Nick Sirianni wanted to keep the lid on his quarterback switch for as long as he could. The big secret lasted about an hour, when the information was given to a national media outlet instead of the 15-20 members of the local press who cover the team on a day-in, day-out basis.

Instead of telling the beat writers at his early afternoon press conference on Wednesday that Tanner McKee was being benched after three games and newcomer Joe Milton would be taking his place, the Eagles' head coach chose not to give up that information.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter broke the story. Sirianni defended his decision not to reveal the news an hour earlier when he talked to local beat reporters on Friday.

“I was going to hold onto that as long as I possibly could, every second, every minute,” he said on his final day of media availability before the first-place New York Giants visit on Sunday.

So, Sirianni clung to his secret for roughly 60 minutes, or 3,600 seconds. The coach clings to the idea of competitive advantage, but did it really matter that the Giants were in the dark for an extra hour?

He thinks so.

Competitive advantage ran its course quickly

“Again, I'm not real shy with you guys,” he said. “I'm going to tell you what I want to tell you guys. I respect the job that y'all have to do, but I'm going to tell you what I want to tell you guys because I'm always going to protect the team first and foremost.

“Every second that goes by in a situation like that, that you can hold onto information as long as you possibly can, is a little less time for the opponent to get ready for the game. I know there's a lot of interest in everything that you all want to hear, the fans want to hear. My job is to win football games, do everything we can do to help win football games, protect the guys here on this football team, and handle everything that I can inside.”

Sirianni’s secret left his players hung out to dry, to field questions about the QB switch. Jordan Mailata and Landon Dickerson tried to protect their coach’s competitive advantage by saying Milton and McKee split reps at Wednesday’s practice.

Why McKee went from "our guy" to the bench

The coach said on Monday that McKee was “our guy,” which is what he told reporters during his Monday Zoom call. It was on Tuesday that he decided he was no longer the guy. What changed?

“We had just gotten off of the game, and then you're starting to look through the game and the game plan,” he said. “As you start to put ideas down—and things are fluid, things are fluid. Like I said, the toughest part about this, in my mind, is that, again, I felt Tanner did solid. I thought he did a lot of good things. That's always tough, and you wear that as the coach. I know it's tough for Tanner, too.”

Sirianni said the decision to make the move was talked through in “great detail” with general manager Howie Roseman and a slew of offensive assistants, including offensive coordinator Sean Mannion and QB coach Parks Frazier.

“We just talk through it,” said the coach. “At the end of the day, my job as the head coach is to make these decisions that I think is best for the football team, but you discuss everything with everybody.”