Nick Sirianni praises Landon Dickerson’s ‘extreme power’ and Makai Lemon for the ‘little things’ after uneven Week 1 performances
Dickerson allowed four pressures and one quarterback hit vs. the Commanders and Lemon had minus-5 yards on three catches. But the Eagles coach isn't losing confidence in either player.
There were plenty of positive takeaways from the Eagles’ Week 1 win vs. the Commanders on Sunday.
The defense looked ready. Sean Mannion’s offense showed glimpses. Jalen Hurts threw three touchdowns and zero interceptions. The Eagles won the game.
Alas, the negative story lines dominated headlines the next day.
» READ MORE: Jalen Hurts used his arm, legs, and mind to beat the Commanders. He also helped the Eagles mask some O-line issues.
Case in point: The first question Nick Sirianni faced in his Monday press conference was about the “leaky” play from his interior offensive linemen, particularly from left guard Landon Dickerson, who allowed four pressures and one quarterback hit.
Dickerson, once considered one of the top guards in the NFL, played through injuries last season. He was adamant all offseason that he was healthy, but it didn’t appear that way on Sunday.
So, what gives?
“I think what you see with Landon is his extreme power,” Sirianni said of Dickerson, who was gone by the time reporters entered the postgame locker room Sunday night. “He’s a big man who is able to move guys off the spot.
“If you go back and you look at — I think, OK, so he gives up some pressures. All right, but he also caved in that side on Saquon [Barkley’s] long run on that third down, and just did a really good job of pushing their defensive tackle and displacing him, which is a big job description for him.
“He’s tough as heck,” Sirianni continued. “We’ve won a ton of games with Landon. And there’s a lot of good things that he can do, just like every player on our team from yesterday’s game and every coach, for that matter, there’s good moments, and there were moments that we got to fix, and that’s where we are.
“I can’t tell you how much I think of Landon and the player that he is, and particularly that power and that size where he can move guys off the spot against their will.”
Lemon’s shaky debut
Let’s recap Makai Lemon’s summer: The first-round rookie receiver was injured for most of training camp and he recorded just 3 yards on three catches (plus a drop that led to an interception) in his lone preseason appearance.
» READ MORE: Eagles’ Dontayvion Wicks looked like a true WR2 in win over Commanders
His Week 1 stat line was even uglier: He caught 3-of-4 targets for minus-5 yards.
“There’s a lot of things that Makai did in that game that don’t reflect on the stat sheet,” Sirianni said. “We constantly talk about that: What are you doing to help this team win the game, particularly if you’re a skill guy?
“That might not be able to be seen from the stat book or to the naked eye. What he’s always done a good job since he’s been here [is] blocking, doing the right things, being in the right spots. Obviously the ones that went to him yesterday didn’t equal out to a big yardage game, right? But he did little things to help us win the football game that sometimes are unseen.”
Sirianni went on to say that he still “trusts” Lemon, whom the Eagles took with the No. 20 pick in April’s draft. They traded up with the rival Cowboys in order to pick him and they’re confident his production will translate to the NFL.
It certainly didn’t in his debut.
Where was Hollywood?
Wide receiver Hollywood Brown, who signed a one-year, $6.5 million contract with the Eagles this offseason, did not see the field once on Sunday.
Sirianni said this will change moving forward. The Eagles coach knows that Brown can create space with his speed and playmaking skills and acknowledged that the wide receiver has been a decent fit in Mannion’s offense.
» READ MORE: Cooper DeJean’s first game in his new role with the Eagles ‘wasn’t good enough’
Sirianni just couldn’t find those reps for him in Week 1.
“So, with yesterday, we have our rotations that we’re doing, you know, Hollywood could obviously help us,” Sirianni said. “We obviously want to get him into the football game because his speed is real. It just didn’t work out that way yesterday.
“There are games like that. There are games where you get shut out on catches. Unfortunately, there are games, they get shut out on reps. But we know that Hollywood can help us win football games, and his speed is real, and, quite frankly, just from my end, we want to get him into the football game, right?”
