‘I’m always going to protect the team’ – Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni explains why he didn’t exactly tell the truth about Joe Milton starting this week
Former Tennessee Volunteers quarterback Joe Milton will start for the Philadelphia Eagles this week.
Former Tennessee Vols quarterback Joe Milton will make his first career NFL start this week.
Milton will start at quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday against the New York Giants.
The news came as a bit of a surprise because Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni didn’t mention anything to the media on Wednesday about a quarterback change — even though he’d already told Tanner McKee the day before that he was being benched (McKee started the last couple of games for the Eagles with Jalen Hurts sidelined).
Sirianni explained that he was trying to keep the news quiet because he didn’t want the Giants to find out that Milton was starting.
“I was gonna hold on to that as long as I possibly could,” explained Sirianni. “Every second and every minute [that I could]. I’m not real shy with you guys. I’m gonna tell you what I want to tell you guys. I respect the job that y’all have to do, but I’m gonna tell you what I want to tell you guys because I’m always going to protect the team first and foremost.
“Every second that goes by in a situation like that where you can hold on to information as long as you possibly can is a little less time for the opponent to get ready for the game. And so I know there’s a lot of interest in everything that you all want to hear and the fans want to hear. My job is to win football games and do everything we can do to help win football games and protect the guys here on this football team.”
Coaches around the sport — college and the NFL — are extremely paranoid when it comes to opponents knowing who their starting quarterback is. I mean, Tennessee Vols fans have seen this in action with Josh Heupel over the last few weeks (even though everyone knows George MacIntyre is the starter).
At least Vols fans know it’s not just Heupel that likes to play quarterback games with the media.
