Eagles Press Conference: Matt Patricia | December 27, 2023

okay appreciate it everybody good to see everyone um let me just dive into it right just get going why did you like Nolan Smith that that 51 penny at the off ball yeah um you know Nolan's he's a good football player you know he's a good young guy he's got good instincts um you know has progressed through the course of the year he played a couple different positions I think he has some multiple multiplicity coming out of college which was really uh good for him and kind of allows him to be used in a couple spots um I think where we were last week kind of getting ready for the game and some of the depth situations that we had right there it was good to have a um Nolan to um move around a little bit and that kind of just offered us some different roles to uh you know put guys in in different positions out on the field that with with Sydney Brown how do you a young guy who's got maybe plays to the whistle and a little after how do you kind of balance W them to be aggressive yeah and be that kind of player but also being smart how do you work through that yeah I mean I think that's a great point you know and some of it comes with experience you know and I think as you grow and and and uh especially in the league you know as you have more time on the field you know you learn you know we we want guys to be aggressive you know he's a great style of play and but certainly we can't do anything that puts the team at harm or at risk and and those are good learning moments for everybody in that situation um and just trying to get them to get that right tempo of the play you know for for all those things um always kind of feel like it's easier just to try to put the brakes on than put the gas on so um you like that you just try to coach through it the best you can and I think just those scenarios and awareness uh and sometimes you know as young players uh there's a transition for the speed of the game too you know like the other guys are faster and quicker and and they move a little bit different than maybe you know what he saw last year so getting used to that's better yep go ahead I was going to say brand and Graham seem to uh get some snaps inside maybe more than usual yeah and at the expense perhaps of Jaylen Carter what what is it about that matchup maybe that you like let you in that direction yeah um man BG is unbelievable what a we were just talking this morning I I can't tell you how uh how much of a joy it is to be around him every day and to feel his energy and and the things that he brings both on and off the field and I think um you know last week as we were trying to get ready to go and look at some certain packages and situationally uh where we thought we could um utilize some of his ability um and maybe you know he's just a little bit he's really strong he's powerful he's explosive he's got great quickness uh and sometimes inside you know if you're a guard or a center um big guy matchups are different then all a sudden another guy comes in there and that's a little bit of a different pass set for you you know you have uh from an offensive line standpoint if you're a guard you're trying to take you know whether you call it the two technique set the three technique set there's a four ey wide set there's a twoy set down inside so you take those different sets you practice them through the course of the week you you work on them versus certain you know bigger guys that you may see inside whether it's Fletch or uh Jaylen or um Jordan whoever it is and then all a sudden you get a little bit of a different skill set in there and it gives you a little bit of a different problem against um maybe something that we see that um we could take advantage of or used to our um benefit in those deals and those sets become a little bit different now for that guard um in there you know short space quickness all that stuff inside working with the centers uh especially you know we were trying to affect the pocket in a certain way we just thought that matchup would be a good change up back to talk you guys also use read in that Way Forward um where where does that idea originate you like Rush yeah yeah um I definitely cannot take credit for any of that I mean obviously um you know it's a copycat League across the board for decades um but you know you you see stuff sometimes you see other teams doing things and guys that have some of the um on the ball off the ball ability and move them around try to create different protection issues uh for the offense you know certainly uh it's great playing at home it's very loud which I love uh the fans are you know yelling and screaming and and that's such a huge Advantage for us when the offensive line the quarterback they're trying to get on the same page um certainly early you know if you have a Young quarterback out on the field in those situations or trying to communicate protection system who's the mic you know trying to identify how they're going to handle those uh if you can move some of those guys around I think it just slows their process down a little bit um you know maybe catch him in a bad mismatch you catch maybe a free runner coming through something along those lines so being able to utilize those guys in those ways definitely helps you guys had you just the one sack you had just the one sack against the Giants I guess when you watch the pass rush back what's keeping it from being able to impact games yeah um I think the pass rush is you know um it's certainly something we're always trying to strive forward to get into the back field and get after the quarterback it's certainly high priority for us week in week out um you know coach D did a great job with his staff of trying to get the ball out quick and and certainly you could see it early in the game especially uh in the first half did a really good job job of using the empty formations and motioning guys out and getting some overload 4 by ones and 3X tws and putting the ball out on the perimeter pretty quick we changed up a couple things there to try to slow that down a little bit um and and the ball was was coming out very very effectively fast um you know you try to get him into passing situations where the routes have to go downfield a little bit further maybe you got a little bit more time uh to try to get to the quarterback in in that situation um but uh you know give them credit for what they were trying to do in those situations but I would say this you know the those guys are affecting the quarterback um maybe not in the the sacks you know we're working to get there but certainly the pass rush and there's certain things depending on the quarterback that you're playing and how you try to game plan the effectiveness of the rush whether you know maybe it's coming