For the first time since being announced as the Head Coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, Nick Sirianni met with reporters to help ring in the new league year. It’s hard to forget his first-ever presser as an Eagle. Wrongly ridiculed on social media for stuttering and struggling to find his words, it painted a picture of a first-year Head Coach who may have been flustered by the situation. The second press conference made cleared up the misconceptions and showed us the real Nick Sirianni – a man you simply can’t hate.
It’s wasn’t that the former Colts offensive coordinator was nervous in his opening presser after all. He simply loves football and gets enthused talking about. When asked about Jalen Hurts and the QB situation, his eyes lit up and he proceeded to discuss how he plans to get the best out of a franchise quarterback.
‘My experience with franchise quarterbacks is they make everybody around them better.” He told reporters on Thursday. “What makes them better? In some cases it’s a really good defense, in some cases it’s a running back or a good receiver or tight end. The best way to surround a quarterback is coach our tails off and get him the reps on the field to get that experience to continue to get better. That looks like us teaching them how to read a play fast. What this play’s really good against and show them what that looks like on tape. There are so many things that go into the mental part of it.
But then it’s fundamentals. You get a player to max out his potential by teaching him what to do and how to do it. It’s getting your feet right and your target line. It’s finishing with your upper body. It’s going over them over and over again.”
Sirianni’s passion-filled insight into the workings of his mind was such a refreshing change from what we conversely saw from Doug Pederson last year. His predecessor spent most of the season talking to reporters in a sarcastic tone that gave off the energy of a man who really didn’t want to be there. The former Chargers WR coach spoke in-depth about what he values in a player, placing an emphasis on high-character individuals.
“As far as the character of the player, we’re always looking for tough players, high football IQ players, who are competitive and love ball. In my experience when you find players who have those four things, they’re the players you can’t go to a game without.”
He was later asked about the draft process and how he feels about this year’s class. His response was one of sheer jubilation that he gets to coach with players he had liked in previous classes that have now ended up in Philadelphia. The smile on his face and excited body language were a surprise I didn’t know I needed.
While on the topic of being wholesome, Sirianni mentioned how exciting it was that he now gets to coach both offense and defense. It’s inherently clear that he just loves football and sharing his passion with other people. He ended the virtual meeting with an anecdote about his Brother.
“My brother doesn’t coach high school football anymore but what he did at Sotuh-western high School was he won a State championship in the pro system. Then he ran the spread system and they won a state championship. Three years later he had no athletes, they turned to the Wing-T and went to the Stinkin’ State Championship game!”
THE STINKIN’ STATE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME!
It’s too early to properly evaluate the appointment of Nick Sirianni. But his energy for the team, its players, and the sport they play is infectious. If that carries over to the locker room then it can only mean good things.
Photo by MSA/Icon Sportswire
