day,” said the Eagles coach. “Everybody’s in a little different scenario, so for me to say the starters are playing this many (snaps), we’ve discussed everybody, and everybody has their own little scenario that we’re doing. So, expect everybody to play, for the most part. That’s in constant discussion.”

Sirianni confirmed that he will be calling the plays, but offensive coordinator Shane Steichen will relay them to the quarterback.

“I’ll say a number to Shane and Shane will say the number to Jalen (Hurts) if it’s a wristband play or I’ll say the number to Shane and he’ll read it to Jalen,” he said. “That’s just so I can talk to other people, too, and make some notes here.”

Sirianni has called plays previously, though primarily in preseason games, both in Indianapolis and San Diego.

“There was constant communication between series, ‘Hey, (Colts coach) Frank (Reich) what think about this, this, this and this?’" said Sirianni. "Then it was Frank pulling the trigger but we would talk through it. We’re still going to talk through it as a staff, ‘Hey, here’s what we want to run and hey we’re calling this at this time.’”

The two most front-and-center positions to keep an eye on at Lincoln Financial Field on Thursday night (7 p.m. kickoff) are quarterback, with Hurts, and the left tackle spot.

Sirianni said that who starts at left tackle has yet to be determined between Andre Dillard and Jordan Mailata.

Jordan Mailata (left) and Joe Flacco / USA Today

“We’re still looking at that,” the coach said. “We have another practice to evaluate who we want to see go in there. Not going to name that right yet.”

As for Hurts and how long the second-year QB plays will be decided in-game, from series to series.

“If we go out and have a seven-play drive then we re-evaluate just like we do in a game,” Sirianni said. “If we go three-and-out, then we re-evaluate. Everything is on a sliding scale.”

One thing Sirianni alluded to is that he won’t be showing too much of his offense no matter which quarterback is in, especially Hurts.

“With Jalen, one of the things a little to our advantage nobody really knows what we’re running so to say we’re going to show everything on Thursday or the following preseason game or the following preseason game, it’s just not going to be the case,” he said. “That’s an advantage we have that other staffs don’t because there’s no tape out there of us.”

With that in mind, a full judgment on the quarterback’s abilities should be done cautiously.

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.