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The DiCecco Daily: Why Nick Sirianni Has The Ideal Mentality For This Eagles Team · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Hey, what's going on? Everybody?
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Welcome into this edition of to Checko Daily. I am
• 0:13
  your host, Andrew di Checo, and we are quickly closing
• 0:17
  in on July twenty second, that day the Philadelphi Eagles
• 0:20
  report to training camp. Those who have followed me or
• 0:24
  have heard the excitement in my voice as it pertains
• 0:27
  to training camp already know that training camp is my
• 0:30
  favorite part of the NFL calendar.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: That's where you get the best stories.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: That's where're able to see the team really come together
• 0:37
  and you have a better sense of where the team
• 0:40
  is heading into the regular season. But I also love
• 0:45
  the fact that it's going to put a stop to
• 0:48
  these endless positional rankings lists that seems to generate a
• 0:52
  ton of outrage. Let me just say this, try not
• 0:56
  to feed into a lot of these lists and where
• 0:59
  the ranking certain players.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: I guess in this case where it pertains to.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: The Phootoelph Eagles, and namely quarterback jaywhen Hurts, you already
• 1:07
  know that he's a Super Bowl winning quarterback, super Bowl MVP.
• 1:10
  At that what others have to say about it means nothing,
• 1:14
  So spare yourself the outrage and just focus on the season.
• 1:18
  They're getting the engagement that they're looking for, and it's
• 1:22
  just not a very productive use of time. Just laugh
• 1:25
  at it, move on and get excited about this season,
• 1:28
  because I have to tell you it's going to be,
• 1:31
  in all likelihood, another good one for the Eagles if
• 1:33
  they're able to kind of stay the course here. And
• 1:37
  I want to talk about a few different things in
• 1:39
  this podcast, but I really want to focus on head
• 1:41
  coach Nick Sirianni, because there is no better coach to
• 1:46
  take this team forward and especially on the heels of
• 1:50
  a Super Bowl season and eliminating distractions and being solely
• 1:56
  fixated on the task at hand than Nick Sirianni. Nick
• 2:00
  Sirianni is someone who has avoided and I'm going to
• 2:03
  read for you some quotes that Nick Sirianni had to
• 2:07
  say during the spring when he met with US Beat reporters,
• 2:12
  and it really sheds a light on where this team's
• 2:15
  mindset and focus is heading into a season. Now, You're
• 2:20
  never going to hear the word repeat uttered from any
• 2:24
  player going into this season, but it all starts with
• 2:28
  Nick Sirianni, and he's been very intentional with his verbiage
• 2:33
  and sustained success versus repeat, And I think that when
• 2:38
  you listen to when we were listening to Nick, and
• 2:41
  as he was speaking, he elaborated on that there is
• 2:45
  a big discrepancy between the two. Sustained success is continuing
• 2:49
  what you're already building and sort of growing and adding
• 2:54
  to that and not really worrying about repeat. There's also
• 2:58
  not a sense of pressure to run it back and
• 3:02
  really reach the same heights as they did last season.
• 3:06
  They're solely focused on continuous improvement and trying to get
• 3:11
  better incrementally. As it may be, it doesn't matter. That's
• 3:14
  what they're focused on. There's no distractions, there's no selfishness.
• 3:20
  This is a team that knows very much how good
• 3:22
  they are and how good they can ultimately be, and
• 3:25
  they're focused on taking that next step. So here's a
• 3:28
  quote from Nick Sirianni on this subject, sustained success. Verse
• 3:32
  repeat says, every time we talk about it, talking about
• 3:35
  this topic, we're talking about sustained success.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: I think they understand what that is.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: A lot of these guys have had sustained success, right
• 3:44
  they know it's not anything they've done in their past,
• 3:47
  and it's not them looking forward to the future.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: It's about being where they are right now.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: I think that's kind of our daily message within them
• 3:57
  with them, whether I compare it to climbing a mountain
• 4:00
  or I read this thing the other day about marathon runners,
• 4:03
  when marathon runners again, I can't do either of these things.
• 4:06
  I can't climb a mountain, I can't run a marathon.
• 4:10
  But it was something from this cool book I got.
