Nick Sirianni says Lane Johnson is still in concussion protocol

The Eagles head coach talked about the team’s self-scouting during the bye, and what he saw from QB Kenny Pickett coming out of college.

The Philadelphia Eagles are back to work preparing for Week 8 against the Steelers, and head coach Nick Sirianni took time to speak to reporters on Wednesday. He gave some injury updates, talked a bit about their self-scouting process — although he wouldn’t get into details — and also what he saw from Steelers’ QB Kenny Pickett coming out of college.

Here’s what the head coach had to say:

Injury updates

• Sirianni confirmed that Lane Johnson is still in concussion protocol, and they’ll see how things go throughout the week. For what it’s worth, Johnson attended the Eagles’ Wednesday walkthrough.
• As for some of the other players injured against Dallas, Sirianni said that they’re hopeful everyone will be able to play on Sunday.

On their self-scouting

The head coach was asked about what they learned during their self-scouting over the bye, but Sirianni noted that they won’t be giving out that information. He did, however, say that it’s an important part of their process, and thanked all the staff who put it a lot of man hours to get everything ready for review by the coaches.

He later talked about how this year they only had six games to look at compared to their late-bye last season, but Sirianni said that six games was a good sample size and they had plenty of film to review. Especially when it came to looking at things they want to do better and evaluating any tells they might have, six games was enough.

Sirianni later mentioned that Jalen Hurts spent a lot time during the bye working on things, as well, and the coaches sent a packet of everything they had been working on and a summary of things so that he could study that, as well.

On Steelers’ QB Kenny Pickett

“I was a big Kenny Pickett fan, I thought he was really good at football. He did a lot of really good things. He had one of the best seasons, you know, since a guy named [Dan] Marino over there, which is darn impressive. I thought he was an accurate passer, I thought he was a quick decision maker, I thought he was a very good, underrated guy with his legs, right. He had one of the coolest plays that anyone’s seen in that ACC Championship game when he pretended to slide, the guy stopped, and then he went in for a touchdown — so much so that they made a rule about it. I thought also, very intelligent, as far as football intelligence, off the charts. I thought he was really good.

And then getting into how he’s playing now and everything, you’re just going to keep seeing him get better. I just think from everything I know about him, I think he’ll continue to get better because I think he’s got a lot of tools.”

Other notables

• Sirianni mentioned that he did give the coaches last Friday off, and also talked about being a Phillies fan now — especially because the team he grew up liking, which he wouldn’t name, hasn’t been to the postseason in a really long time.
• With the trade deadline less than a week away, Sirianni noted that he and Howie Roseman talk about everything, including how someone coming in might affect the locker room and the closeness of the group. He acknowledged that of course they want to bring in people who will fit in, but at the same time, the guys and leaders they have on the team really embrace new players.