Eagles notebook: How a rookie's shirt took center stage in team meeting

Eagles rookie receiver Johnny Wilson was getting ready for practice one day as Nick Sirianni walked by and stopped to look at his t-shirt.

The sixth-rounder was wearing a long-sleeve white shirt with the phrase “SOMETIMES YOU   SOMETIMES ME   ALWAYS US” in small letters across his chest. Sirianni took notice.

“He walked by and was like, ‘It’s a cool shirt,’” Wilson said this week. “I reminded him after practice. I was like, ‘Food for thought right there. That’s a good one right there.’”

Sirianni didn’t forget it. And on Saturday night in Cincinnati before the Eagles’ 37-17 win over the Bengals, the Eagles’ head coach relayed that message to the entire group in a team meeting.

Wilson smiled.  

“I was like, yup, that’s me,” the rookie said.

Wilson said he first saw the shirt — which is a collaboration between Nike and NOCTA — while scrolling through instagram and it spoke to him. He has played football for a long time and has learned that about the sport over the years.

“I make a play, you make a play, at the end of the day, it’s all about team,” Wilson said.

During his four years as Eagles head coach, Sirianni has always looked everywhere for ways to inspire his team. He’ll show clips, tell stories and he’ll even share a quote from a t-shirt.

But the fact that he even noticed it at all says a lot about the way he tries to connect with his players.

“It shows the type of relationship he tries to have with his players,” Wilson said. “He really cares about his players. It meant a lot.”

The Doug Pederson influence

Doug Pederson will return to the Linc on Sunday for his second trip back to Philly as the Jaguars head coach. He hasn’t been the Eagles coach since 2020 but his influence is still being felt in the NovaCare Complex.

This week, Sirianni explained how much it meant that Pederson reached out to him after he was hired to replace him as the Eagles’ head coach.

“I just felt like he was helpful to me with people on the roster, and how the building is, and just everything,” Sirianni said. “It’s just something that I always admired. I always try to put myself in that scenario, and I'm like, would I help? I don't know. I just don't know if I have that in me to do that. I admire people that do. I'm teasing when I say that. Hopefully I can pay that back for other coaches. I think that's what's cool about the coaching fraternity, we all got here because of other coaches and the time that they put into us to help us get better. We need to pay that forward. I always admired Doug for that. And I'll try to do the same.”

Down in Jacksonville this week, Pederson was asked how he was able to help Sirianni and he jokingly said he went over the media with him.

But it was about more than that.

“It’s a tough business and I can appreciate a new head coach going in there and what to expect,” Pederson said to Jaguars reporters. “Just to be a resource, to be somebody there, I did it there for 5 years and I was assistant coach there for a long time. Really, just if he had any questions to just ask me. It’s just a respect thing. It’s hard enough to be a head coach in this league. Any advice I could give a first-time head coach, I was going to do it.”

During his final season with the Eagles, Pederson got a chance to coach a rookie Jalen Hurts in 2020. When asked about Pederson on Wednesday, Hurts got a big smile on his face.

Even though Hurts entered his rookie season as the backup behind Carson Wentz, he learned a lot from Pederson.

“He was a bright mind, he was a bright mind,” Hurts said. “A bright mind. When I came into the league, I realized that everybody had a different way of seeing the game and his way of seeing the game was unique, yet he could always spit it to you and dumb it down. And so I think how he presents his scheme, his strategy, I think that’s something that’s really good and you don’t want to make it harder than it is. I think that was his approach with it.”

Golfing with a president

Earlier this week, Hurts and Saquon Barkley got to join Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie at Merion Golf Club for an outing with former President Barack Obama.

“Yeah, it was pretty cool,” Barkley said. “Probably one of the coolest experiences I’ve had in my life. Very personable. He was just awesome to be honest. I got to spend 4 or 5 hours with him and do something that I love to do also, play golf.”

While Barkley played on Tuesday, Hurts did not. But he still enjoyed the experience. Hurts has long been a fan of Obama and said he struck him as an “uncle figure.”

“I think that’s just a blessing in my young time to be able to establish the handful of individuals I’d love to meet and be kind of complete after that,” Hurts said. “I’ve met some and we’ve lost some to Father Time. The only one left is Denzel Washington. I got a lot of respect for those guys and every time I’ve been able to speak with them and be in their presence it’s always been fruitful conversation. Nothing aimless about it. I feel like I left their presence a better person, a wiser person. Honestly, I hope to have the same impact on them too.”

Barkley said that Lurie and security chief Dom DiSandro asked him last week if he wanted to join the Obama golf outing. For Barkley it was a no-brainer — get to meet a former president and get a day out on the links.

“He asked me a lot of great questions. I think it was cool,” Barkley said. “He definitely did his research. He asked me questions about my family and where I’m from. But my coolest thing I took away from that whole experience with him was just how he treats people. From the caddy to anybody that came up to him and looked them in their eye and made sure he had conversations with them, asked them what their name was. 

“When you’re at that level and you’re still taking time out to do that, it shows. And it was genuine too. You could just tell it was genuine. It just shows and it kind of inspired me. I try to do that already but it’s like you can always try to do that even more.”

Dean likes the green dot

As the Eagles’ middle linebacker, Nakobe Dean has an important role before and after the snap. There’s some extra responsibility that comes with the green dot on his helmet.

It’s Dean’s job to relay the play call from Vic Fangio. And it’s a job he relishes.

“Yeah, some guys are more comfortable with it,” Fangio said this week. “There have been some players in the league that don't want it. They just want somebody else to handle it and get the call. They don't want the added burden of it. Nakobe likes doing it.”

Dean was the middle linebacker on a championship defense at Georgia and has always wanted to play the position at a high level in the NFL. He got a chance to start last season but then suffered injuries and missed most of the year. In 2024, Dean has started all seven games and has mostly played pretty well.

The only time Dean comes off the field is when the Eagles go to their dime package. When that happens, weakside linebacker Zack Baun is the only linebacker of the 11 players on defense so Baun relays those calls.

But since just one helmet can have the green dot, the Eagles usually send his hand signals from the sideline from linebackers coach Bobby King.

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