Davis Hire Reflects Flawed Approach By The Eagles’ Front Office
BREAKING NEWS, Eagles, News Thursday, February 7th, 2013
And so the most important opening on Chip Kelly’s staff has been filled.
On Wednesday, we learned that the Eagles have hired Cleveland Browns linebackers coach Billy Davis to be their latest defensive coordinator.
Forgive me if I’m a little underwhelmed.
Davis has previously been the defensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers and the Arizona Cardinals. During his two years with the 49ers, San Francisco’s defense was abysmal, finishing 30th and 32nd in points allowed. They also were near the bottom of the barrel in yards allowed, ranking 32nd and 24th.
Davis got his second coordinator opportunity in Arizona, and to his credit fared much better in 2009 when he managed to field a somewhat competent defense that finished 14th in points allowed and and 20th in yards allowed. However, the floor completely fell out beneath him in the following season when the Cardinals plummeted to 30th in points allowed. After losing his job in Arizona, Davis spent the last two seasons coaching linebackers in Cleveland as mentioned previously.
The Davis hire does absolutely nothing to make me believe that this defense is going to return to its glory days any time soon. Here you have a coach that got two chances to show that he could successfully build up and run an NFL defense and he’s failed miserably both times. Now he’s coming into a situation in which he’ll be asked to clean up a defense that is short on talent, short on leadership, and are collectively soft. Oh yes, the man who three times in his career has been responsible for a defense ranked 30th or worse in a 32-team league, that’s the ideal candidate to turn this defense over to.
What makes the Davis hire even more egregious in my eyes is the way in which the whole situation played out.
Let’s flash back to the last time the Eagles hired a new defensive coordinator. Shortly after firing Sean McDermott, one of the first moves that the Eagles made was to hire Jim Washburn to coach the defensive line. Before securing a competent coordinator to run the defense, the Eagles decided to hire a polarizing figure, and essentially commit their defense to the Wide-Nine scheme. No sane defensive coordinator had any interest in the job, and almost three weeks after hiring Washburn the Eagles were forced to settle on Juan Castillo as their guy.
The Eagles failed to realize that in order to make their defensive coordinator job attractive, they need to give their coordinator full control of the unit. The defensive coordinator must decide what scheme to run. The defensive coordinator fills out of the defensive coaching staff with assistant coaches that he is familiar with or confident in. The Eagles doomed themselves to failure over the last two seasons because they broke this basic philosophy, and married themselves to Jim Washburn and his Wide-Nine scheme.
Now in the present day, what have Jeffrey Lurie and Howie Roseman learned from the crippling mistakes they made in the winter of 2011? Well to their credit, at least the man that they gave the job to this time has previous NFL experience as a defensive coordinator. But that’s about where the upside of the Billy Davis hire stops.
As Garry mentioned in his article, Billy Davis was far from the Eagles’ first choice. If they had really been that impressed with him, they could have hired him several weeks ago. There were better options available, but the team’s top choices weren’t interested in the job. The Eagles settled for Davis, just like they settled for Castillo two years ago.
Several of the key mistakes made in 2011 have been repeated during this search for a defensive coordinator. Once again, before hiring a defensive coordinator, the Eagles had already filled out their defensive staff and have also committed themselves to a scheme. They again made the job unattractive by tying the coordinator’s hands to a 3-4 attack, and taking away the coordinator’s ability to fill out his defensive staff with his own guys.
While there’s nothing wrong with a switch to a 3-4, that decision should have been made by the defensive coordinator alone after he had been hired. Shortly after Kelly was hired, there were strong indications that the Eagles would be switching to a 3-4, even though no new members of the defensive staff were in place. Wasn’t Chip Kelly supposed to keep his hands off of the defense and focus squarely on adjusting his offense to work in the NFL?
Even though none of the coaches the Eagles hired as defensive assistants carry the divisive reputation that Jim Washburn had, it’s a bad decision to hire these coaches before the defensive coordinator is in place. If you’re an up-and-coming defensive coach about to get your first shot at running an NFL team’s defense, you’d want to go into a situation where the team grants you as much control as possible to shape the staff and the scheme in a way that you know you can be successful.
The way the Eagles have conducted their last two defensive coordinator searches have forced them to settle for an unqualified and overwhelmed offensive line coach, and now a retread that has already failed in opportunities with two other teams. The direction that this franchise is going in is disturbing to me.
I’m not expecting any quality defense to be played in Philadelphia this season.
Denny Basens is the editor of GCobb.com. Email him at dbasens@ycp.edu
Short URL: http://gcobb.com/?p=35885
Posted by Denny Basens
on Feb 7 2013. Filed under BREAKING NEWS, Eagles, News.
