No Bananas!

Posted: April 7th, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 1 Comment »

Nick Sirianni was basically unknown when the Eagles hired him. He wasn’t one of the hot assistants who gets mentioned every year. He came out of nowhere to land the Eagles job. His first meeting with the press left a lot of people wondering what Jeff Lurie and Howie Roseman saw in him.

Sirianni had another press conference and came across better in that. Now we’ve gotten another look at him.

This is the new coach talking to Fran Duffy for 25 minutes and breaking down game film to explain some of his offensive concepts.

This is fantastic stuff.

If Sirianni’s interview was more along the lines of this, you can see where it impressed Lurie and Roseman. He seems smart, genuine and passionate, three traits you want in a coach.

You have to be careful about judging a coach by how they talk to the media or how likeable they are. Every year when I’m down in Mobile for the Senior Bowl, there are people from a lot of team websites hanging out together. They swap stories. The guys from Jacksonville raved about Gus Bradley. He sounded like an incredibly good man. He treated everyone around him with respect and was as nice as possible. He went 14-48 in four years.

Doug Pederson was always seen as a friendly, likeable guy. He won a Super Bowl. There is no rhyme or reason to this.

I do think it is important for the coach to be himself. Sirianni seems to get that. I think the guy you see in that video is who he really is. You can call him dorky if you want. You can tell him to quit getting so excited over little things. But that’s who he is. As long as you’re real, players can handle it. They see right through fake people. Go back to the Marty Mornhinweg stunt in Detroit with him riding away from practice on his motorcycle. That was so staged and fake that it was like a stunt Michael Scott would do if he were an NFL head coach.

There was one thing I took from the Sirianni piece in terms of football. He’s really going to embrace yards after the catch, an area where the Eagles struggled under Pederson. That just came across as an area that wasn’t emphasized. And that’s fine. Not all offenses are the same.

Whether the Eagles target a WR in the first, second or third round, they will likely look for someone with big time RAC ability. A few names that jump out at me…

1st Rd – DeVonta Smith
2nd Rd – Rashod Bateman
3rd Rd – D’Wayne Eskridge

Those three guys excel when the ball is in their hands. You’ve seen plenty of Smith clips already.

There are plenty of other guys. This trio just stands out to me. The Eagles should have good options, as long as they address receiver in the first three rounds.

_

One Comment on “No Bananas!”

  1. 1 2021 NFL Draft quarterback analysis: Ben Fennel… said at 9:50 AM on April 7th, 2021:

    […] No Bananas! […]