After the Eagles filed into the NovaCare Complex auditorium for their team meeting last Wednesday ahead of the NFC Championship Game, head coach Nick Sirianni had a request for his players.
“Humor me for a second,” Sirianni said in a moment captured on the latest episode of Eagles Unscripted. “I want us to visualize this. I want us to close our eyes and visualize this.
"Think about your best moment, your best play, your best moment. Was it a day game? Was it a night game? Did you play on turf? Was it on grass? Was it in high school, college, professional? Who were you playing? Who were you playing against? What kind of gear, swag did you have on? Did you look good? What was on your feet? Wristbands, anything? Who helped you accomplish that? Somebody helped you accomplish that moment that you have. What teammates helped you? Who helped accomplish that special moment that you’re thinking about?
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“All right, back to it. Sometimes you, sometimes me, always us. It’s going to take everybody. It’s going to take great efforts by everybody. You don’t have to do anything special. You have to do what you’ve been doing all year. That’s it. That’s it. But I can’t be great without the greatness of others. I need others to help me make moments and plays that I’m going to remember forever. The plays that I remember forever are going to be because other people helped me accomplish that and because of the great skill that you guys have.”
This idea from Sirianni stemmed from his time in Indianapolis with Frank Reich and former Colts director of team development Brian Decker, who once served as commander of special forces assignment and selection and oversaw talent acquisition for future Green Berets.
Sirianni actually asked the same question of his players before the NFC Championship Game a couple years ago, but with plenty of new faces, he decided to do it again.
This year, it created a cool moment that the team shared last week before its 55-23 win over the Commanders to send them to Super Bowl LIX. Sirianni’s point was that all of those great plays were only possible because of teamwork. That’s been his main theme for much of the season: That the Eagles can’t be great without the greatness of others.
NFL
Before the Eagles leave for New Orleans, we asked a bunch of players what play or moment they thought about during that team meeting:
RB Saquon Barkley: “My moment was probably the most recent one, would have been the Rams run. The long one in the snow. That would have probably been my moment. And then you get lost into just like smiling and the moments you built, whether it was high school football or college and all the little dumb stuff we would do as kids in our late teens. Those were probably my moments that came to my head.”
SAQUON BARKLEY 78 YARDS GOOOOODBYE!
— NFL (@NFL) January 19, 2025
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WR DeVonta Smith: “Back in high school, my senior year, fourth round of the playoffs. We needed a stop to basically go to state. The team was driving, they was like inside the 10 and it was a pile of us and I stripped the ball out. Just thinking about everybody that was in that pile, how everybody was trying to get the ball out just to stop them.”
RB Will Shipley: “It was my sophomore year of high school, state championship at UNC. And it was a trick play. My brother actually got an end-around and then threw a touchdown pass to me on the left side of the field. It was just a special moment, the last game I ever played with my brother in football and we won a state championship. That will stick with me and it just goes along with [Sirianni’s] point of you can’t be great without the greatness of others.” (1:28 mark)
DE Jalyx Hunt: “Oh, I was envisioning my first full game at HCU. That was my first time ever playing end and I iced the game. I iced the game because my teammate got a strip sack from the backside and I picked the ball up and ran. We were playing Northern Colorado. I had to pass 27 credits over the summer. So I was getting all my school right and everything and then the NCAA gave me the A-OK to go like that Friday. So I really was traveling not really knowing if I was going to be eligible. Then they said I was able to go. That’s what I was thinking about.”
LB Oren Burks: “There was a couple. There were a couple in college. One was against Kansas State, just making a game-winning tackle to clinch the game. That was a big one for us. And then there were a couple in high school were, just with my boys. Just the innocence of the game, where I fell in love with the game of football. I feel like I always kind of go back to moments like that. The business side of things kind of gets a little crazy. You just gotta remind yourself that this is a game we get to play. And just treat it as such. It’s not too serious, not too crazy. Just really enjoying the moment.” (2:23 mark)
CB Cooper DeJean: “It was back in high school in our state championship. I made a run at the end of the game. We were down most of the game and I made a run to put us ahead with like a minute to go in the game to win the state title.”
