Nick Sirianni talks about the role he sees for D’Andre Swift in the Eagles’ offense

The Eagles head coach talked about the special teams issues from Week 1, preparing for Week 2, and how he sees D’Andre Swift’s role on offense.

Eagles’ head coach Nick Sirianni spoke to reporters on Wednesday, the day before their Thursday Night Football matchup against the Vikings. He talked about the special teams issues they had against the Patriots, how they’re preparing for a Brian Flores defense in Week 2, and what potential he sees for D’Andre Swift’s role in the offense.

Here’s what the head coach had to say:

On the special teams issues in Week 1

“Any time you’re calling a timeout, that starts with me. Like I said on Sunday, that always starts with me. If there’s a personnel subbing or anything like that, because that always starts with communication.

As far as the couple long returns, that was — I’m never going to say, ‘hey, it was this player or that.’ There were a couple things where, again, when the play doesn’t work, we always have to put them in a better position to succeed.

Also, the players in those situations have to keep the correct fundamentals and execution. So, it’s always going to be on coaching first and then playing second, and we’ll always look at it that way. So very similar to what I said on Sunday.”

On preparing for the Vikings

Despite the success the Eagles had against Minnesota in 2022, they have a new defensive coordinator in Brian Flores, so Sirianni said they have to look at the personnel that is consistent when trying to game plan. Schemes will obviously be very different, so they’ll look at what Flores has done in the past in Miami and New England, too.

The head coach also talked a lot about what he’s learned about preparing on a short week, noting that first and foremost, the prioirty is getting guys’ bodies ready to play. He likes that their short week is earlier in the season this year because they don’t have quite as much wear and tear to overcome on limited days, plus, they’re used to back-to-back days from training camp.

“My job is to get the guys ready to play while also listening to the experts in that scenario, which is a fine line you balance as the head football coach. But they’ve been awesome in helping the guys get ready.

I’m not going to get into scheme or anything like that, but I think similarities of a short week are very similar to the first game of the year. It’s a lot about fundamentals. It’s a lot about football IQ. And it always is, it always is, but it feels just like a little extra in those senses of these short weeks because it is, it’s about just playing clean football. That’s what our goal is this week as well.”

On D’Andre Swift’s role

“I think he can play both those roles, no question about it. He’ll be in that role sometimes where he carries the load for the game, and he’ll be in the role sometimes like he was in last game.

Again, we don’t ever want to come out with him only having those many touches. That’s just kind of how the flow went in the game. We had things called for him, but sometimes the ball doesn’t go for him in a certain way. That’s just the way the defense takes it away.

Now, you can always get it to him by just handing it off to him, but I see him being able to play any role that he’s in because of the type of back and the skill set that he has.”

After Sunday’s game Sirianni compared the lack of touches for Swift – and Dallas Goedert – in Week 1 to DeVonta Smith last season, who then went and had 15 catches in Week 2. Sirianni explained that the stark change was something that happened organically with how the offense went. It’s not a situation where they decide to take someone else’s touches away to then give to another, but they also don’t want a guy completely shut out, either.