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Mono, there’s no reason for any optimism, these so called negative posters have been way more right than wrong
Case in point, songs, some crack pot lunatic or sage, compared to….
Navy, Schiller, apologists, they have no guts to post here any longer, but time had ridden them
Most are on a wait and see with Kelly, few if any are all in, some have seen enough, know enough, been around enough to know this will not work…..read clueless eagles post above, he gets it
The problem is Lurie doesn’t get it, never will ,and so…
there will always be turmoil in eagle land, gnashing of teeth, insults, until Lurie packs his Gucci, solar panels and takes his social agenda somewhere else
Long live turmoil
Case in point dear Jake. personally I have been getting around a bit checking out other voices in Eagledom and I would just like to let you know that you guys on here though you are smart gentleman, I have found smart men, tons of them in fact who really know the game, and who are balanced and fair. They hated the pass happiness as much as me.
But they lacked the ferral hatred that is impeded in this site. And many of these guys spend as much and am sure even more money on Eagle stuff as you guys. I have heard the voices of other life long season ticket holders. guys with the homes filled with tons of Eagle gear of every sort, guys who long for a superbowl with unmeasured passion that would make a Nun cry for the mercy of these woe souls of a fan.
So let us understand that you guys overwhelming nastiness is in the minority in the Eagle universe.
Navy and Schiller are not apologist they are fans with a different, calmer view than others on here. I come and go becasue a daily read of this site is just plain too much, it is high on emotion , spit and BS and way to soft on pure analysis. thats just my take on things a little spit of my own i guess.
To be clear I am not asking for any changes, that would not be right just understand that the tons of people I turn onto this site does not get the pit viper BS personal crap, and they turn GCobb OFF. I sometimes defend, but you know what…… you guys are really in the minorioty EAGLE NATION does not think like you and they are turned off. I didn’t make this up fellas… you are a small group in the big boy world of the eagles nation.
I tend to like you guys you know how I feel, but my feed back from friends is that this just don’t get you guys. I don’t agree with that becasue I get it, but not everyone is as deep as you go figure.
So give Navy and schiller a break becasue hey they are the face of the majority of the Eagle base.
Finally if you think that you have lost more by spending a couple thounsand bills on the Eagles than the man who invested a couple 100 million in a dead organization.
Do you think that you want a superbowl and want to win more as a fan in the stands than the man who sits in the owners box and has more to worry and stress about the Eagles organization in one pure month than you have had to worry about in life time then perhaps I have really mis-judged and overestimated the value I have placed in the many commentors thoughts.
To be clear there is only one author I really stopby to Read and that is GCobb, and comments the rest of these writers, yea whatever!
I’ve been on other Eagle sites as well Mono, it’s the same stuff on every site guys taking shots at each other and the team. Negative talk about players they don’t like. The one thing this site condones more then others and it’s very annoying is allowing some to go off the deep end in regards to race, but for the most part you have some very smart lifelong football people here.
Monolith let me explain what we are. This is a professional sports talk site I like to say. This is a bunch of fans who have been watching sports since they were small. You cant teach this. This is our hobby. I encounter people everyday who are fans of the Eagles or different teams that I can only go to a level 1 of sports talk because they just don’t follow sports like me. I have Dallas fans who love the Cowboys but only watch the games and see breaking news on ESPN. I am on sites EVERYDAY and tell fans shit about their team they have no clue about. Which is fine “this is what I love to do”. . Now I go to GCOBB.com and there are many fans like me and even more in depth. Its a bunch of hired guns all trying to impose their will and views on each other and if you don’t have your facts straight will be called out. Im not saying we are better fans but this is our hobby. Hell it might not even be about the Eagles it might just be about being right. This is a professional sports talk site and not for everyone.
Let me add this. We are not “better fans” we are different fans.
Some guys are good Doctors, Lawyers, Accountants,Teachers,Fathers,Husbands,Builders,Masonry, Landscapers,Engineers,Public Servants,etc,etc..
I like to think of us here on GCobb as being good at being Critical of our Eagles and not simply following Conventional Wisdon or the Status Quo …… ha ha .
And for the record, I do not follow or read up on other Eagle Sites for I have found them to be quite lame to be honest with you.. but that’s ok, Some Fans are more passionate about their Team and really get into the Off-Season Moves,Changes and Roster Strategies that happened all before a Season begins and some just like to watch the Games on Sunday.. to each their own.. I enjoy the banter back on forth here with other knowledgeable fans who are as passionalte and into the following the Eagles as Year long as I do.. and I do agree that the ‘Race Card” and “Personal Digs’ go overboard many times and should be eliminated…
Wow, Daggolden, I told you last year I am going to start listening to you a lot more, and That will never change. You are the truth on this site. Keep kicking that knowledge Brother.