through the middle maybe it's a certain side that you can get rushed to um get him out of his throwing Lane you know not let him step up through the pocket um you know right-handed quarterbacks versus you know um mobile quarterbacks guys that want to stay in guys that want to get out the um you know say the rate at which these guys are trying to get out of the pocket or Escape whether it's deep or up and through uh is at a high rate too that means that means they're feeling The Rush from that standpoint and certainly you know I think there's things that that I've got to do to continue to help these guys in those situations and and scheme wise that maybe we can do going down the road to help them um have those guys you know stuck in there a little bit longer so we can get after them what's your philosophy on when it comes to metrics like measuring that is it pressures QB hits like what do you look at to kind of quantify yeah um good question cuz there there's a lot of numbers out there with all that stuff I think they're all I mean I love numbers it's kind of my my background so I'm good with all that um I think at the end you're always trying to look at what affects the play you know what is the result of the play um and that's the biggest thing for us and I think you know but we try to look at all those metrics and we try to um you know apply them and improve them and you know sometimes it is just to your point like Hey we're seeing numbers to say it's coming fast you got to go faster you know or we got to do something to help you get there quicker whatever that is um so I love all those tools RS certainly from that aspect of it um in the end we're trying to see what happened on the play and did we affect the play or not affect the play and you know sometimes you don't necessarily affect that play but you may affect it two or three down the road um because of the cumulative effect and I think that's always really good too I think we had one in the middle and what did you think the linebacker play especially Ben van Sumer in playing defensive snaps for the first time his career and also him and Shaq together yeah um well start with Shaq I mean that was great right I mean obviously so excited for him uh to be be able to come in and and play and um you know another week just kind of getting familiar with everything and and man I thought he made some really aggressive quick reads he's a super instinctual football player you know and there were some plays in there where he just saw and triggered and and that was uh they were you know I think energized everybody from that standpoint so that was really good to see and and uh I was super happy and proud of him for that and you know he's he's such a great professional he works extremely hard to you know do everything that we're trying to do and um you know with Ben you know that's exciting for him you know to be able to get that action in the game and he's extremely fast and an explosive player um he's young so we're trying to get him you know slow down see what you're seeing and and you know get your eyes right and all that stuff from a linebacker standpoint he's been real productive and help you know helping our special teams too so he's been on the field from that aspect of it but looked like he was having fun out there and he was you know explosive which is what he does um and it was just you know in the situation we were in last week trying to um put different guys on the field you know say a platoon effect but we had guys in different roles and different packages so that you could really kind of lock in on the job that you needed to do and just try to do it at the highest production level you could for that particular package that we had um which is good when you got either young guys or guys that are new into the system um so that you know there's a lot that goes into the game in the different situations and and try to just lock him into those roles I thought was helpful for those guys I think they did a great job to their credit yes sir is is Tyler Kyler Murray's ability to extend plays and his running ability yeah is that the the biggest problem you face in planning for Arizona this week I mean it's one of the big problems I mean obviously you start with him uh I've played him through the years he's um extremely explosive very fast very quick uh unbelievable athlete um you know I think the thing about him is you know you go out there and you're like all right I've got this guy lined up I think we're going to be in a good and then he's gone like he just he does a great job with the angles you know he really just uh manipulates the angles on the field and you can see where his other sports athleticism you know comes into play here you know he just does a great job and he sets you up you know he'll go in he'll get real tall and then you're like you know you start to rise up and then all of a sudden he's gone like he's just down and he moves he's quick and the biggest thing with him that's interesting you know since he came in the league that I've noticed is he will hit Top Speed um right now like there's no buildup to it it's not like he you know has to get going for five yards before he's running full speed he can just go and I think that's what surprises everybody right away is just how fast he moves and how quickly he can get to that top speed so you start there obviously with him um you know they've got the these guys play extremely hard coach Ganon a great job with this team and getting the team to play aggressive and um physical and uh you know certainly Conor uh the running back is great running back he's a big big guy coming downhill he gets outside he's got good speed good change of Direction uh I think they're doing a great job with him and you know when he gets rolling it's a it's a problem you know obviously a little bit familiarity with him too um Hollywood Brown you know if he's out there I mean this guy's moving fast so they've got a great combination of speed they play physical I think they play aggressive up front at the o line quarterback is very difficult to deal with um tight end McBride I mean this guy's you know he's he's really having a great year so uh he's a go-to guy for him he's a Target in all the situations uh the quarterback trusts him you know he's got a big catch radius so the quarterback's looking to find him in those uh those deals and a lot of those extended plays you know these guys with their speed they get open they find the space in the zones they get away from their man um and if you're you're not trying to attach to the receivers uh and you lose vision on the quarterback then he takes off so it that it's a complicated um sort of bunch of problems to have when all those guys are out there jayen Carter um obviously ton of