QB Tanner McKee: “I thought of two. The first one I thought of was just one in college. We were playing Oregon at home. They were ranked No. 3. We had a 2-minute to kind of end the game. I got kind of hit and knocked out for a play, had to come back and we finished the drive. We had a game-tying touchdown to go to overtime and we ended up beating them. But there was just like one throw in the back of the end zone. That and then, it was obviously kind of fresh on my mind, but the throw to A.J. (Brown) as well. Because it was kind of my first NFL career touchdown and there’s been a lot of work to get to just being with the boys and being here. I was just thinking of all the times that I’ve thrown or done that pass or worked out or extra speed training or whatever it is to get to the position to make that one play that is 3 seconds long. I just felt like there’s so much building up to it, there’s so much that goes together in a play with protection and getting everybody on the same page, anticipation, the coverage. It’s such a team sport for a single play that’s 3 seconds like that. Those are the two that I thought of.”
GO BACK TO AJ BROWN.
— NFL (@NFL) December 29, 2024
Great throw by Tanner McKee.
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TE EJ Jenkins: “There was a couple plays that popped into my mind. One that really stood out to me was in high school, back in Chancellor High School in Fredericksburg, Virginia. We were playing a team called Massaponax and they were on a winning streak. I think it was a crazy winning streak. The final score was 50-47 and I had the game-winning touchdown. I think I had like 4 or 5 touchdowns that day and like 200 yards. But a couple seconds left on the clock and got a touchdown. I just remember that feeling. Little nuggets like that just remind you of how much you love the game.”
QB Kenny Pickett: “I immediately just thought to the most recent time with me in the Dallas game. Just going out there and winning the division. Seeing everyone celebrate together in the locker room was really special. We’re all really tight so, for me, when I closed my eyes, I was thinking about that game, that moment. And every thing that went into it.”
DT Moro Ojomo: “I think I thought of in high school, it was the season opener after Hurricane Harvey. It was a tie game vs. Woodlands, another good team in high school. I forced a fumble and we win the game by 3. Kicked the field goal and we win the game by 3.” (10-minute mark)
WR Britain Covey: “I thought of my punt return against Oregon my senior year as time expired at halftime, along the sideline. I thought of Coach (Kyle) Whittingham calling timeouts to have them punt it with (11) seconds left. Because most people just go into halftime and just let the clock run out but Coach Whitt, I always told him, ‘If that ever happens, please call timeout to make them punt.’ So he did it and that was a pretty fun play.”
CB Kelee Ringo: “It was probably the National Championship Game in 2022. I had that interception (pick-6) to win the game. That’s what I thought of. That was one of my biggest moments.”
WR Parris Campbell: “I thought about the play I had agains the team up north, Michigan, senior year. I remember getting a jet sweep and taking it 67 yards. That was one of my favorite plays that I made in my career. I thought about that play and I thought about another play when I was in Indy. We were playing the Raiders and taking a short slant and taking it to the house in the fourth quarter. Those were the two plays I was thinking of.”
OT Lane Johnson: “The Super Bowl we won. I’ll never forget that moment. Probably favorite play, it wasn’t even involving me much but there was a play to (Jeremy) Maclin in Arizona. (Nick) Foles threw off his back foot 65 yards. I thought that was one of the best f—ing throws I’ve ever seen.”
WR Jahan Dotson: “For me, it was my first playoff game as a high schooler. I think I had like 7 catches, 5 touchdowns. And just the feeling I had after the game. Just knowing all the work I put in to get to that moment. I was my first time in the playoffs ever. It was my first time playing meaningful football. Just making plays for the team.”
K Jake Elliott: “A couple of them came to my mind, for sure. I immediately went back to high school. It was homecoming my junior year, I hit a 52-yarder in my first season playing football for the win. Time expired and we won to stay in playoff contention. That was the one I immediately went back to. My introduction to football and pressure kicks. That was my first one. And then the other couple were the Giants game my rookie year and then Buffalo from last year.”
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