It’s not like Hurts hasn’t had a hand in shaping the offensive vision. While many of the players took a break for the bye week, Hurts and Sirianni had myriad conversations about the direction of the football team.

Hurts said it was “one of the most efficient bye weeks” he has had since coming into the league as a second-round pick in 2020, and noted how he and Sirianni “were able to come together in harmony and have the same goal in mind, trying to get this thing right” — an indication of how far they had come following a rocky 2023 season.

Hurts has pushed for the offense to be more multiple. One of ways that has manifested is in under-center usage. The Eagles had 17 carries for 19 rush yards from under center in their first four games, the fewest in the NFL. They have 61 carries for 295 rush yards over their past five games — an increase in usage from 11% to 26%, via ESPN Research. Their 4.8 yards per rush from under center is the fourth best in the NFL over that time.

Play-action effectiveness has ticked up along with the commitment to the run. Hurts is averaging 15.8 yards per attempt on play-action since Week 6, the best in the NFL over that span.

“I spent a lot of time with Jalen, obviously, during that bye week and just talking through things. Jalen had so much good insight, and then you always listen to your players as far as they are the ones out there seeing it and feeling it,” Sirianni said when asked about his meeting with the linemen.

“And so I think it’s just good feedback. That’s just good organizational football, is to be communicating with everyone to get everyone on the same page. Yeah, I thought it was great. Great, productive meetings.”

The session with Johnson, Mailata and Dickerson was about 20-30 minutes. The speaking time was pretty evenly split among the three of them, Mailata said, with Sirianni doing most of the listening while also sharing his own thoughts.

“He really acknowledged us,” Mailata said. “We felt heard.”

Added Johnson: “He’s very responsive and he’s very back and forth. He’s not going to dismiss you. … That’s why I think Nick is so great. He listens and we make changes and we adapt.”

Johnson’s role as leader has grown since center Jason Kelce retired this offseason. The five-time Pro Bowler has been candid about issues on offense as they’ve come up, and as a 12-year vet, he has the experience and clout to offer solutions. That’s being applied behind the scenes, as well.

“If I get tired of seeing something or something needs to change, I’ll voice my opinion,” he said. “That’s what I like about playing here: Nothing’s ever gone in one ear and out the other or kind of seen as a nuisance.”

To illustrate their point to Sirianni, the linemen pointed back to 2021, Sirianni’s first year on the job. The Eagles had stumbled out to a 2-5 start, but their fortunes changed when they leaned into the ground game more, starting against the Detroit Lions during a 44-6 rout in Week 9. They went on to win seven of 10 to make the playoffs.

“Any time you can limit just dropback passing, that’s so beneficial for a team. That’s another play of less stress,” said Mailata. “When you’re running the ball and you run play-actions, it confuses the defense, and now you’re putting the stress and the onus on them. It was just kind of, we’re tired of being stressed. But in a nicer [way]. We went up there and were like, ‘Come on, help us out here.’

“We stated some examples of games when we’ve used [the ground-heavy approach] and Coach was like, ‘Yeah, OK. Go back to our roots.'”