July 24, 2026
Bill Streicher/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Nick Sirianni, filibuster extraordinaire.
A little while back, Nick Sirianni held a press conference with Philadelphia Eagles media and spoke for a little over a half hour. We covered his praise of Riq Woolen earlier in the week. Let's just say that information does not flow freely during Sirianni pressers like it often does during, saaayyy, a Vic Fangio presser, but I do have some additional takeaways nevertheless.
Sirianni: "DeVonta Smith is a special player who can continue to get more targets. And he has had over 100 targets — you guys would know the stats better then me — I believe almost every year, and has had a high volume a couple of the years. He's so capable of doing even more. Man, he is such a good football player.
"And so I'm excited for the extra opportunities that DeVonta is going to get his way. And I know every time that we've given him extra opportunities, he's always taking advantage of those. And so now he's going to get more of those."
#JimmySays: With A.J. Brown gone, we already knew Smith would see a substantial uptick in targets, so this isn't anything surprising to hear, but it's noteworthy to hear the coach say it. For the record, here are Smith's targets by season:
| DeVonta Smith | Targets | Rec | Yards | TD |
| 2021 (17 games) | 104 | 64 | 916 | 5 |
| 2022 (17 games) | 136 | 95 | 1196 | 7 |
| 2023 (16 games) | 112 | 81 | 1066 | 7 |
| 2024 (13 games) | 89 | 68 | 833 | 8 |
| 2025 (17 games) | 113 | 77 | 1008 | 4 |
The NFL leaders in targets in 2025:
The Eagles are going to be a run-heavy offense, so Smith isn't going to get Ja'Marr Chase-level targets, but if he stays healthy he could have north of 150. He's in a similar situation as Jaxon Smith-Njigba was a year ago, in that JSN also played in a run-heavy offense but benefited from the team moving on from the previous WR1 in DK Metcalf.
Sirianni: "Tay Wicks has this great ability. Gosh, there are so many similarities — and again, this is going to be a high praise statement and I'm not saying he's this guy — but he reminds me of Keenan Allen with the way he is in and out of breaks...
"I think that everybody's their own individual. So it's like, this portion of the game reminds me of this guy's portion of the game. And Keenan, with the way they are off the line of scrimmage, the way they are at the top of the route, with the way they're with the ball in their hands, it just really reminds me of him in that aspect."
#JimmySays: I can actually see that. We did a player review of Wicks' game earlier this offseason and one thing that stood out to me in a positive way was his ability to beat press coverage.
One of the reasons Jahan Dotson almost never saw the ball come his way was because he stunk getting off the line of scrimmage. Opposing cornerbacks pretty easily re-routed him, leading to him either not being where he needed to be on his route or being late getting there. Wicks is a bigger receiver than Dotson at 6'1, 206, so he can fight through jams at the line of scrimmage, and he has some shake to avoid them as well. For example, here he is vs. Brian Branch on a 4th down play that sealed a Packers win:
And here's a cutup of some more releases at the line of scrimmage here, via Kurt Benkert:
Wicks' biggest issue over the first three NFL seasons has been drops. If he can clean up that part of his game, I believe he can be a really effective receiver. Easier said than done.
Sirianni: "I told the story about Franco Harris that Tony Dungy told us — and I said this our first year — he was always running to the ball. So basically, what Dungy said was like the act in itself that he caught the 'Immaculate Reception,' that may have been lucky. But his habit of being around the football and being there at the right place at the right time was not unlucky because that's who he was, his habits.
"Well, now I'm thinking about that, and it's like, well, that's Tank Bigsby, he is constantly running to the football, he is constantly doing everything he's supposed to do."
#JimmySays: This was part of a much longer answer about Nick's use of ChatGPT. He called it "ChatGP." Zach Berman had a good story about that.
Anyway, I just thought that the quick aside about Bigsby's practice habits was interesting. Maybe they should give him the ball sometimes.
Sirianni: "We've done a lot of team activities this offseason... I'm sure you've seen some of them, like our basketball, bowling. I don't know what's been posted [on social media]. We had a team dinner... We're going to do something at the end of camp with their families, and they did a golf thing on their own.
"I just had a get together for all the coaches downtown. Sean [Mannion] had a get together for the offensive coaches that I was invited to go to last weekend...
"I watched the Spurs, they win the Western Conference final. Watched the Knicks, they win Eastern Conference final, watched Vegas [Golden Knights], they win whatever, and Carolina [Hurricanes]. And they're all saying the same thing. And it's like, 'We just didn't want to let each other down.' There's a common denominator of these good teams that they just want to play for each other. And so we've talked a lot about that and tried to live that."
#JimmySays: This might seem like a throwaway quote to some, but I do think it's telling that Sirianni thought that it was necessary to have a bunch of team activities this offseason. The 2017 team that won the Super Bowl was the best locker room that I have ever seen in my time covering the team. There were some clashes on that team, but they mostly loved each other, and you could see it translate onto the field. Personally, I thought that the chemistry on that team was a highly underrated reason for their success.
Certainly, the 2025 team wasn't that. The obvious disconsolate player to point to from that roster was A.J. Brown, who pretty clearly had to go this offseason. I don't know if bowling will fix the team's togetherness issues of a year ago, but it's interesting to see that they are more or less acknowledging that team morale needs repair.
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