PHILADELPHIA – No one will remember the third week of the preseason on Sept. 6, let alone February 2025, when Super Bowl LIX begins in New Orleans.
For many Eagles fans, the goal was to get the 26-3 loss to the Minnesota Vikings’ reserve players out of their minds as quickly as possible.
Nick Sirianni wasn’t so quick to dismiss the Eagles’ poor performance. The head coach took a while to arrive for his postgame press conference. No doubt he was mulling over upcoming roster moves with GM Howie Roseman, but he also took time to deliver a few messages to the players who may no longer have to answer to him come Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET.
First came the heavy hand of accountability, the coach’s mantra this summer.
“I felt like we didn’t play the details that are our standard here,” Sirianni Eagles said on SI. “So that’s a good example of when you don’t play with good fundamentals.”
“We missed some tackles. We fumbled the ball. We didn’t take it away. We had a possession that resulted in a penalty. We got some penalties. We dropped some balls in some critical areas that would have resulted in points, and all of those things resulted in points.”
The Vikings and Eagles had a total of 84 players left out, 42 from each side, so you can see that was the back end of each roster. For Philadelphia, only second-year edge rusher Nolan Smith and rookie slot cornerback Cooper DeJean were potential roster contributors.
However, “it doesn’t matter” is not in Sirianni’s vocabulary.
“That’s what you hope doesn’t happen,” Sirianni said of the aforementioned mistakes, “but today it happened. So it’s just a good example: you can have all the talent in the world, the best players in the world. But if you don’t play with good fundamentals, I don’t care what level you are at, that will affect whether you win or lose the football game.”
After the kick in the butt, Sirianni also patted on the back those who will not continue with the Eagles.
“This is the last time these 91 guys are together,” the coach noted. “We’re going to have to make some tough decisions. But it was a good camp. It was a camp where the guys worked their asses off.”
“We’ve gotten better. And it took all 91 guys to get better. Not just the 53 that will make this team. It took all of us. But this is the last time these 91 guys will be Philadelphia Eagles together.”
Saquon’s advice
In recent years, the NFC East has been a tale of haves and have-nots, with the Eagles and Dallas Cowboys typical contenders and the New York Giants and Washington Commanders serving as fuel for that fire.
The Eagles made a splash this spring when they signed free agent running back Saquon Barkley after he played six seasons with the Giants, where he was the foundation of the club’s offense.
Earlier this week, Roseman signed receiver Jahan Dotson, the 16th pick in the 2022 draft, as well as a 2025 fifth-round pick from Washington for a third-rounder and two seventh-rounders next April.
Dotson was a disappointment for the Commanders, as he was expected to take on a larger role and, like Barkley, evolve from a headliner to a complement to Philadelphia’s talented offense.
The two players attended Penn State and although Dotson Barkley missed a year in Happy Valley, the two got to know each other and communicated within an hour of completing the transfer.
Barkley’s key message revolves around the cultural change that Dotson will experience.
“I talked to him right afterward, literally about an hour after I got traded,” Dotson said. “He told me to just keep my head up and come here and work. That’s all we’re trying to do here: win games.”
“It’s going great here. Great coaching staff, great dressing room. So just come in, focus and work, and then let’s win games.”
SMITH KEEPS SPINNING
Nolan Smith was in turmoil on and off the field on Saturday night.
The Eagles want their second-year edge rusher to take a big step forward this season and become a key part of the team’s pass-rushing rotation.
With Cooper DeJean’s playing time limited due to injury on Saturday, Smith was likely the only rotation player to face the Vikings’ reserve players.
Smith is generally a very optimistic person and after the game he went to work in the Eagles’ spin, er, locker room.
“You know, I’m still the same person I am, and I love playing ball,” Smith said. “You don’t have to beg me or plead to play. That’s what I wanted to do for practice, just like you have to get in the locker room as a reporter once everyone’s ready.”
“Why shouldn’t it be the same when playing ball?”
Smith indicated that playing time was a coordination between himself and the coaching staff, including edge rushing coach Jeremiah Washburn, but backtracked when asked for clarification.
“I wouldn’t say that,” Smith said when asked if he had asked to play more. “But, man, when it’s time for (No.) 3 to rotate (on the field), I’m not going to doubt my nature for a second. I’m going to be ready to rotate.”
MORE NFL: John McMullen’s 53-man roster projection for the Eagles
