Philadelphia Eagles

Toward the end of a victorious postgame speech earlier this season, Nick Siriannianswered a passing question so nonchalantly players weren’t sure whether to believe him.

I’ll see you Monday.

In Sirianni’s locker rooms and others across the NFL, terms like “victory Monday” and “walk-through Wednesday” quickly become phrases understood by all. Wins, especially late in the season, often earn players the next two days off, and the padded practices early in the year typically give way to lighter walk-throughs to keep players healthy toward the end of the regular season.

So when Sirianni told the group a couple months ago that there wouldn’t be victory Mondays this year, they almost didn’t buy it.

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The change to the start of the week is one of a handful of adjustments Sirianni and his coaching staff have made this year in an effort to better prepare for the season’s final stretch. It’s a stretch the Eagles struggled with last year; they lost six of their final seven regular-season games, which sparked an offseason of conversations about how to address the sharp regression, conversations that included the team’s leadership council more than in past offseasons.

Sirianni’s added emphasis on Mondays was one of the by-products, something he said was reinforced by a request from quarterback Jalen Hurts, among others.

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The approach to practice has changed as well. It was foreshadowed by a training camp that Sirianni warned would be more difficult than summers before and has now materialized into padded practices later into the season with an added emphasis on physicality.

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With a younger team and a coordinator in Fangio who has consistently pushed for more reps for his especially young defense, this may be the first time the Eagles use all of the padded practices the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement allows for under Sirianni. According to overthecap.com, the CBA permits teams to hold 14 padded sessions during the regular season with limitations on how many can be used during the final handful of weeks.

Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson said Sirianni came to the him and the team’s leadership earlier this year with the plan to use them all and to space them out more toward the back half of the season.

While the current approach seemingly has yielded results, it’s important to note Sirianni’s previous prioritization of preserving players with lighter workloads late in the year was also a major factor in the team’s relatively healthy finishes each of the last two years.

Seeing Saquon with wings is something I can get used to