Nice Post Mono, but are you saying that many of us of are just too critical of this Eagle Franchise and simply expect too much from our Favorite Team..
Monolith
The tough fair voices of a Stan Hochman and Steven Smith have not been replaced in Philadelphia reporting — and a Denny Basens is filling that void Here on GCobb. I would rather read a Denny Basen article post game than listen to Ed Rendell or Michael Barkann. ( Denny exposed the 2012 Eagles as playoff frauds long before Michael and Ed’s delayed reaction) I would rather read what Jake,Dag,Big,Vinnie and Songs have to say than Reuban Frank, Geoff Moesher or Adam Schwartz( it is a stacked deck of hebrew voices on CSN philly website of brethren protectionists for Jeff Lurie) you might think the hebrew population of Philadelphia was 50 % the way Comcast hires for that website.
Every professional sports reporter from the Philadelphia Inquirer to Fox 29 knew Juan Castillo as a defensive coordinator, a 27 year old rookie OL from Canada, and a slow Temple safety in the 2nd round were all HUGE mistakes the instant each move was happening. But for some reason these reporters stood back and followed some unwritten code of conduct of” we’ll wait and see what happens”. Rich Hofmann has 25 ways to say it and write that. Here on GCobb the fans get instant gratification in real time.
Every professional reporter knew Garrett Reid had no business having any contact with Philadelphia Eagle football players, just like every reporter knows Marcus Vick should have no contact with them. But professional reporters wrote fluff sorrow and sympathetic articles instead of their true feelings which they express between themselves. Here on GCobb the honest reactions come in real time not behind the scene.
Every professional reporter was laughing his back side off at Jeff Luries flowery “voluminous notes” speech. The press room that day was stuffed with gentle soft ball questionnaires off a 4-12 head coach firing. Here on GCobb we talk about how the weak Philadelphia Eagle press missed the follow up question —- did Howie Roseman have full control over the DJax franchise tag signing, Demetress Bell signing, Demeco Ryans trade, Herremanns and Cole extensions. The only thing that came out of that Press conference of real value was Howie was responsible for the 2012 draft ONLY.
Monolith
a 4-12 record deserves 75% of the comments negative and 25 % positive —
Here on GCobb our comments are closer to that figure than any News Reporter in the area
You should hold them accountable for their failure to publish reality
No way Paul, you guys are very good with your view points.
Its like this sometimes…a man might say his “wife is fat, can’t cook, never cleans house, and is stupid”, he says it all the time.
Another guy says his wife is taking the kids to the movies, the first guys says yeah well my “wife is fat, can’t cook, never cleans house and is stupid.
A third man walks by and says my wife is funny she bought me a pair of jeans that are out of style and too large, we both laughed about it she is a great girl.
The first man again says wow you know what? My wife is fat, can’t cook, never cleans house and is stupid.
Well the neighbor of the first man walks by and hears this statement, when the first man leaves the neighbor says to the other gentlemen, hey my buddy always rags on his wife. she has a view pounds but is still hot, she can’t bake cakes for crap but does she make killer chicken, steaks and pork, the house is always in top order, the garden is a mess though, and if I am not mistaken she has a BA degree from the state university, my buddy is a smart guy and a certified master Mechanic, but his wife is not stupid.
The neigbor continues “This guy has been married three times and his first two wives were horrid, this lady here is a prize and has given this dope the best married years he has ever experienced.”
Finally after years of being a great wife the pressure to be the best wife has taken its tole she stops doing what made her a good wife and goes to extrmes to be the greatest wife, its a disater. The wife has destroyed her rountine formula for being the great wife, now she really is perfoming like an unsuccessful wife and the Man’s gripes are correct and they end the marriage.
Legit gripes oh yeah, Reid pass way to much, didn’t run enough, slow timely adjusts. We can’t be upset with losing Conference Champs, but we should be humble enough to know just how powerful it was to make it there also.
People make statements to down grade our ahievements by saying crap like oh the NFC East was garbage, NFC was garbage, we never faced a good defense etc…. come on just be fair. How about this “Reid got his team from Rhodes” hell like Navy once said and proved, those Rhodes players did not excell to greatness until Reid’s new coaches got hold of them and most of the Reid succuess came from players he brought in or drafted.
