Nick Sirianni talks replacing Dallas Goedert, and the Eagles signing Linval Joseph

The Eagles were back to work on Wednesday as they start preparing for the Colts, and head coach Nick Sirianni talked to reporters about his message to the team coming off their first loss of the season, why it’s going to be so hard to replace Dallas Goedert, and why they brought in veteran DT Linval Joseph. Sirianni also explained why he’s not getting wrapped up in playing his former team on Sunday.

Here’s what the head coach had to say:

On his message to the team after the loss

“Messaging to the team is always the same each week as far as let’s get back to work, let’s fix the mistakes that we had. Let’s make sure that we’re detailed in our process, and every day just don’t think about tomorrow, don’t think about the next day.

Same message every week really, and you find different ways to say that just to make sure everybody understands we have to go back to work. We have to get better. We win, we have to get better. We lose, we have to get better. It’s a process, right? Keep going.”

On Dallas Goedert’s injury

Sirianni acknowledged that it’s not going to be easy to replace Goedert, and it’s going to take more than one guy to do that. He noted that the TE was having a great year, so filling that role will have to be by committee. The head coach also said that Goedert’s targets will likely be spread around, between A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Quez Watkins and the running backs.

“You just have to balance it out and try to make — you’re not the going to be able to duplicate everything he does because he has a unique skillset. You try to figure out who can do what he does, and can they do it, and then you put that stuff in your offense.

Then some of it, you might lose some of your stuff in your offense because it’s always about players, as we talk about. I know we have guys in this building that I have a lot of faith in though.”

He went on to talk about Jack Stoll and Grant Calcaterra, pointing out that they’re on the roster because they have a lot of faith in them. Sirianni said that roles are always changing, and that’s something they have to prepare for, and they have been.

“I think even just in the last game I said something on the headset like — we threw the ball to Jack Stoll on a crossing route there in the game and I just said over the headset, ‘Man, Jalen [Hurts] really trusts Jack.’ You can just tell that the trust of Jack has continued to increase.

Because Jack is reliable and goes in and makes plays when his number is called. I’m excited about — obviously super bummed about Dallas because of how important he is to the football team and the offense, but excited for those guys to get an opportunity to do a little bit more.”

Sirianni also said that it wasn’t necessarily too soon for Tyree Jackson to be back on the field, despite it being so long since he last played. He pointed out that the TE has been practicing, so they aren’t planning to throw him on the field if they didn’t think he was ready. They still have to see how things go this week, but he has been having good practices the last couple of weeks and they’re confident in him should he be needed.

On signing DT Linval Joseph

Sirianni said that they felt really good with DT Marlon Tuipulotu and what he did through training camp and the first half of the season, but now with him out and on IR, they had an opportunity to add a good player.

Joseph is familiar with a lot of the defensive coaches from their overlapping time with the Chargers – like DC Jonathan Gannon and LB coach Nick Rallis. Sirianni went on to say that they think he’s the right type of guy from their locker room and will be able to help the defense.

“He’s not here yet. Obviously, this just went down. We’ll get him here as soon as we possibly can to get him up to speed, and hopefully he gets to play on Sunday.”

On playing Indianapolis this week

As the team prepares to face the Colts, Sirianni’s former team, he admitted that he tries not to get too wrapped up in that.

“My thinking is just, don’t get wrapped up in that moment, right? You don’t want to have anything different about, oh, we’re playing a team that’s this record, we’re playing a team that’s that record, we’re playing a team that I used to coach on, or I used to play on, or whatever it is, my hometown.

You try not to fall into that and try just to go through and make sure you’re doing everything you need to do. But it’ll be nice to go back and see that place.”

Other notables

• Sirianni talked about LB T.J. Edwards and how he’s playing physical, getting to the football, and identifying things. He pointed out Edwards’ accelerated vision, and his his ability to see things happen and diagnose them quickly.
• As for the fumble by Quez Watkins on Monday, Sirianni said they would never let one play define somebody, and the WR has made plays when he’s been called upon this season — even if he’s not called on as often with A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert. Watkins has continued to put his head down and work, and they have a lot of confidence in him, as they always have.