Back to basics as Eagles look inward during the bye

Nobody is looking far into the future as the Eagles dig in during this bye week, a theme that Head Coach Nick Sirianni has preached throughout his time here. He met the media via teleconference on Tuesday and discussed where the team is at in this very early stage of the bye and in a nutshell it’s here: The Eagles are taking things day by day, maximizing the time off, making sure the focus is mostly internal for the day.

There are extenuating circumstances, of course, and the Eagles are handling those as well. For example, what happens as NFL teams looking to hire head coaching positions reach out to Eagles assistants? Sirianni understands the process and knows that Offensive Coordinator Shane Steichen and Defensive Coordinator Jonathan Gannon could be in demand, so he’s helped equip them with tips on how to win the process. There are injuries to consider as well, and as they’ve been the entire time Sirianni has been here, they are a day-to-day proposition.

Mostly, it’s the internal scouting. It’s breaking down every component of the team – every situational bit of football involved – and evaluating. Being honest. Being critical. Looking for ways to improve because it’s a win-or-go-home scenario moving forward. For the first time in his NFL coaching career, Sirianni is in a playoff bye week. He’s taking “little bits of information” from various coaches and people he knows around the league and from situations he’s experienced and he’s made the decision on how to maximize this week.

At the core of the plan? Fundamentals, which is no surprise because that is one of Sirianni’s five core principles and he and his coaching staff stress them every day.

“Fundamentals are going to be a big part in winning in the playoffs, just like we believe it really is in the regular season as well,” Sirianni said. “We’ll have a little bit more time for ‘individual’ (portion of practice) this week to get back to some of the fundamentals that you might not have enough time to do in the year, kinda more so like a Training Camp practice or an OTA (Organized Team Activities in the spring) practice where you have more time.”

The other part of it is winning at situational football, so there will be an emphasis on that this week.

“It’s going to be the smart football teams, it’s going to come down to things like that,” Sirianni said. “We’re going to rep that this week, some of the situational football … work on some things that we’ve studied, that we have more time to do now. Maybe…