Managing Pressure as Expectations Soar is Vital for Nick Sirianni, Jonathan Gannon

The coach and defensive coordinator are entering their second seasons with a roster revamped to challenge for more than just a division title

Brandon Graham has been an Eagle longer than anyone else in the team’s locker room.

He’s been a Philadelphia athlete longer than any other athlete in any of the four major professional sports (with apologies to Union fans).

On the brink of entering his 13th season, the veteran defensive end has seen it all and done most of it all in the NFL. He hasn’t grown complacent or found ways to cut corners. At least not with Nick Sirianni in charge.

Graham makes sure he’s taking proper notes in team meetings because his coach has a tendency for throwing questions out to players either in meetings or hallways just to make sure they are paying attention to what is being taught in the meeting rooms and drilled on the field.

“It’s about being smart and trying to have the smartest team out there so we’re always getting quizzed on a lot of things,” said Graham. 

“You’re always getting called out. I feel with him calling people out – he even had me in my notes making sure I’m on point. You always resort back to the level of your training. I feel he’s training us tough now to know the mental part of the game

“A lot of us of course are physically gifted, but it’s all about in between the ears, like how fast can you process information. I think coach is doing a good job of keeping us on our toes.”

Sirianni would like nothing more than to follow up a rookie season in which he overcame a 2-5 start to land in the playoffs with an encore that would include at least one or more postseason wins.

Expectations are high.

Off-the-chart high, really, with a stellar job by GM Howie Roseman constructing a roster that looks like it has the potential to do something good this fall.

Expectations bring pressure.

There’s a lot on quarterback Jalen Hurts, but the head coach, like it or not, won’t be cheated out of his share of pressure. Same with defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon.

Sirianni has been around football in general and the coaching game in particular long enough to know that his messaging cannot change even as the expectations soar.

“How many times have we seen the team that starts off really hot, then maybe buys into the hype?” said Sirianni during a meeting with reporters in early June, a session that was embargoed until July 18.

“I’m very conscious of that in as far as, I know what some of these guys are hearing from outside noise, whether it’s media, whether it’s friends, family members, so the message is if we want to do what we want to do … then we have to be committed to the process of how we work. We have a very specific plan."

As for Gannon, the debate last year among fans about whether he was a bad DC, or limited in what he wanted to do due to a shortage of the proper personnel?

Gannon said he was able to do what he wanted last year, but Roseman gave him more pieces to work with this offseason.

"We did what we wanted to do last year," said the DC. "I think hopefully what the fans see is us executing at a little higher level when we need to. That's what I'm always concerned about. My number one concern or goal is to make sure that we're playing good enough on defense to keep us in games and play good football to help our team win.

"You guys know I'm not big on stats, but got to the playoffs, lost in the first round. I don't have a great taste in my mouth because we want to do more than that.

That's one of the things in the back of my mind, is to take the next step. So how we do that is consistency."

Still, the personnel on that side of the ball has been vastly upgraded and now we will find out.

“I’ve talked to JG over the summer,” said DT Fletcher Cox. “We’ve had a lot of conversations about a lot of different things. I think the biggest thing is, is to just go out and put us in the best situations as a D-line to get us to play on the opponent’s other side of line scrimmage.

“Especially going into year two of his defense, knowing what to expect from him, getting the relationship with him, knowing what he likes to call in a certain situation.”

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