When the Eagles introduced Nick Sirianni as their head coach at a press conference in January, his performance in front of the cameras and microphones was choppy enough to have some questioning the team’s choice to replace Doug Pederson.
Sirianni got more comfortable in that aspect of his job as the offseason continued and he also appears to have shown the right moves when it comes to winning over veteran members of the team. Right tackle Lane Johnson took time out of from this weekend’s offensive line summit he helped organize to say that Sirianni is pushing the right buttons heading into his first season in his new job.
“He’s taken great command of the team early on,” Johnson said, via Jeff Skversky of WPVI. “I think what I appreciate about him the most is he holds everybody accountable. When we go to practice, it doesn’t matter if you’re a veteran or a rookie on the first day. If you’re making mistakes, he’ll push you on the board. Not to call you out, but really to kinda get you better. What that shows, if he can do that with veterans, then the younger guys will come along as well. That’s been my impression early on. It’s been a lot of fun, really a lot of energy. Moving forward, we have a lot to prove.”
The Eagles shook up their roster in addition to their coaching staff after their disappointing 2020 season, but Johnson isn’t the only veteran still on hand and making sure they’re on board will be important to Sirianni’s effort to push the team in the direction he wants to go in 2021 and beyond.