Few coaches in the NFL have had the success that Nick Sirianni has had in his first two years with the Philadelphia Eagles. Two straight seasons with playoff appearances and a Super Bowl berth to boot have shown the Eagles have the right guy to lead them into the third year of his era.
But even with the success that the Eagles have had over the last two years, the process still hasn’t been perfect in the eyes of the team’s coaching staff.
“The process isn’t always something that is constantly changing. Our job, again, as coaches and what we say is high, high detail in meetings, and if you’re going to have high detail in meetings you have to know exactly what you’ve done in meetings prior, right? What did you do at rookie camp last year and how did we get rookie camp better,” Sirianni explained after rookie minicamp Friday.
New territory for the Eagles Head Coach
Things have changed since Sirianni’s original staff entered the Novacare complex two years ago. Both coordinators have received head coaching jobs this past offseason, and several assistants have moved on to lead to new systems within the organization.
Or at least, under the guise of the Eagles’ head coach.
“I’ve got to teach them the exact same thing that is required of every coach. It’s just kind of starting again but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t do that the first two years, right…it’s just completely setting the standard of every little detail of how you want it, right and that’s just not in plays. But again, it’s how we practice, it’s how I want the coaches to run practice and different things like that, so it’s every portion of the building,” Sirianni added.
2023 Rookie Minicamp offers new challenges that the team hasn’t faced before in the Sirianni era. Additions like Jalen Carter and Kelee Ringo come to the team with off-the-field concerns and poor testing results. To the Eagles coach though, minicamp is about preparing the players for the actual speed of the NFL.
“This was more about I want the individual drills tempo’ed because I know they are not in good shape right now, so it would be foolish to push them to do something their body is not ready to do yet and to just, you know, to tempo those guys and do a little bit less reps,” Sirianni added. “Nobody out there is in the shape that they need to be in, but we are working in that direction… Today wasn’t about finding out who was ready conditioning-wise because to be quite frank, none of them are.”
Philadelphia isn’t the only coaching staff that is focused on getting the tempo of the rookie class up to speed. However, they were one of the first teams that continued to maintain the process that staying in shape and preparing for the season kept players healthy during the grueling stages of an NFL season.
It’s because of this that Sirianni’s team has been one of the healthiest in football over the last few years. Should the Eagles continue down that road, it should allow them to develop their players at a solid rate, while also continuing their championship-level aspirations.
And the way the Eagles train should have them primed and ready for the start of another top season.
AP Photo/Matt Slocum
