Nick Sirianni was late for Friday’s media sessions because he was battling Greg Ward in a three-point shooting contest. Ward won, which was disappointing for Sirianni since he’s a competitive guy. It’s a summer of competition in South Philly.

The Birds had a practice session at Lincoln Financial Field this morning and Sirianni had this to say afterward:

  • Between now and training camp, he wants the team to “continue to create good habits.” He wants the team to watch film, work on fundamentals, stay out of trouble, and come to camp in the best physical shape of their life. But each individual player has to decide whether they’re going to stick around and work out, or get away on vacation. There’s no rule set for what they are required to do between now and then.
  • RE: Andre Dillard, mental health, and social media, Sirianni says his job as a coach is to have guys “get better every single day.” He says it’s about limiting distractions and “being obsessed” with getting better, but explained that crutches are different for each player. It’s not always social media.
  • He says even without 11v11 and 7v7, that they were able to dive into fundamentals and spent a lot of time on individual things. He says every correction and every portion of praise was exciting because they are further ahead this year than NFL teams were last year.
  • On the little competitive games that they do during OTAs, he says you get better are competing even with what seems like goofy sidebar things. “You have to practice competing as well.”
  • He says Jake Elliott is a phenomenal competitor who can win in anything. Ping pong, etc. That’s great (sarcasm).
  • On padded practices, he says they are “still working through that.” He wants to get the pads on when they are allowed because “that’s how football is played…. we’ll definitely utilize that.” He noted that he’s not going to overdo it when it comes to hitting in training camp.

He was also asked about Jalen Hurts and had this to say:

Jalen Hurts, QB1? We’ll find out this season.

Here’s full video of the session: