Getty Eagles coach Nick Sirianni has made puzzling decisions in regard to his quarterback rotation in the preseason.
The Philadelphia Eagles handed Carson Strong one of the largest contracts ever for an undrafted free agent. The rookie quarterback out of Nevada received a $20,000 signing bonus, plus $300,000 in guaranteed money.
Strong, a one-time Heisman Trophy candidate, was supposed to fight for the third-string job. Then, the Eagles decided to sit him for the majority of the preseason. He saw only seven snaps in Saturday night’s finale, bringing his summer total to a whopping 15 snaps in two games. Strong finished 1-of-4 for 6 yards, which translates to $80,000 per pass attempt.
Why? What happened? Head coach Nick Sirianni gave a very guarded answer after losing to the Miami Dolphins. He blamed it on a “different situation,” adding that he wanted to get Reid Sinnett and Gardner Minshew extra work.
“Well, you know everybody’s in a different situation and different scenarios,” Sirianni told reporters. “We wanted Reid to get some work. We wanted Gardner to get some work. And that was a little bit more about that than anything, that we wanted to make sure that those two guys got the work, that those two guys got the reps that they needed.”
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Davion Taylor’s Stock Plummets, Snaps Increase
Third-year linebacker Davion Taylor was still on the field late into the third quarter. Odd, since guys with guaranteed roster spots are usually out of pads by then. And Taylor didn’t look good. The 2020 third-rounder appears to be clearly on the bubble heading into final cuts, although Sirianni cautioned about reading too much into snap counts from Saturday’s game.
“Some of it came down to the numbers that we had, to be honest with you, everybody was discussed individually,” Sirianni said. “From [Darius] Slay to Jalen [Hurts] to everybody on the roster. So, everyone was discussed. Some of the twos, you know we didn’t play our ones, we didn’t play some of our twos that were in with our ones during practice, because again we felt like we got good work with them this week.”
Taylor saw 45 snaps against Miami (40 on defense, 5 on special teams). He ended his preseason with eight tackles on 112 total snaps. Problem is, his snaps went up deeper into the exhibition schedule. Taylor, who started six games in 2021 before a knee injury ended his season, was supposed to be trending up. Those numbers indicate otherwise.
Don’t Tell Sirianni Preseason Games Don’t Matter
The Eagles suffered a 38-point loss to the Dolphins in the final preseason game. That’s embarrassing even if these glorified August scrimmages don’t count for much. Sirianni wasn’t happy and let his players know it.
“No matter what, you lose something like that bad, like that’s tough, that’s tough to stomach,” Sirianni said. “Hats off to Miami. They did a good job and they’re well coached. You never want to come out there and lay an egg like we did. My message was … we got to look at it, and we got to all look ourselves in the mirror and get better from it. And I’ll always put it on us as coaches first.”
The Philosophy.