Nick Sirianni Gives Glimpse of What is Being Done During Eagles' Bye Week
The Eagles may have a pristine 6-0 record but nothing's ever perfect in the NFL so the coaching staff had plenty to work on during the bye week with second-half scoring, special teams play, and tackling at the top of the agenda.
It's the second bye week for Nick Sirianni as a head coach and a far different one from last season when he and his staff started 2-5 and didn't get a respite until Week 14.
This time around, the bye arrived nearly seven weeks earlier than that but Sirianni is sticking true to his process that he's cobbled together by watching what's worked and what hasn't in all his prior stops as an assistant.
"Similar process through everything," Sirianni said when comping his 2022 circumstance vs. last year. "Now there are going to be less things to watch because there are less games. But similar process.
"I think as you go through every year that I've been in the NFL, I've really looked at everybody's process that I've worked for, what’s this guy's process and this guy's process as far as our head coaches and try to take a little bit from each guy and figure out what I think is the best."
One aspect that Sirianni believes in is delegating various studies to his assistants that might be geared in-house or around the league to get a better handle on what's going on with the Eagles or what might be happening elsewhere that could help in Philadelphia.
"There have already been a couple studies that as we watched [the Dallas game] game, a couple studies that I wanted done from our offensive staff that weren't on last year's agenda, because they're different year, different issues, different year, different things to study," he said.
The rest is for the players, not the coaching staff.
"We're going to work like crazy this week," said Sirianni. "This is a great week. [Monday] was all about the game review. [Monday evening] is about the coaches doing their self-scout projects and other projects I gave them. [Tuesday] will be us reviewing those, and then we'll get started on our next opponent on Wednesday and finish some of the self-scout on Wednesday as well.
"Then we'll see where we are at on Thursday, and if I'm feeling generous, maybe the guys will have the day off."
With both the Eagles' offense and defense ranked in the top five, that put much of the onus on special teams and Michael Clay because the third phase has been far less effective for the Eagles, ranked No. 27, according to Pro Football Focus.
"This whole thing is never a finished product," Clay said. "It's always going to evolve. Guys are going to get better. It's one of those things where it's always growing, and hopefully it's always growing in a positive manner. You go out there and you try to get these guys in the right situation to succeed at their biggest levels."
Sirianni stresses winning the day in an attempt to keep the focus on the process, not the result, something that seems to resonate from quarterback Jalen Hurts on down.
"There are always things to work on," Sirianni said. "So, I actually think that we can be even more demanding and more crazy about what the standard is when you are 6-0. I think being 6-0 is awesome, but I think you can put your foot on everybody and say, ‘You like this? This feel good?’ All right, then we got to keep going and really dive in even harder."
For the offense, that meant situational football.
"We’re really just looking at what we're doing well, what we need to improve on," offensive coordinator Shane Steichen said. "We look at where we are around the league statistically and categories and then we look at two-minute situations, four-minute, backed up, first, second down, run-pass tendency, bi-formation, motions, shifts, all those different things, because at some point you're going to have tells and we got to break those tells."
Jonathan Gannon's defense is using the pause button to have some different conversations with his staff.
"The difference is obviously now you're not getting ready to play a game, so you can kind of take a deep breath and it can be a little more not as matter of fact all the time," the DC said. "You can have some different conversations about it because time is not an issue. It's good because a lot of good ideas come up and it's a good brainstorm session for some of that stuff validated with the tape, numbers, and stuff like that."
Sirianni, meanwhile, is using the early-season success as an opportunity to push the pedal down with the championship window open because the elixir of being unbeaten goes down far smoother than the tough taste a struggling team might need.
"It's not to say you don't do that when you're 0-6 or 2-5, or whatever, but it's just easier to really get after everything because I think there is no feelings are involved when you're 6-0," he said. "It's like, hey, let's go. This isn’t good enough, and let's get it better."
-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
