One thing about the new Eagles coaching staff is that they’re kind of boring.

We don’t get much in the way of interesting quotes from them, because they keep it close to the vest and don’t divulge too much information. That’s not surprising considering that guys like Nick Sirianni and Jonathan Gannon are speaking with the media much more this season than they were in prior seasons. It’s still relatively new, these elevated roles.

That goes for offensive coordinator Shane Steichen as well, who spoke to media at camp for the first time on Monday. He didn’t reveal too much but I pulled some tidbits that might be of interest:

On DeVonta Smith: 

“The thing about DeVonta, his releases off the line of scrimmage for a young player are super impressive. Like, it’s rare to see the way he gets off the line of scrimmage. His first step and his jab to create that separation, I mean, that’s the biggest thing I’ve seen from him, along with his speed and his route running ability. It’s been very impressive.”

What’s up with the defense being ahead of the offense right now?


“I think when you start camp early and then you’re in the red zone, obviously the windows are really tight down there you know what I mean? So I think we’re continuing to grow and the defense has been doing a nice job and when you are going against the defense on Sundays, you’re scouting those guys.

Right now, we’re installing our system right now and as we get going right, we’ll continue to grow as an offense and continue to get better.”

What do you like about the 21 package? (two running backs/one tight end)

“I think with all of our packages right now, I mean all our personnel groups, we are installing our offense right now. So we are finding out what these guys do well, 21 stuff, whatever, 12, 11, four-wide, all that stuff. We want to look at all that and see what our guys do best so when it comes to Sunday, we put them in the best position possible.”

Nick Sirianni has been in the QB room. Is that typical?

“Yeah, if it’s an offensive head coach, absolutely. Obviously, his offense, my offense, it’s very similar, the system, we have been in the same system verbiage wise and it’s always good to have the head coach in there and everyone in there communicating and being on the same page.

To me that’s the biggest thing is the communication and preparation part of it because in this league as we know, there’s so much parity that the separation is in the preparation. If you don’t prepare well you’re not going to win on Sundays. That’s the difference in this league, you have to have the preparation part of it, and everyone has to be on the same page.”

Where does that terminology come from?

“We have kind of built it, like the route concepts and all that stuff has been. But then Nick and myself when he was in Indy and I took over as the coordinator, we talked when we were away from each other, like, ‘Hey, what are you calling ‘this’ now? Let’s make this all systematic.’ And he has done a heck of a job. So we kind of meshed that. So when I came over from L.A., it’s been the same verbiage. There are tweaks here and there but very similar.”

Do you think you have good ball-catching running backs on this roster?

“I do. I do. I think in our offense, obviously the back is a big part of it, right? We scheme up stuff for the backs, but also the backs do catch a lot of balls, and I think a lot of those happen organically. It’s like hey, do I have this ball down the field? No, I’m throwing to the tailback for a ten-yard gain. That’s a big part of what we want to do.”

Not a ton from Steichen, and it’s gonna be hard to evaluate him this year as an offensive coordinator working underneath an offensive-minded coach.

But we’ll get some more from these guys. They’ll loosen up. There will be specific situations to ask about. More interesting stuff.