Inside the Eagles' Competitive Practice Setup

If you rewind to the Andy Reid and, more recently, the Doug Pederson eras with the Eagles, the team would often have 10-10-10 practices.

The sessions were unpadded and like a supercharged walkthrough with a circuit of 10 offensive plays, 10 defensive plays, and 10 special teams plays. 

Each segment was full 11-on-11, but unlike a standard competitive period, the idea behind the practices is to demonstrate what success looks like for the three respective phases.

With Nick Sirianni’s Eagles, things stay competitive throughout the summer, and there is not a lot of collaboration between offense and defense, something Vic Fangio hinted at earlier this week when asked by Eagles On SI about Cooper DeJean’s transition to safety in the team’s base defense.

“I think it's going fine. We just haven't, to be honest, we haven't had enough snaps of it for him,” Fangio said. “ Our offense is primarily playing 11 personnel out there against us, so we haven't had a ton of base snaps up to this point. I'd like to see him get some more and get him tested. I don't know that he's ever truly been tested yet with a hard play.”

The follow-up to that was about coordinating those looks with Sirianni and OC Kevin Patullo.

“Yeah, I mean we'd like to be able to,” Fangio said. “Right now we haven't been able to.”

It was a curious answer that needed to be fleshed out more with Sirainni. However, the head coach was ill on Friday and unable to participate in his scheduled press conference, leaving the heavy lifting for Patullo before Sunday’s practice.

“No, not really,” Patullo told EOSI when asked if there are periods where each unit services the other, something similar to a 10-10-10. “Every once in a while, [Fangio]  may say, 'Hey, can you give me one of these plays in this period,' just so he can look at something or vice versa, but not a ton.”

While it might seem like it’s logical to script what each coordinator wants, it’s hard to argue with Sirianni’s practice templates because of the Eagles’ success.

“I mean there's some things that, like I said, I don't necessarily know what [Fangio] has in, he doesn't know what I have in, but there may be something that, 'Hey, do you have this play? And if you do, can I see that during that period just so they could get it on tape.'” Patullo explained. “That's really what it's about is they need to see certain things that we do, too, and now the more we go, the more that'll probably start to happen the closer we get to the season, so they can get ready and we can get ready.”