The Work is More Important For the Eagles Than the Win in Joint Practices

The Eagles finished up a pair of joint practices with the Cleveland Browns on Friday with most accounts painting Philadelphia as the "winner," something Nick Sirianni downplayed.

"I don't think you look at it like who won an intrasquad practice like that," the Eagles coach said. "It's did we get work done and did we get better at what we wanted to get better at that day, and I think we did."

The bigger picture was about the looks Cleveland gave the Eagles.

"When you're going against a team like the Browns have, it poses challenges and different schemes for our defenses, different schemes our offense has to go against," Sirianni said.

That was a sentiment Fletcher Cox also noted the day prior when the veteran defensive tackle pointed to Kevin Stefanski's play-action heavy offense, something the Eagles don't rely on nearly as much.

Schooled in the Shanahan style of offense, the Browns coach, who is a Philadelphia native, gave a nice primer for what Philadelphia is likely to see with Jared Goff in Detroit on Sept. 11 and even more so with Kirk Cousins and the high-powered Minnesota offense in Week 2.

“It gives us something to be coached on,” said Cox. “Alignment, assignment, techniques — things we need to look at."

Working against the talented Deshaun Watson would have been even better for the first-team Philadelphia defense but the embattled quarterback accepted an 11-game suspension and a hefty fine tied to allegations of sexual misconduct.

Because of that, Stefanski has to get backup Jacoby Brissett up to speed and ready to go, something that meant the North Carolina State product and former Sirianni favorite from Indianapolis got the first-team reps.

"He's the best," Sirianni said of Brissett. "My kids still ask, how is Jacoby doing? My wife still asks about him. He's just a great leader and great guy to be around. ... I don't really want to talk about other people's teams, but Jacoby and I are close, and Jacoby is special to me so I don't mind doing this with him. I just always thought of him as such a good leader, such a good teammate, such a great guy to be around every day.

"... I just can't say enough about things about Jacoby Brissett. I love the man."

The scheme with the Browns stayed the same with the flip of Brissett to the first team and Watson to the second.

"As a group, guys kind of handled it," Cox said of the Eagles defense. "They didn’t get frustrated by it.”

Another part of the Cleveland offense that the Eagles defense doesn't get to see much when working against its own is the powerful run game that the Browns often feature from under center.

The more traditional look with two top-tier runners in Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt is arguably the best in the NFL, something that has to be valuable when the Eagles see it with other teams during the regular season.

“We don’t see a whole lot from runs under center, and they got two really good running backs,” said Cox. “The style they run the ball, the way they run the ball, the pace they run the ball, the front is really unique. It gives us a chance to go back and look at things and critique."

The 4-0 mark in joint practices last season just extended to 5-0-1 after SI Eagles Today publisher Ed Kracz called Friday's practice an Eagles win with a tie reported on Thursday.

Sirianni, though isn't concerned with mythical titles.

He likes the real work, though.

"It was good for us to be able to go against different guys," Sirianni said. "They have a lot of good players over there and to be able to go against different guys at different skill positions and interior linemen and all different guys that they have, it was good work."

-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Sports. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talker Jody McDonald, every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube.com and JAKIBSports.com. You can reach John at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen

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