Nick Sirianni talks Tanner McKee, Jalyx Hunt, and more

The Eagles have just a few days left until their 2025 regular season finale against the Commanders, and head coach Nick Sirianni spoke about their approach to developing backup players, how Jalyx Hunt is an impressive athlete, and why he’s confident their offense will continue to improve.

Despite reports that the head coach made a decision regarding starters, Sirianni said that he hadn’t delivered the news to the team — something he was planning to do in the team meeting to follow — and didn’t want to confirm anything prior to telling them first.

Here’s what the head coach would say:

On their approach to backup players

When asked about their confidence in Tanner McKee, Sirianni highlighted that they take pride in having dedicated developmental periods for the backups, new players, and young players, at the end of practices and getting some 7-on-7 every week. By making that a priority and integral part of their process, the next man up truly is in a better place to be ready whenever they’re called on.

“Those reps add up, so I feel like that with all our guys — even guys that are on practice squad, guys just not playing much on offense or defense —, that they’re getting a lot of reps throughout the year.”

He noted that scout team reps are different than the ones they get running their own plays during these developmental time — about 24 reps a week.

Sirianni later talked about the importance of giving backup players the prep that they deserve if they were to decide to rest their starters. They aren’t able to look too far ahead to playoff prep, because it’s their job to help the guys who maybe don’t get as many reps usually, ready to go for Sunday. He explained that they all got into coaching to help players realize their dreams, and that stands for everyone on the roster, not just the first team guys.

TANNER MCKEE

“When you see Tanner [McKee], he’s really good about knowing where to go with the football, seeing the defense and being able to deliver things accurately.

It’s a great room, right? Where those guys feed off each other and learn from each other, and he’s got Jalen [Hurts] — being able to learn from Jalen, which a huge deal. Anytime you’re around a really good quarterback, your game goes up too, and he’s able to sit in that meeting room with Jalen for hours upon hours a day, just learning from him, and that’s a big deal. And Scott [Loeffler] has done nice job coaching him and continuing to help him develop.“

On the defense’s evolution

Sirianni gave a lot of credit to DC Vic Fangio and the defensive coaches for getting guys to continually improve their fundamentals and details, which leads to the group peaking at this point of the season. The head coach also gave credit to Howie Roseman for stacking the roster with really talented players.

JALYX HUNT

“Jalyx [Hunt] is a phenomenal athlete. Just look at the catch he makes against Minnesota, and then also against the Bears.”

Sirianni went on to point out that Hunt’s talent really stands out at practice when they do the catch circuit — the head coach said you can tell Hunt used to play wide receiver, and safety, and defensive end.

“He works really hard. Great personality. And, that’s really the key — you can have all the talent in the world but you gotta work your butt off because everyone’s talented in this league, and he works his butt off. [Jeremiah Washburn] does a great job of helping him continue to get better with his expertise as his position ocahc. And you just see daily consistency from Jalyx since the day he’s gotten here of working and getting better as a football player.”

On the offense’s performance

As for whether he thinks there can still be improvements from the offense at this point in the season, Sirianni pointed to last year when they didn’t peak offensively until probably the NFC Championship game. He noted that there were things in the first round against the Packers that they had to clean up, and then things looked a little better against the Rams, but then they had their best offensive output against the Commanders.

The head coach pointed to the Bills game, and admitted that they were pissed off that they didn’t coach well enough to do much in the second half, but Sirianni was also encouraged by some of the opportunities they have to build on. He doubled down that he knows from experience that if they all continue to get better every day, they’ll be playing their best football at the end of the year.

Injury and other notables

• Sirianni said that Lane Johnson is working his butt off to get back, and attacks everything with a great mindset. They’ll see where he is and continue to do what’s best for Johnson, first and foremost, and then the team.
• He was asked a bit about his role in the defense given Fangio’s extensive experience, and Sirianni talked about how he’s learned a lot in meetings with the DC, and being a head coach lets him learn more about the defense and that side of the ball.