Eagles' Nick Sirianni Ready to 'Expect The Unexpected' vs. Patriots
PHILADELPHIA - Curve balls are coming, and Nick Sirianni understands that.
As good as the Philadelphia Eagles were on the offensive side of the football last season, a failure to meet those shifts in defensive strategy will result in stagnation even with perhaps the most talented starting 11 in the NFL on paper.
“When you've had success on offense, you have to be ready for the unexpected,” the Eagles coach told SI.com’s Eagles Today on Tuesday. “You have to be ready for things that they didn't put on tape. And so, what you're trying to do in walk-throughs specifically is recreate that as much as you can.
"Hey, what stops this play?”
When rifling through the 2022-23 Eagles film it became clear that it was pick your poison for opposing defensive coordinators last season, a fate tied to the evolution of Jalen Hurts as a pocket passer and the addition of man-beater A.J. Brown on the outside.
Whether the rest of the league understood it or not, the declaration for the Eagles being a top-tier offense came in Week 2 against Minnesota, when a passive Ed Donatell defense dared Hurts to beat them and the then-third-year starter delivered by shredding the Vikings secondary.
Keep an eye on Week 2 again this season, also against the Vikings, who dumped Donatell’s bend-but-always-break brand of Vic Fangio defense for Brian Flores’ controlled chaos of pressure from every angle and each level.
“The adjustments are coming,” a former NFC defensive coordinator said when asked how he would go about trying to slow down an offense that can do it all.
Asked what his tactics would be against this Eagles team, the veteran coach started with one word.
“Pressure,” he said.
“It’s got to be disciplined and you need to spy the quarterback but the one area where I saw some weakness [last season] was throwing hot [routes].”
It’s always going to be buyer-beware because of the Eagles’ talent level, though.
“Now, 1 [Hurts] is a hard worker and he may have spent his offseason working on that but I think he’s more comfortable defaulting to off-schedule so you need to try to pin him in as best as possible,” the ex-DC said.
“Until he proves otherwise I’m going to try to limit the [QB] run with my most athletic linebacker and force the football out of his hands quickly.”
Philadelphia has obvious answers to that, however. The Eagles are loaded with receivers who can beat man coverage with Brown ranking as the best in the NFL at that last season. Fellow receiver DeVonta Smith and tight end Dallas Goedert are also high-level targets when matched up against pressing defenders
“You need very good cornerbacks to even have a chance against those guys in press but by speeding things up, you give your coverage people a better opportunity to keep the thumb in the dam because the ball has to come out,” the coach explained
You’ve got to try something to make the Eagles offense left-handed.
“It’s not like you’re taking advantage of a real weakness like you are with some teams,” he said, “but you’ve got to try to hang your hat on something.
“They will just out-talent you if you play rope-a-dope and the QB has proven he takes care of the football so the best path for me would be trying to force the issue. If I make him throw hot and they beat me, so be it.”
The New England Patriots and Bill Belichick in Week 1 are a good test.
“Bill is the best that has ever done it and he taught Brian [Flores] obviously so he knows all the pressure games and isn’t as reckless,” the DC noted. “He’s also going to have one of the most gap-sound teams in run support plus I’m not as concerned with their running game other than Hurts without [Miles] Sanders.”
Belichick noted the difficulties dealing with Sirianni’s offense this week.
“It starts with a lot of good players,” the six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach said. “They’re very good up front. They have an excellent offensive line. They’re big; they’re physical. The quarterback is very good. … They have two great receivers, a good tight end, some explosive backs.
“They’re a well-balanced offense.”
Belichick is famous in league circles for taking something away and creating imbalance.
And Sirianni seems up for the test.
“[It’s] been my experience when we've been successful on offense is that you have to expect unexpected,” the Eagles coach said."...It's the players on the field that have to handle it the first time it happens.
"Like I said nobody else in the world -- the football IQ on [All-Pro center Jason Kelce and Hurts] is off the charts, and they set the table of where we go and how the play's being blocked or the check or anything like that. So excited they're there because I know you can expect unexpectedswhen you've had success on offense."
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-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Football 24/7 and a daily contributor to ESPN South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