pluses going for him what's what's one area of growth that you would like to see that would be important for his development sure um man that's a that's a good one uh especially with the young you know good young players you know you're always trying to improve whether it's um you know week in week out their their r or just try to get them to um you know maybe look at uh the game newly each week you know from that aspect of it like hey this is what we did last week let's build on that next week and let's just keep building your process I guess is the best way to put it from that aspect of it um and just you know the consistency you're always trying to just kind of get that down but I mean he's obviously a really good football player he's you know uh done some great things for us we'll continue to build on that and go and utilize them in as many different ways as we can and um I just love you know he's got great energy comes on the field comes to practice and and just um loves the game and um it's a real joy to be around him in in those situations you been better on third down the last two weeks statistically speaking what have you done differently and when did when did the process of changing third down um start yeah um you know give the credit for the third down to the players I think you know they they go on the field and execute um the game plan at a at a high level uh I think we had some guys go out and really do a good job in those roles that we asked them to do um certainly the last couple weeks we've tried to do a couple things um just add on but we've really you know with um coachi and myself we've been trying to add into those packages with the assistant coaches they've done a really good job of game planning that stuff so I think it's just building through the course of of the season and um you know working with the guys that we have on the field and trying to put them in different positions um you know to be able to go execute and and um have some success so I'd really say just from standpoint of of whatever it is statistically I mean the players is really I think they've done a great job with how was Communication in that last game know not unheard of but a little uncommon to have a safety yeah yeah great question too with that one so I mean give credit to Reed I mean obviously that's a tough deal you know I've used that in the past before with safeties um you know in my history of having them have the Green Dot and communicate all that stuff to everybody but it's a hard deal you know you might be 30 yards away from a play you're running back you know you're putting a lot of mileage on right there you know you're trying to get it communicated to the front and and everybody else but um you know certainly try to look for um you know just that that continual voice that's going to be on the field you know it can be a little bit difficult when that guy's on and off the field so you tried to manage that the best and that consistency I thought Reed brought to it he did a really good job in the game with it you know that's not an easy thing to do um but uh you know give him credit for that in your experience Matt is uh we always say the rookie wall Is that real do you think yeah um I mean I guess through the course of my years I've seen a lot of different rookies and some you know have been able to handled the transfer really well and and some have struggled through that from that standpoint so um you know I don't know if it's just rookies I don't know if it's you know younger players newer players sometimes you know might be a guy that has a changed uh in the system but the NFL season is is definitely long you know It's a Grind it um that's what we love about it you know from that aspect of it I think as you get and become more of a veteran player in the NFL you just that routine I think is the biggest thing that saves you you know I think that's the biggest thing that you lean on is what is your routine and you go into those modes of the season and you just have those timelines that you hit and those markers that you know whether it's you know you're trying to get through September and then you get to you know whether it's the end of October you hit Thanksgiving you hit Christmas you just know the timeline of the season from that aspect of it I think it's interesting you know obviously a couple years ago um you wouldn't think it's much but when you went from 16 to 17 I did think that was a change I thought that was a change in kind of how the season um time marker went for some of the players and I think that took a little while getting used to and certainly for younger guys or and and rookies that come com in the league um it is completely different than their timeline of what college was you know and the markers that they might have had whether it was Thanksgiving or Christmas and then certainly then the break before they got ready for whatever postseason they had um in in grinding through those months um staying consistent with it is is hard you know it's new for those guys I think that's the biggest thing you try to just get them in a routine um a lot of the guys you know they'll attach to veteran guys and kind of pick their brains from that standpoint of how do you do that and and that's real and and um you know when you get through those harder months or those longer months where you know the grind is what it is you you just try to push them through to get them you know back at the end of it from that standpoint so just try to educate it Yep this kind of Segways this kind of Segways into that you talked about how getting different guys on the field in recent weeks in your Ideal World do you get as many guys as you can on the field and have them with those limited packages um you know I think it depends on on the team you know I think that's changed for me just year in year out um but certainly you know in the NFL you got some guys that are active for the games and and if you can use all those guys and put them into different roles to help you on game day and whether that helps you at the end of the game or whether it helps you in a situation um or it helps another player maximize what he's doing in his own role um I think you try to figure those out and you try to do that when you can you know sometimes there's guys are just going to be on the field all the time and that's just who they are and that's okay but um if you have those situations and you can maximize them I always think that's good you feel like you're potentially have some of them right now I think we got some guys that um are active for the game that can go out and help us and and if they can and and that makes everybody else play better or whatever the situation is try to utilize it when we can sure yeah sure yep good to see everybody