Nick Sirianni had a creative way to test draft prospects’ competitiveness during virtual interview with a game of rock, paper, scissors.
Nick Sirianni might not care if you’re a scissors guy, but he will care about how much you care.
Since his arrival in Philadelphia, the Eagles’ first-year head coach has emphasized competition, calling it one of his core values.
And you better believe he values competitiveness in any potential Eagles’ draft pick. So during Zoom meetings with draft prospects this year, Sirianni had a unique way to figure out how much these players wanted to compete.
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“And if you guys are wondering, I’ll tell ya,” the excitable Sirianni said on Wednesday morning. “I think some of you guys are wondering. We didn’t go earth shattering on these games. I played a couple of them in rock, paper, scissors. Right? That was as easy as that? Rock, paper, scissors. Let’s see how competitive you are. I’m competitive. I’m going to be talking trash to them. Did you talk trash back to me?”
Sirianni said all the Eagles’ coaches found creative ways to figure out how competitive some prospects are, but he didn’t go into any further details other than to mention Jeopardy!, so perhaps some sort of trivia game was played on Zoom calls too.
It sounds silly but it’s not like the Eagles are letting the results of a child’s game dictate their draft board. This was simply a way to gauge the competitiveness level of possible draft picks. If you can get up for a game like rock, paper, scissors, you can probably get up for anything. And that was Sirianni’s point. It also probably loosened up a few players too.
We should also point out that when asked what kinds of players he wants, Sirianni listed talent first. He wants talented players. But he also pointed out that the mental makeup and drive of a player matters too. And sometimes that’s what allows less talented players to have better careers.
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That’s where the games come into play.
“It was awesome, though, because anything you compete at, when you compete with somebody that’s completive, they’re going to go at you no matter what game you’re playing,” Sirianni said.
He then challenged one member of the media to a game of rock, paper, scissors in person at the NovaCare Complex.
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