San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan doesn't have a relationship with his Philadelphia Eagles counterpart, Nick Sirianni, just yet. Shanahan told reporters today that the two haven't had a chance to get to know each other other than one phone call.
"Seems like a hell of a guy," Shanahan said. "I really like how he's carrying himself, and you can tell his team's playing real hard, and they looked real well-coached in their first week. I know some players who know him, and they speak very highly of him."
Sirianni, a first-year head coach, also spoke with reporters today. He was asked to share how watching Shanahan with San Francisco might have influenced him, directly or indirectly.
Sirianni has a lot of respect for Shanahan and the way he coaches his squad. The two will be opponents on Sunday when the Eagles host the 49ers. Both teams are coming off Week 1 victories.
"His team plays with good fundamentals and good scheme," Sirianni said. "It's, 'Hey, does your team play with good fundamentals and good scheme?' To me, that's a big part of how you're a good coach. That's where he's had influence on me, is just his scheme and the way his players play. No secret how good of a football coach he is."
Sirianni was also asked about Shanahan as a play designer. The 49ers coach has gained a reputation as one of the brighter offensive minds in the league.
"I think he knows how to attack a defense," Sirianni responded. "He knows the system really well. He knows what compliments his system really well. That's what stands out to me. ... [Y]ou see teams run good plays and the good defenses and a good schemer, so that's what sticks out to me for Kyle."
This week, San Francisco signed Kerryon Johnson to its practice squad after the running back spent the offseason with the Eagles. Is Sirianni at all worried that his former player might reveal some crucial piece of insider information or vulnerability about his team?
"My experience with that is he doesn't know what the game plan is this week," Sirianni said. "He can go in there with a lot of different information, but that's a lot of information to dissect. I know any time we've been in that scenario, and you start to talk to the guy about, 'What do you do here? What do you do here?' it becomes too much. It can become too much information. So we'll have a couple of things that we need to do most definitely, but we can't overreact to that either."
