At this point I see Sean Jones as a long shot to be a starter on the Eagles defense.
Jones is big and very physical. He's as big or bigger than Birds linebacker Omar Gaither.
I don’t think his speed is great.
From what I've seen of him on tape, he's tough and is a good tackler who will lay the wood on you. Those are traits of a good strong safety.
Jones needs to be operating around the line of scrimmage and he should be matched up one-on-one with tight ends and running backs, not wide receivers.
Unfortunately for him, Jim Johnson's system doesn't really employ a true strong safety. They operate their safeties as if they are interchangeable.
On one play, one safety might be rolled up next to the line of scrimmage and the other is playing deep, while on the next play they’re vice versa.
Johnson also always liked to have a safety who is able to walk out and match up one-on-one with wide receivers.
That gave him flexibility in blitzes and coverages.
This changed a bit last year at the end of the season when they saw that Brian Dawkins was no longer able to run with the wide receivers in this league.
For this reason, the more I think about it, I don’t think the Eagles really wanted to keep Dawkins around. I don’t think they wanted the negative media coverage that they got but, strictly from a football perspective, I think they were ready to see him go.
Dawkins didn’t fit into the Eagles football formula any more but they had to make him a decent offer because of all the contributions he has made to the organization.
Back to Jones and the Eagles safety position, Johnson believes in stopping the pass first then worrying about the running game. He looks at every position in this way.
His thinking is that in the NFL, games are won and lost in the passing game. You know that the head coach, Andy Reid has the same mentality.
That’s why he favors starting a much faster athlete like Quintin Demps, as compared to Jones. Demps has cornerback speed and pass coverage skills.
Jones is stronger as a run stopper. It’s a given that Johnson will go with the guy who is expected to be better against the pass.
This is why Jones is a long shot to start. If Demps plays well, Jones will sit.
He’ll be used at times when the Birds go to a three-safety defense, but for the most part, he’ll be playing special teams and backing up.
