Nick Sirianni addresses the Eagles’ plan at punt returner

The Eagles have another practice on Friday before heading to the West Coast for their Sunday Night Football matchup with the Rams, and head coach Nick Sirianni spent a few minutes giving injury updates and talking about veteran and WR evaluations.

He didn’t want to get too much into why Jalen Hurts was limited on Wednesday or how they were using that as a preventive measure, but simply noted the QB is good to go and will be out on the field Sunday night. Sirianni explained it’s a long season and a lot of guys are doing maintenance at this point.

Here’s what else the head coach had to say:

Injury notes
Sirianni said they were going to wait and see how things went on Friday for DeVonta Smith before deciding how to handle his status for Sunday’s game.

The head coach said that Britain Covey has done a nice job in returning to practice this week from IR, but again, they’ll have to see how he’s doing at the end of the day. Sirianni said that it’s nice to get Covey back out there on the field, and couldn’t emphasize enough how good of a teammate he is and how much the players like being around him.

With Covey back on the field, Sirianni said that they’ll do whatever is best for the football team in regards to how they handle punt returns. Cooper DeJean has done a really, really good job returning the ball in Covey’s absence, but the head coach made sure to note how well Covey ranked at returns before his injury. Sirianni said it’s a good problem to have and they’ll just have to evaluate all the factors to make a decision.

On handling discipline
Sirianni said that if you ask the players, he thinks they would say that he’s fair when evaluating the tape. If the standard of a play is met, they celebrate, and if it’s not met, they correct — and they do both in front of the whole team because everyone can learn something from each play.

As far as disciple regarding off-the-field issues, Sirianni acknowledged that they have team rules they expect everyone to follow, and just like the on-field stuff, if the standard is met, they celebrate, and if it’s not, they address it.

On evaluating veterans
The head coach was asked how they evaluate performances of veterans, guys like Jake Elliott, who have built up trust over time, and how they balance past performances with current performances.

“You account for everything. Just like when you’re trying to make decisions on game management things, everything’s accounted for — what’s currently happening and what’s happened in the past. You see practice every single day.”

Sirianni went on to explain that they believe if you practice average, you play average and if you practice great, you’re going to play great. Media and fans don’t get to see those practices and the work that is put in, but those days are what gives him and the coaching staff faith and confidence in their guys.

On WR depth
If DeVonta Smith is unable to play Sunday, Sirianni was asked what gives him confidence in Jahan Dotson and Johnny Wilson taking on bigger roles.

“Just a continued getting better every single day. Both of them have made some big plays in the past couple weeks. Johnny [Wilson] catching his first touchdown pass. Jahan [Dotson] catching a deep ball in the Jacksonville game, and then also the Dallas game.

Again, and then the things that we see in practice. These guys come to work hard every single day, they put it on the line every single day, they’ve had good practices throughout the week, and we’re excited about their possibilities if they need to go. And, we’ve had some good experiences with guys this year that have stepped in and contributed, and that’s the awesome part of a team.”