• 4:12
  Christian Parker, Eagles defensive backs coach and past game coordinator,
• 4:17
  actually gave me the idea for it. I can't remember
• 4:20
  what it's called. It's just this daily wisdom. I think
• 4:22
  it's called daily wisdom. I don't know. It's like marathon runners.
• 4:25
  They run the mile they're in. They don't think about
• 4:28
  the miles that they've already run. They don't think about
• 4:31
  the miles that are coming up. And that's a really
• 4:33
  cool way to say. It resonates with me even a
• 4:36
  little bit more when you're always trying to trying to
• 4:39
  find fresh ways to say the same thing.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: You're running the mile that you're in.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: You're not thinking about mile twenty six point one, where
• 4:46
  you have one hundred meters or whatever left to go.
• 4:48
  That actually doesn't make sense. It would be more than
• 4:51
  one hundred meters, right, So yeah, pretty intentional about that,
• 4:54
  Pretty intentional about that, just being solely focused on the day.
• 5:00
  But I think that's really been our process. I'm not
• 5:02
  saying anything different than I've said the last four years,
• 5:06
  just being focused on today, not we're playing this team today,
• 5:09
  but in three weeks we go this.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: I would have never said that in the first place.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: So I think it's just our culture and our daily
• 5:16
  habits and how we got and how we go about
• 5:19
  it end quote. So that really sort of pulls the
• 5:24
  curtain back on the mentality of this team as they
• 5:28
  venture into another season with.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Very high aspirations.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: And I think the message and the temperature is always
• 5:36
  set by the head coach, and in this case Nick Sirianni,
• 5:38
  but also Jalen Hurts. And Jalen Hurts is obviously very stoic.
• 5:42
  He's taken on much more of a of a leadership
• 5:45
  role in some ways he's actually matured, but he was
• 5:47
  already really mature when he got to the NFL. And
• 5:50
  if you have those two pillars sort of driving this thing,
• 5:57
  the sky is going to be the limit and the
• 5:58
  Eagles are equipped for sustained success because of those two figures,
• 6:03
  and obviously it matters to have a talented roster and
• 6:06
  to draft well and to have a approach when you're
• 6:11
  trying to construct a roster. Look at what they did
• 6:14
  this season, it wasn't conventional. You saw a lot of
• 6:17
  players who have contributed quite a bit to the Eagles
• 6:20
  success walk out the door.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: But there was always a plan in place.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: It was to ensure that the nucleus, this young nucleus
• 6:28
  that has been so critical to the team's success, is
• 6:32
  in place for the long term. And sometimes that means
• 6:35
  difficult decisions are.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Going to have to be decided on.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: But there's the other part of it, dealing with distractions
• 6:43
  because when you win a Super Bowl, especially when you're
• 6:47
  a first time winning head coach, you have a lot
• 6:50
  of demands. There's tons of adoration. Everyone's trying to get
• 6:57
  a piece of you. They want your time. And I
• 7:00
  think that when you look at a lot of those
• 7:02
  teams that are trying to come back, you have to
• 7:04
  overcome an offseason full of distractions, and you're never really
• 7:08
  able to kind of settle in and really hone in
• 7:11
  on what's important. And he gave a really good answer
• 7:15
  about this. Nick said, I think when you're here working
• 7:17
  and you're grinding through it, I don't think you think
• 7:19
  of anything else about but that going back to common
• 7:22
  mistakes of teams trying to sustain success. And notice I
• 7:26
  said sustain success and not repeat. And we've had an
• 7:29
  element of sustained success throughout these four years. There's no
• 7:32
  doubt some of our seasons have been higher than other seasons.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: But when you're.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: Doing that, you're solely focused on the task at hand,
• 7:38
  and again you go back to sustained success. You either
• 7:42
  can be right where you are or you can look
• 7:44
  at it like, how are we going to get back
• 7:46
  to the Super Bowl?
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: Error?
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: Man resting on your laurels and resting on your past accomplishments.
• 7:52
  Error that builds your confidence and stuff like that. But
• 7:54
  I think it's just again being right back into what
• 7:58
  you're doing.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Now. That doesn't mean that it's easy.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: You're in the building and everyone has the common goal
• 8:04
  of getting better and this and that. But you go
• 8:06
  outside and there are these things pulling you in different
• 8:09
  directions because of the success, and that's where it becomes tricky.
