Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni took a little time to talk to reporters on Saturday, as the team prepares for their Monday night game in Kansas City. Sirianni talked about the environment at Arrowhead Stadium, and what they expect from fans and from the weather. He also spoke about the team’s mentality of treating this matchup like any other regular season game.
He didn’t want to put any kind of timetable on Dallas Goedert returning, but acknowledged that they’re hopeful and that there’s a reason he’s not on IR yet.
Here’s what the head coach had to say:
On the game environment
Sirianni talked about how he expects it to be rowdy in Kansas City on Monday night, and noted that they practiced for the noise throughout the week. They made sure the music was loud and practiced their communication on offense and defense.
There is now rain in the forecast Monday night, and Sirianni acknowledged that weather affects all three phases of the game. He explained that they have to take into account what type of rain they’re getting and how it’s affecting the field conditions, and they do the same for wind conditions.
“So, there are things you do in-game and prep for to be ready with all those different things, and then there are things you prepare for in practice. Whether that’s the catching of the wet ball during drills, a couple periods devoted towards the wet ball during practice. You prepare for those things like you prepare for a defense or an offense or anything like that. You’re just trying to put your guys in positions to help them prepare for what the game will be like.
So, with the weather and the predictions of weather, that’s a little different. It might happen, might not happen, so you don’t want to devote every period that you do towards it.”
Still, they did prep for it like they do before any rain game, with Sirianni noting that WR coach Aaron Moorehead was spraying water in the air during one drill to simulate the rain coming down on an already wet ball. There are different creative things they’ve tried throughout the years to develop their process.
On this week’s messaging
Sirianni was asked about several players this week mentioning, ‘you can’t win a ring on Monday night,’ and the meaning behind that.
“That’s more of like– we’re not going up there to win the Super Bowl. We’re going to play a good football team in a hostile environment and looking to get better this week to put ourselves in position to go 1-0 this week.”
The head coach went on to say that it wasn’t exactly the message, but it was something they talked about this week, in addition to treating this game like they do every other regular season game.
“Yeah, again, it’s just that whole mentality of like make sure you’re getting yourself up for every game and doing the right things every single game because they’re all important.
And this one is the most important because it’s the next one.”
On returning to Kansas City
Sirianni started his NFL coaching career with the Chiefs and met his wife in Kansas City, but other than getting some good food and seeing his in-laws, this game is business as usual.
He did reminisce about his final season with the team, going 2-14 before Andy Reid ultimately took over and opted not to retain Sirianni. Despite the losing record, Sirianni said you learn and grow, and pointed out that he got to work with Alex Tanney (Eagles QB coach) and Jim Bob Cooter (former Eagles staff) that season and developed some relationships.