The Skinny on Nick Sirianni's Short Practices

PHILADELPHIA - Much has been made of the Eagles’ fast-paced practices under Nick Sirianni, sessions that have ranged from just over 70 minutes up to 90, a far cry from the two-a-days of lore never mind the occasional two-plus hour practice from Doug Pederson.

The simplest explanation is the new CBA which puts strict limits on how long the players can stay on the field but Sirianni is unquestionably leaving time available to him unused.

The question is why would a 40-year-old rookie head coach not want to wring out every last second of practice time available to him?

“All that goes down to player health and I'm not the expert in that,” the coach said. “So myself and our strength staff and our training staff and our doctors and [Executive Vice President/General Manager] Howie Roseman, we all get together and we talk about how do we keep those guys - we have so much ability on the field, how do we keep them available?

“If they are not available, that ability is worth nothing.”

The Eagles had well-documented injury issues tied to an aging roster in the latter years of the Pederson era.

The current core - at least the proven players - remains a cast for the remake of “Thirtysomething.”

Over the first eight camp practices, the Eagles have already had two maintenance days where players like Jason Kelce, Lane Johnson, and Zach Ertz sit for the offense and Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham, Ryan Kerrigan, and Darius Slay get a breather for the defense. Brandon Brooks would also undoubtedly be in that group had he not been dealing with a hamstring tweak as well.

As for the time on the field that’s what Roseman, VP of Sports Medicine and head trainer Tom Hunkele, VP of Player Performance Ted Rath, and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Arsh Dhanota have recommended.

“That's just a part of the design as far as the length of practices, but when we are out here working, the standard is set very clear of how we want practice to be,” Sirianni said. “We feel like we're out here and enough of what we want to be out here as far as to keep the guys healthy, but when we're out here, we're going and practicing hard. Practicing hard, which we talk about as a group all the time, is how you get better."

The goal behind it all is the old football cliche - the best ability is availability.

“Availability, again, first of all, player health is the first thing,” Sirianni stressed. “... practice is one piece of the puzzle and it's a big piece and there are all these other pieces of the puzzle to get ourselves ready and we are doing those, you know, just like we would any other year.”

Sirianni explained that organization and communication are paramount when time is limited.

“It's how do we make sure we go from period to period,” the coach said. “You talk at length of what practice is going to look like. ‘Hey, we are going period one to period two, period three, here is where these guys are on the field, here is where they are on the field, here is where we go ones versus ones, here is where that field they are going to be on, this field.’

“It's just organization, communication, to make sure that when we are out here for an hour and 15, our practices are an hour 15, hour 30, hour 45, whether that can go north or south of that any day just based off the day. But when you're out here that you're highly organized and you're not taking any time in between periods.”

And if the recommendations of limiting practice time turn sour?

“I have to make the decision of how to get the football team ready the best, too,” Sirianni admitted. “It's not always like, ‘Hey, we are doing this, this is what we should do.’ My job as the head football coach is take all the information in.

“.. I have to handle it and Ted [Rath] and Tom [Hunkele] give me information, but I have to handle what I think is best for the football team.”

John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven 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 both PhillyVoice.com and YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.