Eagles’ Nick Sirianni doubles down on questionable decision that his staff may keep making even though it’s not working well
The Eagles offense under Nick Sirianni is committing to the same mistake over and over for some reason.
For the Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Goedert headlines the tight end room. Grant Calcaterra has seen his presence increase at times this season, but there’s been some struggle mixed in with positive play. Head coach Nick Sirianni seems determined to give Calcaterra chances to fix some of his errors, regardless of how it affects the offense in the long run.
Eagles HC Nick Sirianni defends role of TE Grant Calcaterra
Amid some questioning of the backup TE’s role, the Eagles head coach did not shy away from the staff’s use of him against the Bears last week. Calcaterra played just twelve snaps in the loss, and he was a run blocker on ten of those snaps. He has struggled to block on running plays this season, so this is a bit of a head scratcher for Sirianni’s unit.
Sirianni doesn’t see it that way, though, and reiterated their confidence in Calcaterra’s ability to do whatever the coaches ask of him.
“On that play and the one you’re talking about, they obviously brought the nickel off the edge and kind of stunted the other guy down in there pretty far inside, which is going to be a tough block regardless of who’s in right there. We have a lot of faith in Grant and the things that he can do. Like I said, it’s always our job as coaches to first start them off in positions that they can succeed. Sometimes the loss is drawn up to execution. Sometimes the loss is drawn up to the scheme. Sometimes the loss is drawn up to, you might’ve loved your scheme, but they did something that made it really difficult to do and I think that was the case right there.
But like I said, have a lot of faith in him and what he can do, and he’s been a part of a lot of winning football here and he has been part of the reason why we’ve done a lot of good things here.”
— Nick Sirianni via Jeff McLane
Plenty of fans have wondered about the lack of efficiency from the running game in Philly. These sort of choices from the staff have stymied some of the upside for Saquon Barkley, and that’s a legitimate concern for the entire upside of the offense – not just the running game.
Jalen Hurts’ greatest success as a passer comes from play action and using space as his ally. When the Eagles cannot run the ball effectively on early downs and struggle with pass protection on clear passing downs, that is a recipe for disaster.
As far as Calcaterra’s role, the Eagles have to find another way to get improved blocking for the rushing attack. If he’s only in for a bulk of the run plays, defenses can prepare to defend that rather than the pass on a down-by-down basis, which is part of why Chicago had so much success on defense versus the Eagles in Week 13.
We’ll see if adjustments are made regarding the tight end’s usage, but it doesn’t sound like it is a concept that Sirianni is giving much thought to when it comes to changes.
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