The Philadelphia Eagles kicked off their rookie minicamp Friday at NovaCare Complex.
What coach Nick Sirianni instilled into the rookies on Thursday night during orientation was the team’s core values.
“The biggest thing of yesterday’s message was about our core values and how we live them,” Sirianni said. “What they are, why they are important and how we accomplish them. We went over connect, compete, accountability, football IQ and fundamentals yesterday, and today was setting the tone of how we practice. The details of how we practice, where to stand, how to go from period to period, how you treat the quarterback when you’re out there as a defensive player, what the requirement is of finishing.”
Here are four takeaways from Sirianni’s presser Friday.
1. Life without Shane Steichen, Jonathan Gannon
Friday was the first rookie minicamp without offensive coordinator Shane Steichen and defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, both of whom took coaching jobs with the Indianapolis Colts and Arizona Cardinals respectively.
For Sirianni, going over his expectations for rookie minicamp with new offensive coordinator Brian Johnson and new defensive coordinator Sean Desai was what he would have to do with Steichen and Gannon even if they had stayed.
“I’ve got to teach them the exact same thing that is required of every coach,” Sirianni said. “It’s just kind of starting again but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t do that the first two years, right. To say that Shane would have remembered exactly what we did in the rookie mini-camp and my requirements of Shane from one year to the next year, it’s my job to remind him.
“So, it’s the same thing here. While I’m reminding Brian Johnson of what the rookie mini-camp things are and the different things that we do, I’m also teaching this to somebody new on staff like Sean Desai. It’s again just being very clear, high detail in meetings.”
2. Rookie minicamp is not about conditioning
The Eagles are fully aware there is a difference between prepping for the draft and getting ready to play football, and rookies all across the league aren’t anywhere close.
“Today was not about finding out what their conditioning level was,” Sirianni said. “Today was about going out there and my coaching points to our coaches were, listen, their bodies are not ready to play yet. This is all about protecting the players while still getting ready to play.”
Sirianni admitted that he had been a part of rookie minicamps previously where they had gone all out and players got “dinged.”
3. Confident DT Jalen Carter will get into playing shape
The first-rounder from Georgia admitted he wasn’t in the condition he would have liked for his pro day, which could be taken as a portent to the former Bulldog’s commitment to NFL strength and conditioning.
Sirianni says he told the rookies about the team rules of being on time and playing weight.
“We will get him to what he’s supposed to play at, and I have no doubt in my mind he’ll do whatever he needs to do to be the player he needs to be,” said Sirianni.
4. Encouraged rookies to take advantage of the Eagles' vast veteran leadership
Sirianni finds ways to foment connection between his younger players and the veteran leadership on the team. One of the ways is to encourage younger players to ask the very players on their teaching tapes how certain plays are ran.
“I know a ton of our teach tapes have Fletcher Cox on it, Lane Johnson on it, Brandon Graham on it, Jason Kelce on it, and these players that are young or new or even the ones like Landon [Dickerson] who have been here, they can ask, they can look over in their seat and say, ‘Hey, help me out with this, right.’ We can show them on tape and now they have the actual access to the player that we’re learning from.”
