Eagles Quotes: What Nick Sirianni Said, What Nick Sirianni Meant

While the rest of the assembled media continues to build a wall between Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts, we decided to construct a bridge of laughter. That’s right. No controversy. No drama. All for one. All for fun.

So, without any further ado, we present our second edition of “What Sirianni Said, What Sirianni Meant” on the eve of the Eagles’ preseason opener. The team heads down to Baltimore on Friday, August 9 for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff in what should be some very inclement weather.

What Eagles HC Nick Sirianni said, and what he meant

Question: Do you want QB Jalen Hurts to be more hot this year versus the blitz?

What Sirianni Said: We’re working through different ways to handle the blitz. Of course, hot answers are one answer. Throwing quick is another answer. There’s multiple answers that you have. We want to be able to be multiple, and we want to be able to handle the blitz.

What Sirianni Meant: You know what’s funny, I was just watching “Zoolander” — it’s one of my favorite movies of all time — and thinking how much hotter Jalen needs to be against the blitz. He’s approaching Hansel levels. Don’t you worry.

Question: What’s the approach for kickoffs in the preseason?

What Sirianni Said: Yeah, we’ll see how we do that. We have a plan. We have a plan. You’ll see in a couple of days.

What Sirianni Meant: It’s really not too complicated. Stay with me, if you can … first, the kicker on the other team boots the ball from his own 35-yard line, then our return man decides if he wants to make a fair catch or start running up the field. We fully expect for Britain Covey or Will Shipley to score a touchdown on every single return opportunity.

(Editor’s note: on a more serious note, the NFL did amend the kickoff rules. You can read all about the changes here as it does get a wee bit complicated).

Question: What kind of steps did you take to get on the same page with Eagles QB Jalen Hurts during the offseason?

What Sirianni Said: Yeah, go through all the same processes that we go through after each year, and Jalen and I are in a really good place. Every relationship that you have needs work, with everybody, and we’ve always continued to try to work at that.

What Sirianni Meant: I like that you used the word “steps” when phrasing your question because I have the perfect answer: we used the Rocky Steps. Yo Adrian! Keep punching, baby!

Question: When you look back at Eagles’ Offensive Coordinator Kellen Moore’s history, what stands out about his play calling?

What Sirianni Said: Again, I just think he has a really good flow of how to do it. He really sees into the quarterback’s vision — him playing quarterback at a very high level — sees into the quarterback’s vision and how he sees it. Again, just when to call the big play, when to run the football, when to play action. It’s just his feel and flow for the game.

What Sirianni Meant: I’m going to be honest. I hired Kellen Moore because he kicked my ass when he was offensive coordinator in Dallas. He went 3-1 versus us and his Cowboys’ offense outscored us 149-107 in those four games. They also eviscerated us with 1,589 yards of total offense. So, um, yeah, that’s what stood out.

Question: (Regarding why it was important for head coach Nick Sirianni to take accountability for last season during a team meeting in the spring 2024).

What Sirianni Said: I think that our world is dying for accountability in a world where there are so many things that you can blame things on. I’ve said this before. One of the most proud I’ve ever been of this team is after a loss in the Super Bowl. Everyone was trying to give us an out. The field was really bad, right?

The response of our players to that, ‘No, they had to play on it too.’ ‘But that call on [CB James] Bradberry, that’s what lost it.’ ‘No, you know, it was a series of plays.’ ‘But what about this?’ And what about that? And what about how,’ — like, it was everybody was trying to hand us an excuse, and they just kept going back to, ‘No, accountability.’

That’s the culture that we want to have. That’s the family I want to have as accountability, and accountability is just so important. If you don’t have accountability, then you’re not going to get better because you’re not going to recognize the mistakes that you made.

What Sirianni Meant: Look, long-winded answer aside, it was totally my fault. I’ve put this on record a million times. The buck stops with me. You put the load right on me. Mea culpa. But, theoretically, if you wanted to blame someone else … James Bradberry kind of screwed up that Super Bowl, right? Maybe that’s why we’re moving him to safety.

Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports