There may be no seat hotter in sports than the throne underneath Nick Sirianni’s backside. That includes those plush, heated leather seats in your new BMW. The pitchforks are out, circling around Sirianni like a Grant Wood painting.
Yet the Eagles are still holding a 2-2 record heading into their bye week. All is not lost. All that has to happen are some well-intentioned adjustments — well, that and a good look in the mirror, man to man. Meanwhile, we here at Philly Sports Network will once again seek laughter amid the pain. This is another edition of “What Nick Sirianni Said, What Nick Sirianni Meant” for light-hearted reading …
What Sirianni said, what Sirianni meant
Question: I wanted to ask you about a game like this, when things start snowballing. What steps can you take mid-game, in the game, on the sideline, to try to get the thing back on track?
What Nick Sirianni Said: You’re just trying to make adjustments that you can make that give you a chance to put the guys in positions to succeed, first and foremost. I’m assuming you’re asking me the coaching perspective of it.
First and foremost, you’re trying to put guys in positions to succeed and make adjustments that you need to make. And then, there’s a time where it’s hey, encouragement and hope, and there’s a time where it’s try to yell and inspire or do something on that element of it.
What Nick Sirianni Meant: I’m going to quote one of my favorite movies of all time to answer this one. It’s from Office Space, when Peter is addressing the Bobs. Enjoy!
The thing is, Bob, it’s not that I’m lazy, it’s that I just don’t care … It’s a problem of motivation, all right? Now if I work my ass off and Initech ships a few extra units, I don’t see another dime, so where’s the motivation? And here’s something else, Bob, I have eight different bosses right now. Eight bosses. Eight, Bob. So that means that when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That’s my only real motivation is not to be hassled, that and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired.
Question: Ask you about WR Jahan Dotson. I know he’s only been here, what, six weeks? He just doesn’t seem as involved. Third team receiver, your top two guys are out. He didn’t seem to have as big of a role yesterday in terms of targets. What needs to be done to get him a little bit more involved?
What Nick Sirianni Said: It’s hard to force feed someone the football based off – again, as an offensive coach, you always want to be on the attack. But there is being on the attack, and then there’s also taking what the defense gives you.
The ball went to him when it was supposed to go to him yesterday [Sunday]. And there were some times where the ball could have gone to him where something might have happened that took that away.
And so, again, you’re a product sometimes of how the defense is played as a wide receiver. It’s a little different sometimes, at wide receiver, of how the ball gets itself to you.
What Nick Sirianni Meant: So, apparently, there was a reason why the Commanders were so willing to part with Jahan Dotson for a third-round pick and two seventh-round picks in 2025. File this under things no one expected to ever hear: I can’t wait to get Britain Covey back.
Question: I was curious if you could give us your assessment of how QB Jalen Hurts has played in these first four games? And more specifically, what you see – if there is any common thread between the turnover problems that have been happening?
What Nick Sirianni Said: Yeah, again, I think as a football team – I know there’s going to be a lot that’s always brought onto the starting quarterback. Obviously, we understand that. But as a football team, I think it’s just been consistency, right? Offensively, defensively, it’s just been our consistency. And that’s something I’ve got to do as a head coach, is make sure our consistency is there.
We missed one tackle last week. We missed 14 or whatever this week. Again, just the consistency of third down, consistency of red zone. We haven’t been great in the red zone, and then yesterday we were a little bit better there.
So again, it’s just that consistency thing of the entire team. And myself, Jalen [Hurts], offense, defense, special teams, it’s all of us.
What Nick Sirianni Meant: We have our moments. We have our moments.
Question: You talked a little bit yesterday about still looking for an identity and everything. I was curious, how long does that typically take? This is obviously Week 4, and you guys have had all of training camp. Just wondering how long it takes, and what you need do to get that identity? What needs to happen for that to happen?
What Nick Sirianni Said: Identity is what you do well, right? Identity is what you do well, what you do consistent, and what you hang your hat on.
That changes year in, year out. What our identity was in ’21, ’22, ’23, all those years had little differences in who you are.
Same thing now. You figure that out as you go throughout the year. I’m not sure you see any team right now that says, ‘This is our identity.’ There are some, probably, but there are not a lot.
You’re figuring out what you do well because it is still a small sample size. And all you’re trying to do is repeat the things that you do well, and hide those things, complement those things. You’re trying to not do the things that you don’t do so well.
What Nick Sirianni Meant: That’s a great question. You would think our identity would be that of a smash-mouth football team, right? Saquon Barkley is arguably the best running back in the league, making $12.5 million a year … we should run it on every friggin’ play, right? Hmmm. Hmmm.
What’s our idennity? I don’t know.
I actually think we need to come up with a secret idenity, like Clark Kent or Bruce Wayne. Personally, I’m more of a Peter Parker guy — “with great power comes great responsiblity.” RIP, Uncle Ben. I’m not crying, you are!
Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
