Nick Sirianni explains Eagles roster moves, addresses Fletcher Cox trade rumors

Eagles’ head coach Nick Sirianni spoke to reporters on Wednesday and talked about some of the roster moves and rumors from the past few days. He also broke down some of the reasons for Jalen Hurts’ tendencies to throw to the right side of the field, and why the team needs to capitalize on home field advantage this weekend.

Sirianni also mentioned that he did address the tragic Henry Ruggs situation during their team meeting on Wednesday morning. He noted that he just cares about his players being safe and wants to be sure that they know the resources they have available to them. Anytime something like that happens, they are going to address it as a team and not be passive about some of those issues that are out there.

Here’s what the head coach had to say:

On recent roster moves

Sirianni was asked about LB Eric Wilson being released, and he noted that Davion Taylor has been playing well and they wanted to get him more playing time, and the linebackers contributing on special teams — Shaun Bradley and Alex Singleton — impacted that decision as well.

“So obviously, we’re sad that it didn’t work out here with Eric, but he did come in — he filled a role for us for the time being. Like I told him last night, I’ll always be grateful for what he contributed to the organization, to the culture that we’re trying to build. He’s a relentless worker and he works so hard and he loves football. I love that about him.”

The head coach also talked about having nine cornerbacks on the roster now with the addition of DB Kary Vincent, and he mentioned that it’s a premier position, similar to the OL and DL, and depth is important. He went on to say that all the coaches and front office staff are really excited to add Vincent to the roster.

“He’s got great speed and we’re excited to get him. And he had a great pre-season and there were a lot of things we liked about him in the pre-draft work. So, excited just to build on that. I know our numbers are where they are, but I just think that’s such a premium position that you want that depth. You want options right there to be able to develop into it.”

Sirianni was also asked about the rumors that the team was shopping Fletcher Cox ahead of the trade deadline, but he said he’s happy the veteran is still on this football team and they are going to be able to build on the big defensive performance they had on Sunday against Detroit. He noted that the defensive line is a strength of the team and Cox is a huge part of that, and has been for a long time, so while he wouldn’t comment on rumors, he emphasized his excitement about Cox still being part of the organization.

“Any time stuff like that happens, you just always want to – my biggest thing is try to communicate with everybody about everything, and that’s Howie [Roseman]’s approach at it as well, to be able to communicate through all those things. Whether it’s a trade, whether it’s something personal that somebody is going through, anything, we just want to be there for our players to make sure they know we’re there for them and be honest with them with everything that’s going on.”

On Jalen Hurts’ passing tendencies

There have been some charts floating around this week showing the dispersion of Hurts’ passes and that he overwhelmingly favors the right side of the field. Sirianni explained that some of those scenarios are based on the reads, but they have things designed for different parts of the field.

“Without getting too much into it, we want to always do where he excels the most.”

He went on to say there are different reasons for different passes, whether something broke down in the pass play, or something with the read took it away from the middle or left side. The head coach also talked about how the defense sets things up as well, like on Sunday when they face the Chargers, they might do some things with Joey Bosa and his positioning in mind.

“I don’t pay a ton of the attention to a lot of the those stats. If it’s going to help us in a certain way, I will. So, I can’t say I’ve paid a lot of attention to that in the past. Or maybe I haven’t paid attention to it in the past because it wasn’t an issue in the past, right? Or no one has brought up the stat.”

On getting a win at home

It was pointed out that the Eagles haven’t won in Philly yet this season, but Sirianni said that was a bit of a coincidence, that they just haven’t played well enough in the games they lost — whether at home or on the road.

“We know how important that home field advantage is. Again, everything in this league matters. The parity in this league is so tight. We see it every week. We see teams that you don’t think should win against a certain team and it’s a close game, or it goes the opposite way.

The parity in the players and coaches in this league is so tight. That’s why I think it has the following it does. So, everything matters. Home field advantage matters, right. Where you stay on the road, where you sleep in hotels matter. How you take care of your body. What you put in your body matters. All these little things matter.

So as coaches and as players, you’re trying to utilize all that. Home field advantage matters, right. The home crowd cheering you on and being loud when the offense on other team is trying to get a play snap, that matters.

We know that’s an advantage for us and that’s the message — we had a message before our first home game: Embrace the home field advantage. Take the home field advantage, and I know we will.”