July 15, 2024
During the Nick Sirianni era in Philadelphia, the Eagles have conducted one of the easiest training camps in the NFL, in terms of the number and length of practices. They have also skewed heavily toward resting starters during the preseason games, and many starters didn't play during the preseason at all in 2023.
A major focus was to remain healthy for the start of the regular season, and so far during the Sirianni era, mission accomplished. The theoretical risk in taking it easy during training camp and the preseason is that the team might not be in the best position to play at a high level when the real games come around, whereas teams with tougher camps with more time on the practice field might be more prepared.
Sirianni and the Eagles have avoided criticism more recently for their approach because of their early-season results. They are 3-0 in Week 1 games under Sirianni, and were the last remaining undefeated team in the NFL each of the last two seasons.
Don't expect substantial changes, even after a disastrous collapse to close the 2023 season.
"I think what’s very important is that we don’t overcorrect," Sirianni said. "There’s a danger of overcorrecting in my eyes. You have to adapt. You have to evolve. I don’t knock on wood because I don’t believe in all that s**t, but knock on wood we’re 3-0 to start the season in our first game, right? I put a lot of work into figuring out what it takes to win the first game. Last year we started off 5-0. The year before we started off 8-0. Like, I don’t know how much to correct. The problem of where we stalled out last year has nothing to do with how training camp was, if that makes sense.
"Now, I do think our practices – we’re probably on the low end extreme of time out [on the field]. There are teams on the high end extreme. And I think that we need to come up to here (he placed hand at a medium-low level), but I think we’re closer to where we want to be than the high extreme teams.
"In 2021, we did not start the season well. I think, to me, that was different circumstances. 2022 and 2023, we have, and so we would all take our first five games, right? You want to start 5-0? Yeah, where do we sign up? So, we have to be careful about that."
Despite the results, the Eagles were sluggish out of the gate in 2023, and could have very well lost each of their first two games, if not for some lucky mistakes by their opponents. For example:
• Week 1, Patriots: Kayshon Boutte should have made a catch for a first down conversion on 4th and 11 that would've given the Patriots a 1st and Goal with a chance to win the game, but he did not drag his foot for some reason and the game was over.
Here's how it sounded on the Patriots radio network when they realized the catch by Kayshon Boutte was ... actually not a catch at all and the THE EAGLES WIN
— Nick Piccone (@_piccone) September 11, 2023
sounded like the one dude was crying about Nick Sirianni but I couldn't quite hear him pic.twitter.com/sOpdrgDnWK
The Eagles' offense was stagnant that day. They only scored one touchdown, and it came on a 26-yard drive following a Patriots turnover. They punted four times in the second quarter on four straight three-and-outs. The offensive line had an uncharacteristically shaky day, the receivers weren't consistently getting open down the field, and Jalen Hurts had a fumble late in the fourth quarter that nearly cost the Eagles the game.
The #Eagles offense had...
— Deniz Selman (@denizselman33) September 11, 2023
17 first downs
63% series conversion rate
1.64 pts/dr
-0.15 EPA/play
36% success rate on all plays
Every single one of these numbers was lower than the very worst number in any 2022 game with Jalen Hurts playing.
Also, they won. #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/gfOePzMRDo
They were fortunate that they were playing a very bad team that would finish with a 4-13 record.
• Week 2, Vikings: There were five fumbles in this game, and the Vikings recovered none of them. There was also this unfortunate fumble through the back of the end zone by Justin Jefferson:
Vikings WR Justin Jefferson with the big catch.
— Arye Pulli (@AryePulli) September 15, 2023
It’s under review. Might be a touchback because the ball was fumbled over the goal line. pic.twitter.com/0yjvIqq5ci
The Eagles probably did not deserve to win this game either, but they did, largely because of extreme fumble recovery luck.
During his postgame press conference after the team's aforementioned unconvincing win over the Patriots, Sirianni acknowledged that he might revisit the team's approach to the preseason games, given the offense's sloppy performance.
"I’ll definitely reevaluate some of the preseason stuff next year," he said. "I know the starters played the first two years that we were here. They only played one series against the Jets in 2022. Maybe I should have played them a series or two this preseason, and I already wrote that in my notes. I’m constantly self-evaluating, and I’m not promising anything, and I know you all will remember this conversation and play it, and that’s OK, but I’ll reevaluate that. If I had to do it over again, right now I’d say yeah I would’ve played the starters one or two drives in the preseason."
It's worth noting that in that 2022 Jets preseason game, the last one that Hurts has participated in, Hurts took a cheap shot out of bounds by Quincy Williams.
Quincy Williams with a late hit on Jalen Hurts 😳
— PFF (@PFF) August 12, 2022
pic.twitter.com/Zwx1crjDsm
Injury risks aside, the Eagles are employing a pair of new coordinators this season, in Vic Fangio and Kellen Moore. Fangio was clear that he wanted more time on the practice field during his introductory press conference.
"You've got to make due with what you got, but I keep pushing for more," he said.
Fangio was asked a follow-up on whether he pushed for more practice time this offseason before accepting the defensive coordinator position.
"I'll let Nick answer that for you," he said.
The Eagles did hold a mandatory minicamp this offseason that they skipped the last couple of years.
"Will there be changes? Yeah, there are going to be changes, like what we do with our defense," Sirianni said. "There will be changes, like what we do with ball security, things that we do with the offense. But we have to be careful not to overcorrect.
"As far as practices during the season, there have been more discussions on that. But one thing that we get when we practice the way we practice, we get high intensity, and because of that we get more game-like reps. When we have full pads on, the only difference between live and not live, is no tackling to the ground. The offensive line is live upfront. So, when those guys have pads on, those are full go practices, except for we’re not tackling. And so guys aren’t going to the ground and we try to alleviate some injuries that way."
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