Jalen Hurts’ vow, Nick Sirianni’s home life, Saquon’s ‘Whiplash,’ and more from the ‘Hard Knocks’ finale
The HBO series was planning on following the Birds for as long as their playoff run continued. It only required one additional episode.
HBO released its final episode of Hard Knocks covering the NFC East on Tuesday after the Eagles’ season-ending wild-card playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
The finale of the docuseries, which unlike past episodes spent the majority of its 45-minute run time focusing solely on the Eagles, covered Saquon Barkley’s new favorite motivational movie, Nick Sirianni’s home life, and what the team talked about after the loss. (Don’t worry, we tried to keep the parts about the actual game to a minimum.)
Here’s what you may have missed from the final episode of Hard Knocks: In Season With the NFC East …
Not quite my tempo
Most people likely know that actor Miles Teller is also a huge Eagles fan. But did you know that one member of the Eagles is a huge fan of his?
Saquon Barkley was caught speaking to backup quarterback Tanner McKee, detailing how he was motivated by Teller’s hit film Whiplash ahead of the Eagles’ first practice leading up to the team’s wild-card game.
“I feel good,” Barkley said. “And I watched this movie called Whiplash. That [expletive] had me doing sit-ups and push-ups in my house. I went outside, and I was running hills. Like, I got to chill out, bro.”
The 2014 film won a trio of Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actor for J.K. Simmons, who plays an uncompromising professor at the prestigious music academy Teller’s character attends. It stresses the need to push back against mediocrity in pursuit of greatness, a theme that Barkley applied to the Birds offense as a whole.
“I do feel like there’s potential that we haven’t tapped into, especially on the offensive side of the ball,” Barkley said, with a Whiplash-style drumbeat playing in the background. “I am excited about that. That we still get to go out there and put in a complete game. I believe that with the men and people we have in this facility, it’s time, and we are going to get it going.”
The extra motivation led the reigning offensive player of the year to his fourth 100-yard game of the season with Barkley rushing for 106 yards, 35 above his average.
‘Effort is free’
Speaking of tempo, Hard Knocks revealed a moment during practice in which Jalen Hurts implored his offensive teammates to get to the huddle quicker so they have more time at the line to assess the defense and change the play if need be.
Barkley and Hurts also spoke of their different approaches to practice, with the running back keeping things light while the quarterback is all business. Barkley called it “a beautiful mix.”
“It’s not anything new in terms of the habits I’ve built,” Hurts said of his stoic demeanor. “It’s just a matter of doing those things consistently. That’s how I’ve always known to get myself ready to go out there and play.”
Hurts, the son of a football coach, explained why he prepares and carries himself the way he does, saying one of his father’s lines that stuck with him is “Effort is free.”
“Effort is something that you can control,” Hurts said. “And so, as a quarterback, what’s my effort in the way I execute? What’s my effort in the way I lead? What’s my effort in the example that I set? And trying to put yourself in positions to get ready for whatever the moment may demand. And so, you like to take your mind to a place where you can see it or visualize it, and then you can go out there and react with an intense and competitive mindset, and find a way to win.”
Sirianni coaches his kids
As tensions rose inside the Eagles organization, with a playoff game looming and many calling for the job of offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo, who was removed from his position Tuesday, Hard Knocks did a great job of reminding viewers that coaches are people, too.
Halfway through the episode, Sirianni, who has also come under fire from Eagles fans, is featured alongside his wife, Brett, and their three children, Jacob, 10, Taylor, 8, and Miles, 5. The Eagles head coach seems to be training his children to be wide receivers, following in their father’s footsteps. Sirianni was a receiver himself in college at Division III Mount Union, as the series highlighted in an earlier episode.
“All right, now we do this last game,” Sirianni says. “I throw as hard as I can, and then you throw as hard as you can, whoever drops first.”
His youngest, Miles, is wearing the jersey of A.J. Brown, who got in a sideline spat with the Eagles coach on Sunday.
With Sirianni and his wife sitting on the couch, the coach has his children running routes and directs Taylor into open space, where she catches the pass over her two brothers.
“Are you as competitive at home as you are at the facility?” one of the filmmakers asks off camera as Sirianni smirks.
“Yeah, he is,” Brett says with a laugh and little hesitation. “With everything possible.”
Letting down BG
Brandon Graham may be an Eagles legend, but he is for sure not a fortuneteller.
The 15-year vet who came out of retirement to rejoin the Birds was mic’d up during practice, exuding his trademark enthusiasm while optimistically predicting the outcome of the playoff game.
“I ain’t going to lie, I’m hype for the offense,” Graham said. “Things just about to keep building, we’ve just got to stay locked in and have fun out there and run to the ball. I ain’t going to lie, that clip when they was running to that sidelines right there, I said, boy, we fly like that, we’re going to be smothering.”
Graham doubled and tripled down on this prediction, going as far as saying that he’d come back after winning the Super Bowl in 2026 just so he could win it in 2027.
“Man, let’s go get us another one, man,” Graham said to defensive line coach Clint Hurtt. “Why not? I mean, I’m coming right back. I say 3-for-3, come on, let’s go! Let’s just get this one, but I’m with you, though.”
Of course, that didn’t happen. But maybe Graham has one more season in him?
The Bald Eagle
All-Pro linebacker Zack Baun got a special highlight leading into the Eagles’ final game of the season, starting in practice when some friendly razzing was caught on tape.
“Hey Zack, let me see your head,” rookie Jihaad Campbell asked during practice.
“Nah,” Baun said. “I haven’t shaved in a couple of days, man.”
“The thing about being a bald guy is you either are ashamed of it or you own it, and that’s just your personality,” Baun said. “So I’m a bald guy. What can I say?”
Baun is also seen at home with his wife, Ali, and son, Elian, flipping through a scrapbook Ali made to celebrate his “storybook” 2024, a year in which he went from a special-teams player to an All-Pro and Super Bowl champion.
Baun also spoke on his fan-given nickname, the Bald Eagle, saying that he and his wife approve of the name. But the real star of this segment? Baun’s son, who was shown on the field adorably celebrating the Eagles’ NFC championship game victory last year.
The end of the line
Next up, the game.
Hard Knocks offered some insight into the Eagles’ season-ending loss, including Baun taking blame for the 49ers trick-play touchdown — “That’s me; I lost him,” Baun admitted — and Sirianni exerting himself in the offensive play-calling.
“Hey, what about [deep] shots, Kevin?” Sirianni asked Patullo before a third-and-9 shot to Brown, who dropped the ball.
But the moment that got the most attention from fans came after Sirianni’s final meeting with his players.
“We didn’t end the way we wanted to end,” Sirianni told his team. “I know that’s tough. I can feel it in the room, you can feel it. We all feel the same feeling. Use that adversity, use that pain. All that is necessary for our growth. I have no doubt in my mind that we will get better from this.”
The episode then cuts to just two men remaining in the auditorium at the NovaCare Complex: coach and quarterback.
“We’ll be back,” Hurts vows.
“I have no doubt,” Sirianni responds.