• 8:13
  It's just making sure that you're focused and locked in
• 8:16
  of where you are in each individual day.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: I know that's.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: Boring, but success takes what it takes. So when you
• 8:23
  hear these things again, you should feel really good about
• 8:27
  this team being locked in, focused and fixated on the
• 8:32
  task at hand. Now, I've gotten a lot of questions
• 8:34
  about Cooper Degene and Cooper Degene is obviously going into
• 8:38
  a second season. He experienced the highest of highs with
• 8:41
  the interception in the Super Bowl and all those things.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: He's young, he's.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: Out and about and I've got a lot of questions Andrew,
• 8:49
  do you think that's going to be a problem.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: I'm worried this and that. Do not be worried.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: No one knows what every player is doing with their offseason.
• 8:57
  What they do and their downtime is their business. But
• 9:01
  when you look at the leadership council and the prominent
• 9:05
  figures on this football team and how committed they are
• 9:07
  to the cause winning, putting in daily work and trying
• 9:12
  to get better each and every day, that is contagious
• 9:15
  in the best way possible. You don't have there's no
• 9:18
  room for someone not pulling their weight because you're going
• 9:22
  to be accountable that You're going to have to be
• 9:24
  accountable for those things, and that is one of the
• 9:26
  things one of the many things that Nick Siriani has
• 9:29
  sort of cultivated here in Philadelphia. And it's been kind
• 9:32
  of special because I think he's been unfairly scrutinized about
• 9:36
  some of his ideologies and idiosyncrasies. Look his court principles
• 9:42
  he's doubled and tripled down on, and I think winning
• 9:44
  a super Bowl like that it gives him this sense of,
• 9:47
  you know, vindication and validation that everything that he abides
• 9:53
  by and believes in will come to fruition and you
• 9:57
  see the results. Again, when you have all these positive
• 10:03
  figures there and and the like minded goals, you don't
• 10:08
  have to worry about what a player is doing, if
• 10:11
  they're going out, if they're you know, sort of spotted
• 10:14
  out and about they're doing interviews, and they're doing this
• 10:16
  and that.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: What Again, what they do in their own time is
• 10:19
  what they do.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: But believe this, when everybody reports the training camp, everyone
• 10:24
  knows what the what the you know, what the priority is,
• 10:28
  what the what the primary objective is, and it's it's
• 10:31
  getting better.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: It's not worried about repeating. This is a very.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Refreshing look at a team that has so much potential,
• 10:40
  they also have a lot of questions. They also have
• 10:42
  a lot of storylines that are that are very prevalent.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: You have a young defense, you have a lot of
• 10:47
  new faces.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: You have an offense that has a new coordinator, a
• 10:50
  first time coordinator, and a quarterback who continues to grow
• 10:54
  and evolve and is and is going to have a
• 10:57
  much more heavy hand in this offense. This is Jay
• 11:02
  when hurts his team, make no mistake about that. But
• 11:05
  there are questions. But I think when you have such
• 11:07
  a solid infrastructure in place, it really paints the picture
• 11:14
  of a team that is going to be built for
• 11:16
  that sustained success. And there is no better coach than
• 11:19
  Nick Siriani to sort of drive this thing forward.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: And I can't say enough about culture. You often hear
• 11:26
  that thrown around.
