Football <\/p>\n
The Eagles head coach talks Sean Mannion, rookies, and more\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Eagles football is inching closer, and the team is preparing to get back on the practice field and back in the weight room, starting with the rookies and tryout players. Head coach Nick Sirianni spoke to reporters after the first practice of rookie minicamp and talked about his process for on-boarding new players and explained how they evaluate so much talent in a short time.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what the head coach had to say:<\/p>\n
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\n\u201c<\/strong>I think he\u2019s just got a good confidence, calm confidence, conviction about the way he goes about it, very detailed, and it has been fun. It\u2019s been fun sitting in the back of the room listening to him talk, listening to him at install, and building a connection with the guys. He\u2019s done a good job so far and just got to keep stacking days upon days.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
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Football On individual players<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
DT Uar Bernard<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\n\u201cExcited to have him here. Really excited about that. You talk about being able to develop habits and things like that. There [are] things that are brand new to him, so that\u2019s an exciting thing. Excited to have him here and look forward to working with all these guys.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
WR Makai Lemon and TE Eli Stowers <\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\n\u201cBoth of those guys did a nice job today, did a nice job in meetings, being able to answer questions both in position meetings and in offensive meetings. Just like you are, looking forward to getting to know them better and looking forward to continuing to see them grow as players.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
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Football On his onboarding process<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n\n\u201cI think at the end of the day though, this weekend with these rookies is about establishing the behaviors that are important to winning football games and trying to get those behaviors [to] become their habits.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
Sirianni explained that they show and tell them what they think, but says the \u2018tough, detailed, together\u201d is the easy part. The hard part is being relentless with those things every single day.<\/p>\n
\n\n\u201cBut it is a very important part of the process to make sure that the job description\u2019s very clear. Again, like I said, you\u2019re just trying to develop these habits that you know are important, that result with wins and losses.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
Sirianni also talked about how they make sure to get a good evaluation on 30 tryout players in such a short window of time. He explained that they want to get the guys working, get habits started, and get them running plays.<\/p>\n
\n\n\u201cI know that some of the league doesn\u2019t do rookie minicamp quite as much. We still think that\u2019s an important part of the process for many different reasons.<\/p>\n
We think it\u2019s really important to be able to bring guys in because they\u2019re not in football shape right now. We think it\u2019s important to bring a wide variety of guys in so you\u2019re able to practice because if you just had one deep in this camp, we\u2019d wear these guys out pretty darn quick. It is important, and it\u2019s important to also be able to cast a wide net and have different types of players in here that you\u2019ve had your eye on or that have popped on tape for different things, and to be able to get a look at them and see if you can steal a guy that way.\u201c<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
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Football On the veterans<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n\n\u201cThey\u2019re hungry and they\u2019re hungry to be back here. They\u2019re hungry to continue to connect with each other, connect with their new teammates. I\u2019ve really seen them spend a lot of time together knowing how important this phase of the offseason is to be able to come together as a team. Sometimes in the season, you don\u2019t have these opportunities that you work till midday and then you\u2019ve got a long portion of the day to be able to do some things with your teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
Sirianni went on to emphasize how hard they are working at connecting and starting to build together, as well as working really hard in the weight room.<\/p>\n
\n\n\u201cEverything starts right back at the beginning and we\u2019re building it as if we\u2019re starting from square one again. Not only in the schemes, not only a new scheme with offense, the same [with] scheme on defense, same [with] scheme on special teams, same thing with our strength and conditioning, same thing with our core values, same thing with our relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n