Jim Johnson's battle with cancer will be an immediate challenge for the team's coaching staff and player leadership on the defensive side of the ball..
Team secondary coach Sean McDermott will face the first challenge because he will take over as the team's defensive coordinator. He'll plan out the practices under Andy Reid's guidance, but for the most part the defense will be his baby.
McDermott has done an outstanding job over 11 years of working under Johnson and developing defensive backs and linebackers. He knows this system like the back of his hand.
He has a feel for the way Johnson calls the defenses. He knows when to blitz and when to pull back. He knows how to get in the face of players and let them know who is in charge.
The young secondary coach knows when to encourage young players and when to push them.
Johnson teaches his assistants so they're learning how to be a defensive coordinator as they work under him.
The long-time Eagles defensive coordinator has been and continues to be extremely important on the football team because he always dealt with reality and the challenges head on. He was the imbodiment of the team's intestinal fortitude.
He has always been a bulldog about taking on challenges and that always rubbed off on the rest of the team.
If you wanted to know what was going on with the team, especially the defense, all you had to do was listen close to Johnson when he addressed the media in his Thursday news conference.
He was blunt and to the point. Don't ask him the question if you didn't want the real answer. This is one of the reasons he has been an anchor of this football team for over a decade.
If Jim isn't back by the time the season starts, the challenge really begins. The players on the Eagles defense believe in Jim Johnson.
If he looks them in the eye and tells them that a certain defense will work they believe him.
Will they believe in the calls which McDermott sends in from the sidelines? He won't have Brian Dawkins there to bolster him.
Regardless of how good this year's defense is, there will be times when they will allow big plays. Hopefully it doesn't happen early but it will happen.
Dawkins won't be there to calm things in the huddle after they give up a big play. That job will have to be done by Stewart Bradley and Quintin Mikell.
The importance of getting off to a quick start increases dramatically with Johnson's absence. Early success will give McDermott confidence in himself and it will give his players a reason to believe in him.
He has been at Johnson's side for a long time , so he knows the system, but calling the defenses himself, is another step which is a major change for him.
Will McDermott be able to decipher the game plan of opposing offenses and have the courage to go after them with the blitz?
We know that Johnson was unrelenting in putting pressure on opposing quarterbacks.
What will be McDermott's plan? We'll all have to wait and see.
