Nick Sirianni prioritizes building trust with new Eagles personnel

The Eagles started Phase 3 of their offseason program and head coach Nick Sirianni spoke to reporters on Wednesday for the first time since the draft. He talked about developing a new scheme, how Sean Mannion and OL coach Chris Kuper are acclimating, and emphasized that they’re in the middle of building trust and a foundation to carry them through the rest of the offseason.

Here’s what the head coach had to say:

On developing a new scheme

Sirianni said that every year they evaluate things they’ve done well and things they haven’t done well, and make adjustments to benefit the players and the team, and that’s something they do whether they hire a new offensive coordinator from outside the organization or promote from within.

“Sean [Mannion has] done an awesome job thus far, and just really like the command that he has in front of the room, and the conviction he has in front of the room, and the knowledge that he has in front of the room.

So, we’ll see how that looks, we got a long time before we play. We’ve got a lot of practices to go though before we play a game. This is about figuring out what we do well, what we can do well, and sharpening our tools — you can run any scheme you want, but if you can’t block, if you can’t catch, if you can’t protect the football, it doesn’t really matter. So, all those things that aren’t looked at as sexy, the dirty work stuff, that’s what we’re working on perfecting right now as we get to know some new terminology and some new things the way the offense goes.”

The head coach was asked about new OL coach Chris Kuper and how he’s handling a unique situation in stepping into Jeff Stoutland’s role after 13 years. He explained that it’s not about Kuper coming in and winning over the veteran lineman, it’s about coming to work and doing your job every day — both players and coaches — and building that trust over time. Sirianni did note that Kuper has been doing a good job and is familiar with what they want to do this season schematically, and he has a great growth mindset toward things he might not have done in the past.

He went on to emphasize that at this time of year, it’s about restarting their habits from the foundation, which means that players shouldn’t be too affected by changes from Stoutland to Kuper. They do that with the fundamentals, with the scheme, and with their core values, and so even if there’s a lot of carryover from the previous season, everyone starts back at Phase 1, and they don’t assume they can just skip to Phase 4.

On Jalen Hurts

“One thing that’s really special about Jalen [Hurts] is just how consistent he is with his approach to getting better every single day, regardless of if we’re calling a concept of one thing, or calling a concept of another thing, or who the playcaller is, or who his quarterback coach is — just consistency from Jalen with how he approaches a daily process. And I always admire that about him.”

Sirianni touched on how new OC Sean Mannion and Jalen Hurts have been working together, and explained that it’s all a process to build a foundation and be able to trust each other. It’s a daily grind, and it takes time, but Hurts has shown his commitment to get better and to the process every day, and Mannion has been in the building working every minute he can — with Sirianni admitting the new OC gets to work before the head coach and leaves later. All of that is building the trust they’ll need throughout the year.

Other notables

• Sirianni was asked about Nolan Smith’s arrest, and the head coach noted that any conversation he has with players will stay private, but did confirm that they always address anything and everything needed with the person and the team. He also added that everything they go through is an opportunity to learn and grow, both on the field and in the community.
• On Markel Bell, the head coach said the rookie is going through the process, but they haven’t put pads on yet, so there isn’t much to glean at this point. Sirianni explained that he’s been talking to players about invisible progress, and while they might not see the proof of the work their putting into their fundamentals right now, eventually they’ll see that output. Bell has been handling the volume of things being thrown at him on a daily basis pretty well, and he’s done really well in drills, too.