The latter part of Reids years were decending yes! but concider drafting in the rear for more than 10 years, having to always replace talented coaches. Replace Dawk? Really…….. No credit for replacing two stud corners and a strong safety noop no credit for that. No credit for replacing the legend that was Westbrook? Hell no credit for that.
Again I agree with you guys if a coach is horrid you beat him down and get his butt out and away from my team. So if we were like the pre Peyton Saints then get Reid the heck out of here and rag this team until its bleeding from the eyes, if we were the 9ers of a few years ago yep! The Redskins oh hell yeah!
But people wanted Reid gone at the height of his winning, when we had the lost the SB and had a woeful next season.
You guys were right it was time for Reid to go, maybe even last season (Maybe), Juan deal was insane…see I give you credit.
But you are starting all over again with Kelly, people saying no hope, we are doomed, this team staff sucks, the personnel stinks, we are never going to win agian let a lone a superbowl.
Yeeks that new wife Kelly is fat, can’t cook, never cleans house and is stupid.
For the record I never had problems with being critical with Eagle decsions, game plan and play calling. The think is no one ever accounts for the good. No one says “Hey we have a great RB core and some adjustments to the line would make us imposing.” No what you get is “The line is horrid, the worst ever, Reid is a fool, the Eagles suck, they never had a great season, all those past wins was against inferior opponents with inexpereinced coaches,The players on those teams sucked, fools gold those Eagle teams with great records were a farse. The offense scored so many points becasue of JJ’s defense. If Reid had scored 40 points in the superbowl then JJ’s defense would have been able to contain the Patriots and the cardinals (Great defensive job against the Panthers though I must admit)
LOL its all good and love among the Eagle Fan family fellas….peace and stay Eagle My Friends. I am not hating on you just ranting.
I kinda of feel you because I find it hard to not do an Eagle Fan on the current Liberal Gov’t LOL oops did I say that out loud? Sorry Footbal only on the football site.
PEACE!!!! As alway LONG LIVE THE EAGLES
Eagle you are very correct the Eagles and staff deserved every bit of the fire we have given them over the past two years and right you are on Reid having to go this season. I get it brother truely I do!
I meant We CAN be upset with losing Conference championship games.
Ancient History Mono.. What the Eagles accomplished in 2003,2004,2008 mean very little in 2013 .. It’s the way Sports are now ..
Look at the Bears, who were in the Super Bowl 4-5 YEars ago, finiished with a 10-6 Record and the Head Coach gets fired.. It’s a what have you done for me lately world now, for better or worse .. I am not saying it’s right or wrong, but it is they way it is now ..
The question is how long will it take us to hit the point of no return and sing the”Get rid of kelly”. Um maybe early this season if we hit a series of bumps with the first 8 games of this season.
Mono, we want to see a winner and we don’t want to wait for it. Its fine and dandy to be patient but the old 5 and 3 year plans are a thing of the past. If you don’t get it done right away in the NFL you will become history. You know this.
He gets 2 years, to rid the dead wood, dogs & softies off of the roster, & if we ain’t improved, or in the playoffs, he goes, along with Rosebuds! So far, his decisions ain’t giving me any confidence. Lets hope Rosebuds has a good draft, & they sign 3-5 FA starters, or it’s going to be rough to watch, again this year.
If we become like the old saints, and redskins of the recent past, I don’t want any of you calling me a hypocrit, becasue you know what teams like that deserve every bit of fan red blooded hate you can spit. Last season desrved it those guys gave up and were soft.
But hey DANNY right now how about throwing us a bone and give us an anlaysis of what is good right now with our team… oh manybe a story on the potential threat of an Easgles oriented run defense. UH NEVER, NEVER not on this site. LOL.
“Songs have to say than Reuban Frank, Geoff Moesher or Adam Schwartz( it is a stacked deck of hebrew voices on CSN philly website of brethren protectionists for Jeff Lurie) you might think the hebrew population of Philadelphia was 50 % the way Comcast hires for that website.” – eagles0superbowls
Not even veiled anti-semitism. Just putting it out there, right eaglesO??
This doesn’t appear to be the appropriate site for such sentiments but I’m sure you could find some neo-nazi sites to post on. … so please do and leave the bigotry off this site. Please.
demographically & statistically impossible if not bias hiring practices
Jeff Zucker NBC CEO hebrew
Bob Iger ABC CEO hebrew
Les Moonvies ABC hebrew
explain? unless hebrew supremacists
I write and speak honesty
Freedom of Press or Freedom of Press with contingencies
***Les Moonvies CEO CBS***
Rupert Murdoch CEO FOX 1/2 hebrew
Brian L. Roberts CEO Comcast hebrew
Eagles0 went way over the line with that post, good for you Frank for calling him out for that one.
