Eagles Injuries: 'Lucky' or Good? Coach Nick Sirianni Reveals Plan

Last year, the Philadelphia Eagles stayed relatively healthy on their way to the Super Bowl; Has coach Nick Sirianni figured out how to minimize season-ending injuries?

PHILADELPHIA – The knock on DeVonta Smith coming out of Alabama was he didn’t weigh enough, that he wouldn’t hold up at 165 pounds.

Thirty-four games into his NFL career, the Philadelphia Eagles receiver has played all 34 games he was supposed to and four more in the playoffs.

From Smith to A.J. Brown, who played every game for the first time since his 2019 rookie season with the Tennessee Titans, to Jason Kelce, who has started every game since the middle of the 2014 season, the Eagles stayed healthy enough to navigate the many twists and turns of an 18-week regular season plus playoffs.

Head coach Nick Sirianni addressed last year’s health of the team during an embargoed sit-down with Eagles beat writers in early June.

Granted, the Eagles lost some players along the way to injury, with tight Dallas Goedert missing five games with a shoulder injury, safety Chauncey Gardner-Johnson five games with a lacerated kidney, Jordan Davis four games with an ankle injury, cornerback Avonte Maddox in and out of the lineup due to a couple of different injuries, and right tackle Lane Johnson wo games with a torn adductor muscle.

Then there was quarterback Jalen Hurts, who sat out two games with a shoulder injury. None of the injuries ended seasons and everyone played in Super Bowl LVII.

“Some of it's luck. I get that,” said Sirianni, “but there's so many things that contribute to that, but that’s a piece of it, though.”

Luck is a product of design, those who benefit from it will tell you. The Eagles, who will have their first training camp practice on Wednesday, believe they can help control injuries.

They will only have nine camp practices and five walkthroughs. Practices will be short and precise. The spring was the same way, with only a handful of practices and no mandatory minicamp.

It was this way last year, too, and you can't argue with the results of a Super Bowl appearance a franchise-record 14 regular-season wins.

“It's a long season, right? Everything you do matters, right?” said Sirianni. “Having a walkthrough on a Wednesday practice in the later points of the year, right? I think it's not just one thing. It's not just training camp, right? It's the cumulative effect of the entire year. It's OTAs, right? It's the time on field in OTAs.”

The coach said the way his team practices matters as well, as does the players’ in-season diet.

“Whether it's a high-intensity volume day or a lower intensity volume day or a walkthrough day,” he said. “It's how you walkthrough, right? I think there's so many things. ... It's how you eat. There's so many things that contribute to that injury prevention. Again, some of it's luck. I get that. But there's so many things that contribute to that, but that’s a piece of it, though.”

Look at the Detroit Lions' approach last summer. They were hitting seemingly every day, putting on a show for HBO’s ‘Hard Knocks.’ They lost five of their first six before righting the ship somewhat, at least enough to make them the popular pick to make the postseason for the first time since 2016 and try to win their first playoff game since 1991.

Asked if he can count on luck again this season, Sirianni said: “That's a good question. I think one thing that's lucky is your injury prevention. It's not lucky, it's calculated, but there are elements of that (luck) that's out of your control.”

Ed Kracz covers the Philadelphia Eagles for SI's EaglesToday.

Please follow him and our Eagles coverage on Twitter at @kracze.

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