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: And maybe some may poke fun at it, may laugh
• 11:32
  about it, may roll their eyes or discredit it, but
• 11:35
  it matters, man, It matters. And I mean I think
• 11:40
  when I was talking to Ben Van Sumarin and it
• 11:43
  was a couple of weeks ago, and he mentioned that,
• 11:47
  you know, going hard and being a tryhard is cool
• 11:51
  here in Philadelphia, Giving maximum effort is cool. That's what
• 11:55
  a lot of the veterans set the pace there and
• 11:58
  this is a place where and he mentioned that a
• 12:00
  lot of veterans have said that they really have noticed
• 12:05
  that it's just different here in Philadelphia. And you can
• 12:08
  look at it and say that is a byproduct of
• 12:12
  strong leadership. And I would even take it a step
• 12:14
  further and say it's Nick Sirianni and Jaywen Hurts that
• 12:17
  are setting the tone here. They lost a prominent leader
• 12:20
  and a franchise great and Brandon Graham, so there is
• 12:23
  going to be a leadership voyd there. But there are
• 12:25
  no shortage of leaders on this football team. You look
• 12:28
  down the list aside from Jaywen Hurts, Saquon Barkley is
• 12:31
  a great leader, Lane Johnson, Jordan Mailatta is a tremendous leader,
• 12:37
  and then you have aj Brown Devonte Smith on the
• 12:40
  defensive side. Jordan Davis does not get enough credit for
• 12:44
  what he brings in terms of leadership, Red Blanketship, in
• 12:47
  my opinion, should be a captain this year for the
• 12:49
  way that he commands that kind of respect, and how
• 12:52
  vocal he is and how smart of a player that
• 12:55
  he is.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: He has a.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: Ton of leadership qualities. And Zach Bonn is another one.
• 13:02
  There are no shortage of leaders on this football team,
• 13:04
  and they all have a like minded thought process and
• 13:09
  a commitment to excellence. And I know that when you
• 13:11
  look at this team, there's always going to be questions.
• 13:14
  You know what, You look at past Super Bowl teams
• 13:17
  and it doesn't quite look the same.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: Obviously, when you usher in a bunch of.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: New players, their challenge is to immerse themselves into the
• 13:24
  culture and get on board because the Eagles are building
• 13:27
  something special here. And when you listen back to the
• 13:31
  quotes that I just read from you from Nick Sirianni,
• 13:34
  you should need no further evidence that this team knows
• 13:36
  exactly what they need to do come July twenty second
• 13:39
  and further from there. And what I also would like
• 13:41
  to mention about Nick Sirianni is that he has his
• 13:45
  quarterbacks back, and there's obviously I haven't I don't recall
• 13:50
  a quarterback in the NFL under more scrutiny constantly than
• 13:56
  Jalen Hurts, regardless of winning the Super Bowl and doing
• 14:00
  whatever it takes to win however it looks like, and
• 14:03
  being selfless and being a leader who commands respect, there's
• 14:09
  constantly people out there that are going to poke holes.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: In his game Is he a perfect quarterback? No? Is
• 14:15
  he among the elite in the NFL. You're damn right
• 14:18
  he is.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: And that's a testament to the work. And I mean,
• 14:23
  you just have to look and watch the games. Trust
• 14:25
  what you're seeing on the field. There's no gimmicks. He
• 14:29
  is the real deal. And I don't know what it's
• 14:32
  going to take for him to get that respect.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: But it shouldn't matter.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: It shouldn't matter what outside noise has to say. If
• 14:38
  you're an Eagles fan listening to this, it shouldn't matter
• 14:41
  because all that matters is the voices and the mentality
• 14:46
  and the mindset inside that building and everything that I
• 14:50
  just sort of talked about and chronicled and the quotes
• 14:54
  that I've read it really suggests that. But you'll love
• 14:58
  this quote because how many national figures, not really locally
• 15:04
  and not that I know of. I try to stay
• 15:06
  away from all that stuff in the off season and
• 15:07
  focus on what's really important and create logical and thought
• 15:13
  provoking content. But Nick said a interesting quote in support
• 15:19
  of his quarterback. Because there are countless talking heads that
• 15:23
  have said that Jalen Hurts was merely along for the
• 15:27
  ride and a byproduct of a fully loaded roster and
• 15:31
  discrediting what he brings in terms of intangibles and on
• 15:35
  field production. It's ridiculous, and don't I can't wrap my
• 15:38
  head around it. I don't care to, because you see
• 15:42
  what you see and you know what you know, and
• 15:44
  that's all that matters. But to that Nick said, I
• 15:47
  think that's bullshit. I mean, he plays the most important
• 15:50
  position in all of sports, and it's the most ultimate
• 15:53
  team game there is. And what I admire about him
• 15:56
  is his selflessness of doing anything we need to do
• 15:58
  to win, whether that's throw So I mean, obviously anybody
• 16:01
  who plays quarterback is going to want to throw at
• 16:03
  fifty times a game, but he will do anything. If
• 16:06
  he has to throw at fifty times a game, he's
• 16:08
  ready to do that. If he has to hand it
• 16:10
  all fifty times a game, he's ready to do that.
