Nick Sirianni sat down and knew the immediate questions weren't going to be about the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Eagles won last week, beating the Carolina Panthers 22-16 at home, but had to do it ugly. Jalen Hurts wasn't throwing, A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith weren't seeing the ball nearly as much as they probably should've, and the frustration in that was evident postgame, despite the team having reached nine straight wins
Brandon Graham's comments about that frustration on WIP the night after, though he has since walked them back, didn't help, and for fans, it all started seeding concern that maybe this 11-2 team could fall back into that same late-season spiral it suffered a year ago.
So when Sirianni took his turn to meet with the media on Wednesday at the NovaCare Complex, yeah, he knew the questions about Hurts, Brown, and the overall harmony of the team were coming.
But he isn't worried about any of it – heck, he's already endured similar thoughts of controversy between himself and Hurts earlier in the season when the Eagles were stumbling through the first four weeks.
There's what gets captured on camera during games, Sirianni said, and then what goes on in the building day-to-day that doesn't, and there's a difference.
"You guys get to see three hours every Sunday, where emotions can play as high as they're gonna play," Sirianni said. "I get to see these guys every single day and how they go about their business and how they interact with each other. I get to see them after practice working on routes together and talking.
"I know there were assumptions of things. We get how that goes, but I can only go on my personal experience of how these guys interact every single day, and these guys are so locked in and focused on getting better, and getting better together. They're on the same page to go and accomplish the things we want to accomplish."
Nick Sirianni says “100%” he feels things are fine between Jalen Hurts and AJ Brown after talking yesterday. It was addressed in the team meeting as well. #Eagles pic.twitter.com/q99le30fHG
— Eliot Shorr-Parks (@EliotShorrParks) December 11, 2024
It's just that the results, through the air, aren't speaking to it after last week, really not for the past month.
The running game behind Saquon Barkley has been stellar, and Vic Fangio's defense has been an NFL-leading unit ever since the early-October bye.
But Hurts, even though he's become far more protective of the football to his credit, is getting caught holding on to it for far too long, which has left open looks going by while preventing the Eagles' passing attack from getting into any sort of rhythm.
It hasn't truly haunted the Eagles yet, because pretty much everything else has kept them afloat so far, but with the output they're getting from passing as it stands right now, if they have to throw their way out of a game, they might not be able to.
Offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, who spoke Tuesday, will be working on the systemic side of the problem to try and ensure that doesn't happen if and when the time comes, which is a real possibility in the playoffs and even this week against the Steelers.
Sirianni, as he has since Moore and Fangio were brought on as the coordinators, will be keeping his head above ground, trying to make sure the spirit of the room stays much closer to 2022, when it felt like nothing could stop the Birds, rather than 2023, when it felt like everything that could've gone wrong did.
"Again, I completely understand with what's transpired the last couple days of why there'd be questions on that," Sirianni said circling back to the initial concern tied to Hurts and Brown. "But again, you go back on the things that you've put work into in your personal interactions and things that happen in the building on a daily basis."
He isn't worried.
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