Nick Sirianni will keep Jalen Carter’s discipline private; Eagles have an edge crunch, and more

Nick Sirianni said after the game Thursday night that he would keep all of his conversations with Jalen Carter private. It’s how the coach of the Eagles typically operates, and it’s hard to argue against the results.

Sirianni wasn’t going to change his tune, but during his usual Monday afternoon virtual media availability, the opening questioner got a little creative. Or tried to. The paraphrased version: We’ll all see the game Sunday in Kansas City anyway. Care to share if you anticipate having Carter available for the full amount of snaps?

“I’m going to keep everything that I do with him private, regardless of if you see it Sunday or not,” Sirianni replied. “Every conversation, whether it’s a personal conversation, a disciplinary thing, all those things will be handled privately. I just think that’s the way to go about doing team business when you’re doing things with a football team.”

» READ MORE: Eagles vs. Chiefs in Week 2: Here are the numbers that matter

It’s still unclear whether the NFL will levy its own disciplinary actions against Carter after he was ejected from the game Thursday for spitting on Dak Prescott before the opening play from scrimmage, but if Sirianni has his way, we won’t know if the Eagles are disciplining the defensive tackle internally until after kickoff Sunday in Kansas City. The Eagles could fine Carter, in addition to any potential league fine, and they could choose to sit him like they did for the opening series in Week 2 last year against Atlanta after he was late to a team meeting.

Multiple reports, including from ESPN and the Washington Post, said the league could have a decision about any further discipline for Carter on Monday, but as of late Monday afternoon, no ruling was made public, and Sirianni wasn’t about to divulge many details about Carter’s punishment himself.

» READ MORE: What we know (and don’t) about the Eagles entering Week 2 vs. the Chiefs

Without Carter’s presence on the inside against Dallas, the Eagles failed to produce much pressure on Prescott, and the questions about the potency of the edge rushers proved to be worthy ones.

The Eagles lost Josh Sweat to free agency and Brandon Graham to retirement, and one of their backfills, Azeez Ojulari, signed for $3 million, was a healthy scratch for opening night. The Eagles opted to elevate Patrick Johnson from the practice squad and sit Ojulari and fellow veteran free-agent signing Ogbo Okoronkwo because of Johnson’s ability to play special teams.

The picture at edge rusher got even more interesting Friday night, when the Eagles agreed to a deal with 10-year NFL veteran Za’Darius Smith, who has 69 sacks in 140 career regular-season games and another four sacks in nine postseason games. Smith played for Cleveland and Detroit last season, piling up nine sacks in 17 regular-season games.

“Excited about Za’Darius and what he can add, from watching his tape the last five years, or even more than that, and then what he did last year,” Sirianni said. “I think he adds to a very deep room where we have a lot of confidence in all of those guys.”

There’s a numbers crunch, though. The Eagles had an open spot on the 53-man roster after waiving Kenyon Green over the weekend, a spot they gave to Johnson on Monday. Johnson became the seventh edge rusher/outside linebacker on the roster.

That could be perceived as bad news for Ojulari’s future with the team, and the same could be said for Okoronkwo.

When asked about Ojulari, Sirianni said he thought the former New York Giants rusher has done some good things since joining the team, and “I have no doubt that he’s going to help us win football games moving forward.”

» READ MORE: Forget all the Week 1 questions: The Eagles are still better than the Chiefs

Sirianni has gotten pretty good at giving a long-winded answer that sometimes makes you forget what the original question was.

He was asked Monday to assess what — after watching the game film — Dallas was doing that prevented the Eagles from throwing the ball to A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. The Eagles’ stars combined for four catches on four targets for 24 yards. Brown didn’t see the ball thrown his way until after the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter.

Sirianni’s answer was 4 minutes, 35 seconds.

Coverages, protections, and progressions all impact where the ball goes on a given play, Sirianni said. Coaches, he said, will need to do a better job to make sure the ball finds their hands more often.

But Sirianni praised the offense’s efficiency and the mostly clean game it played in new offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo’s debut. He also said Brown and Smith did the other things well, such as the way they blocked on Saquon Barkley’s touchdown run late in the second quarter.

Sirianni doesn’t like publicly sharing conversations he has with the team (see Carter, Jalen), but he did say he shouted Brown out during a team meeting for his “mental toughness” after the ball didn’t come his way for 58-plus minutes, a rarity in a career that has never featured a game with zero targets.

“You look for moments like that to really show and preach the stuff that’s important to your core values and your culture,” Sirianni said. “Was it a first down? No, but it set us up to get a first down and Dallas’ offense didn’t come back on the field.”

The Eagles worked out former Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Mike Hilton on Monday, according to The Schultz Report.

Hilton, 31, signed with the Miami Dolphins late in the summer and was released before the team finalized its initial roster.

The Eagles obviously had some problems at cornerback on Thursday, when Adoree’ Jackson’s first look at outside corner opposite Quinyon Mitchell did not go very well. Hosting Hilton is interesting because he has almost exclusively played in the slot during his eight NFL seasons with Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.

Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio was asked during training camp what it would take for the Eagles to move Cooper DeJean to the outside, and he responded by saying the Eagles would need to see a viable nickel replacement emerge. If the Eagles sign Hilton, they’d be adding to the players capable of potentially — pardon the pun — slotting into that spot.

Why hasn’t DeJean seen many reps outside?

DeJean has positional flexibility. The Eagles worked him some at safety during camp. He has returned punts. He can return kicks. He’s also, according to Sirianni, “one of the best nickels in the NFL.” For now, that’s where he’ll stay, it seems. Although, like anything else, circumstances could force him outside.

“We’ll see what we do with that, how that goes, but I do believe he’s one of the better players at his position in the NFL,” Sirianni said. “We’ll just keep repping him at different things, and continuing to rep him at nickel and preparing him at that position.”