Nick Sirianni Excited to Watch Young Players Battle to Start at Cornerback

The Eagles coach wants to see who steps up to start opposite Darius Slay

Nick Sirianni didn’t sound like he would looking for any napkins at the cornerback position in this spring’s NFL draft, making one wonder if the Eagles plan on adding some Sauce

During his 30-minute session with reporters, early Tuesday morning at the NFL Annual Meetings, Philadelphia's head coach said he expects to see the players on the roster competing for the job to start opposite veteran Darius Slay.

That means the Eagles may not look to select the top corner in the draft, which is widely considered to be Cincinnati’s Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner. Or any other of the corners acknowledged as first-round talents, such as Derek Stingley, Trent McDuffie, or Andrew Booth.

Or maybe it's a smokescreen.

If not, it's a big change from last year’s draft when the Eagles would have likely taken one of the top two corners - South Carolina’s Jaycee Horn or Alabama’s Patrick Surtain had they not gone eight and nine, respectively, to the Panthers and Broncos.

Since then, GM Howie Roseman added Kary Vincent and Tay Gowan in different in-season trades, Mac McCain, and drafted Zech McPhearson in the fourth round.

“Those guys have a great opportunity this year and we believe in those guys," said Sirianni. "We believe in the skillsets that they have, we believe in the competitiveness, the toughness, the character, the football IQ, the love of football that those guys have and I’m really excited to see how that plays out.

“There’s four young guys, and we obviously have two great veterans with Avonte (Maddox) and with Slay, then we have four young guys that are vying for a position. What a battle that’s going to be this year to be able to see who steps up and takes that position. I’m excited for those guys.”

Development will be the key, and Sirianni is confident in the coaches he has in place, such as DB coach Dennard Wilson, who can do that.

“We have so much more time,” said the head coach. “I think about last year, and even after the draft, where we added an important piece to our back-seven with Steve Nelson. And so, again, I feel good about the guys that we have on the team…I think we have a lot of good young corners that showed us a bit in practice but didn’t get the time to go on the field last year to play.

“…I can’t wait to see how those guys continue to develop their game because we have some great coaches.”

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