Bleeding Green Nation
The Eagles head coach talks Jalen Hurts’ development, helping Andrew Mukuba while he’s injured, and more.
The Eagles had their first padded practice of training camp on Monday, and head coach Nick Sirianni spoke to reporters before the team took the field. He talked about Jalen Hurts always striving to improve, his messaging to the team, and a bit about training camp practices — including adding some new drills.
Here’s what the head coach had to say:
“Jalen [Hurts] is a guy that continues to improve. I think that’s just how he’s built. It’s in his DNA to get better and to use the good things that he does and get better from them and use the bad things, any mistake that he has to get better. That’s what I always admire about him. I think he just improves in every way.”
Sirianni went on to say that those are great qualities to have in a leader, because he sets the tone for the rest of the team. Hurts does a great job, and is doing a good job working through his progressions and getting to his third and fourth reads. Plus, the head coach noted that Hurts doesn’t let the ball hit the ground very often in practice, which is what they want to see.
“It is critical that he takes care of it as a runner with the handoffs and then also as a passer. So, I think he’s doing a great job of getting to the right place with the football and really running the offense. We’re early through it, three days through it, but again, he is just going to continue to get better and better and better because that’s in his DNA.”
“You can look back at your past experiences and learn from them, but this isn’t boxing where it’s like you’re the champ until someone takes your belt away. No, this is football. Everyone starts off 0-0. I think two mistakes that you could make is resting on your laurels or looking too far ahead, right? Thinking too much about the past or looking too far ahead. I mean, that’s been our mindset since day one. [It’s] been to be where your feet are. Be focused on that because nothing that we did is going to influence anything that we want to do in the future.”
Sirianni explained how that’s been his mindset every season, whether finishing 9-8 or 14-3, the message has been consistent.
The first-year safety got banged up in practice on Saturday and didn’t participate in Monday’s padded practice as a result. While Sirianni wouldn’t talk about specifics of the injury or a timeline for his return, he did explain how they approach making sure he doesn’t fall behind.
“For us, we have to be very creative. Any player that misses practice reps, we have to be very creative...
