PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — If Nick Sirianni wants to build trust with his players, he is apparently off to a strong start. The Eagles began their off-season workouts at the NovaCare Complex this week.
With several NFL players opting to skip in-person workouts due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many teams were facing a dilemma this spring. When Sirianni approached his players about a compromise, Brandon Graham and the veterans were happy to work out a schedule with their new head coach.
"I thought that was very big," said Graham. "Coach reached out to us [and asked], 'How can we make this thing work?' We sat down. We talked about it, and we’d seen where he wanted to go, and when he’d seen where we wanted to go, we came in the middle."
That compromise is part of what appears to be an excellent start with Sirianni and his players getting on the same page.
The Eagles have meetings and on-field work this week, and more work on the field work over the next two weeks. There will be no mandatory minicamp, and the players won't see each other again until training camp.
Jason Kelce is confident they will get enough work in to be ready for the season.
"There’s enough time here to get installed what we need to have installed before the games really start happening," Kelce said. "There’s more than enough time and more than enough opportunities to build this thing and get it dialed in."
Getting dialed in is something Jalen Hurts plans to do.
The man who is expected to start at quarterback is more than happy to keep his ears open when it comes to learning from his coaches.
"The rent is due every day," said Hurts. "It’s always been that way for me. I’ve always been a get better mentality every day, grow every day, be a better leader every day, be a better quarterback every day. When that rent’s due, I don’t plan on missing those payments."
There is a long way to go before the start of the season. The Eagles and the rest of the NFL will also have a chance to play preseason games after they were canceled last year.
For now, the Eagles have taken their first step after reaching a compromise with their coach. It appears to have helped both sides as they begin working with each other.
"I think we came up with a good little plan," Graham said. "It's a plan to make sure that everybody will be able to play fast and know exactly what coaches are looking for when training camp comes."