I am not a Neo Nazi or anti semite
I am also not naive, blind or stupid to Bias bigotry in the Media like the hebrew supremacists currently starting Religious Wars in the Middle East
Wow. Your blatant ignorance and accompanying bigotry is impressive. Like I said, there are some neo-nazi websites that would welcome your participation. So go for it! … and keep your hatred off this site, okay?
mono….you sound like a politically correct women…go change your tampon. Have we been right? The answer is yes and if this organization lightened to the fan base the team would be better off.
bunch of fuckin idiots on here
MONO IS A PILLOW BITER!
Is that positive enough for ya?
I won’t continue this topic but don’t for a second call me an anti-semite because I won’t ignore hebrew supremacists in the media
See what you started mono, exile yourself for nine months
Haha… mono… stick around. All are welcome…. except skins fans.. songs.. u still around?
Pillow Bi?……….Haaaaaaa LOL hhaaaaaa
Okay that was good, not sure about the Political Woman thing let me think on it……..okay Haaaaaaaa, waa, haaaaaa. Songs if anything you are inspirational.
Paul you are very right my friend, very demanding sports culture which we live in today I suspect kelly will be on a short leash to produce sooner rather than later.
Good grief fellas i never complained about the lack of “positive ooh rah” talk on this site, I made mention of the wealth of contrary discussion. See i have been wrongly accussed and somebody upped my exile time, just not right. When will there be a harvest for the world! The WORLD Dang it.
Hay Eagle0, be careful with the Hebrew thing brother, just ask Assyrians, Babylon, egypt twice, Germany, and tons of lost named nations who went silently into the night of histroy. Bad things happen when you fool with those guys.
Bill Davis is a stone cold loser many times in the NFL. To hire this guy as a defensive coordinator is either sheer stupidity or a message from other muck more qualified candidates than they want no parts of a loser organization. The Eagles wings have been clipped for a long time. What a group of dopes. Lourie’s hairdo and Howie’s voice tell it all.
Beautiful big e, where the hell have you been, stick around my friend
I smell Luries cheap spending pockets all over Billy Davis. Why get a new Coach and a garbage DC? We’re going backwards again and again. Why get Nmandi and give him a first-time DC coach like Castillo? Why give Vick an extension and get him a 27 year old fire fighter to block for him? WE HAVE THE MOST INCOMPETENT MINDS THAT ARE IN CHARGE OF THIS TEAM…SHIIIIIIIITY!!!!!!!!! Billy Davis reminds me of every trade or draft we got, that “TOOLBAG SPADARO” pumped up as a great pickup, I’d slapped the heck outta spadaros bald head if I could just for the heck of it. “CRAAAAAP”, WHY US??*(^&%$r%#@#%^
Hey dag just read and re read your post, just beautiful and accurate, we have sparred about the quarterback, race , but I have a lot of respect for you my friend, keep it up, you are a true Philly sports fan, I may disagree with you about the quarterback, but never with your desire to see a winner in Philly
And always appreciate rockos hard charging passion, it’s what we are about, right or wrong, it’s us
Dag- yup. Nailed it.
Dag,…..you need to bronze that comment.
Weak ass apologist beware.
You are the same guys who were claiming the organization knew more about football than us at a time we were pointing out serious issue that would lead to the franchise demise…you guys were saying “give it chance”..Hell to the NO!
We’re not going to give clear incompetent decisions a chance.
Billy Davis is on the level of an reparable defensive coordinator and batting .1000 in failures after the late “JJ” you would thought this organization would go out of their way to sure up the defense starting with an respectable defensive coordinator.
But Naw,
They have sold this fan base Another Andy Reid without the mustache in
Chip Kelly..another gimmick offense along with an incompetent defensive coordinator who have failed with multiple opportunities.
This ass backward organization learned nothing from the failures move hiring position coaches before the man guy.
A real leader picks the guys he go to war with and never allow pencil pushing chicken necks to tell him what coaches should be on his staff.
The coaches hired would have an allegiance with the men upstairs opposed to the coach who picked them.
Lurie and Howie loves the mole environment.
Competent defensive coaches turned this pathetic organization down and you can look forward to horrendous defenses for years to come.
While raising prices Lurie needs to rename the team “The Philadelphia Browns”
You got it!
Banner put out the trash …
Lurie picked it up in an effort to get juicy details against his new nemesis.
Guys this dysfunction in all it’s splendor.