• 16:13
  And anytime I hear that, I just it's like a
• 16:15
  nice debate thing that people like to have.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: And I get it.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of hours that TV shows and radio
• 16:21
  stations have to.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Fill to be able to fill that debate.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: I understand that, but we're talking about the most ultimate
• 16:27
  team game there is, and he does whatever he needs
• 16:30
  to do to win each in every game. And so
• 16:32
  you name me a team that wins and wins consistently
• 16:35
  that doesn't have good players around you.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: Name me and speak on my end, like you name me.
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: A coach that doesn't have good players around him that wins,
• 16:44
  Like you don't win with bad players, And it's the
• 16:47
  same thing. You don't win with bad players if you're
• 16:49
  a quarterback either.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: It's a team game that.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: Always bothers me, to be honest with you when it's
• 16:53
  talked about that because it's football.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: One of the.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: Reasons I love football so much is that it takes
• 16:59
  everybody to scompish your goals.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: You name great quarterbacks.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: You can go ahead and start naming great quarterbacks, and
• 17:04
  I'll tell you they're great receivers, and they're great defenses,
• 17:08
  you know, whether it's Brady with Gronkowski or Brady's defenses
• 17:11
  early on, Mahomes with Kelsey, Steve Young with Jerry Rice,
• 17:14
  the list goes on and on.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: I just think sometimes that's a good debate.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: I guess I wouldn't even say it's a good debate,
• 17:20
  but it's a debate that people are able to have.
• 17:22
  But yeah, I guess that's my first initial thing was
• 17:25
  it's bullshit.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: Well, how do you like that?
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: Nick Sirianni throwing down the gauntlet and pouring cold water
• 17:33
  on the detractors out there, And he's right, He's right.
• 17:38
  It's a team game. Jalen Hurts plays the most important
• 17:41
  position in all of sports, and all he does is win.
• 17:44
  It may not be what some of these pundits want
• 17:46
  it to look like, but they win football games.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: And it extends far beyond Jayalen Hurts.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: But for some reason, he's the player who's under the
• 17:53
  most intense spotlight, for some reason, despite checking off countless
• 17:57
  boxes along the way. I'll leave you with this, and
• 18:01
  I'm going to reiterate this because I open the podcast
• 18:03
  with this.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: Pay no mind to.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: The silly lists and the criticism that's out there. The
• 18:13
  Eagles are the hunted. They're no longer the hunter. They're
• 18:16
  the hunted. They have a target on their back and
• 18:18
  they're going to get every team's best. But if the
• 18:22
  wherever a team that's equipped to handle that, to handle
• 18:25
  that responsibility week in and week out, it's those Philadelphia Eagles,
• 18:30
  because of Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts. Spare yourself the outrage,
• 18:35
  don't feed into the nonsense and focus on what's important,
• 18:40
  and that is the twenty twenty five season. That's a
• 18:45
  message to Eagles fans out there, because I can see
• 18:48
  the frustration on social media and it's just not worth
• 18:53
  your time. It's just not worth your time. All of
• 18:56
  this won't matter starting next week when the Eagles hit
• 18:59
  the practice field, But enjoy it because it should be
• 19:05
  one fun ride with this team that they currently have
• 19:09
  in place, and the leadership and the culture. I think
• 19:14
  it's going to be something that you're going to look
• 19:16
  back on and a lot of these folks that are
• 19:18
  making these comments, you're going to be able to kind
• 19:20
  of call them out on that because it doesn't it's
• 19:23
  baseless and it's something that doesn't really deserve any of
• 19:28
  your time.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: That's all for me today.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: Just want to do a little venting while also highlighting
• 19:33
  Nick Sirianni and what he's got going on and why
• 19:38
  you should not have any concerns over this team moving
• 19:41
  forward because of the infrastructure in place until next time.
• 19:46
  I'm Andrew to checko. This has been to check O daily,
• 19:49
  and I will talk to everybody tomorrow