It’s Still Early, But This Defense Is Definitely Faster And More Aggressive

I can’t guarantee that the Eagles are going to have a better defense than they had a year ago, but I can promise that they will be faster and more aggressive.  Their additions on the defensive line, linebackers and secondary are for the most part faster players who are also more aggressive than the guys who were in those spots a year ago.

The more aggressive claim for rookie safety Nate Allen is debatable, but he’s clearly faster than the safeties they had lining up with Quintin Mikell last year.

Rookie defensive end Brandon Graham is a better pass rusher than anybody they had on the roster a year ago, short of Trent Cole.  This young man has a lot to learn but he’s faster, more powerful and has better technique than the guys he’s replacing.  If he continues to work hard, learn and get better, his presence should allow them to get consistent pressure without blitzing and that will make the secondary better immediately.

I don’t know what they’re going to get from Trevor Laws, Daniel Te’o Nesheim and the rest of the inside pass rushers.

In the first two games I can see that the Birds have shown that they’re a more aggressive unit by the personnel changes at linebacker.  The addition of Stewart Bradley and Ernie Sims have made noticeable differences.

This past Friday, Bradley, Sims and Akeem Jordan were all active in controlling a very good Cincinnati running game.   The defensive tackles, Mike Patterson and Brodrick Bunkley did a good job keeping them free.

I can’t say enough about how much a difference Bradley makes.   First of all, he’s big and very athletic.  I’ve also noticed that he’s been on the attack, when he reads run.  He’s making it a point to play downhill which will make the Eagles a better team versus the run.

I loved the shot he put on Chad Ocho Cinco this past week.  He faked a blitz then took off directly at Ocho Cinco who was running a curl route.  Bradley ran straight through Ocho Cinco and left him thinking that he was really Batman.

Bradley’s speed and athleticism are a huge improvement from a year ago when they had Omar Gaither and Jeremiah Trotter lining up in the middle.  On a down note, he’s still thinking about protecting that knee.

One of the poor plays he had against the Bengals was on the Bernard Scott touchdown run in which the guard tried to cut his legs out from under him and he flopped to the ground.  He looked like he was clearly thinking of protecting that knee.  Offensive linemen are going to see that on film.

Sims is a very aggressive player by nature.  That’s his game.  He does a great job of exploding from his legs through the rest of his body to hit people.  The former Detroit Lion has the speed and athleticism of a fast NFL safety.  You won’t see tight ends running away from him like they’ve done to other Eagles linebackers.

I think he’s most effective when he’s off the line of scrimmage and able to use his speed to roam and hit people.  He has trouble when big offensive linemen get into him and use their size to swallow him up.  On the Scott touchdown run, big Andre Smith buried him as the running back ran into the end zone untouched.

Still, I’m not totally sold on Sims because he still doesn’t get his hands on the football enough.  The former Florida State All-American has only one interception in his four-year NFL career and I don’t remember him picking off any passes during training camp.  This is atrocious for a big-play linebacker with the speed Sims has.

He’s going to be on the field for three downs.  The veteran has good cover skills in man-to-man and I already mentioned his great speed, but his inability to get his hands on the football forces me to rate him as a just an okay pass cover guy.

In the secondary, the addition of rookie Allen will give them more speed but I can’t say that they’re more aggressive back there.  Teams will have more difficulty beating Allen deep than they did versus the Eagles safeties a year ago.

He’s a work in progress and you can anticipate him getting beat at times and he will miss tackles, but he’ll need to stay focus and keep battling.  The veterans around must play well and keep him focused after he gets beat or makes a mistake.

New right cornerback Ellis Hobbs has shown that he can be physical but I can’t say he’s the hitter that SheldonBrown was.  Teams are going to go after Hobbs all the time and they’ll pick their times to go after Asante Samuel.

They’ll try everything against Hobbs both short routes and long ones.  He’ll will get beat on occassion and he’s going to get some flags because he goes after wide receivers aggressively.  I can’t say they’ve improved here, but I give Hobbs a chance of being a respectable corner this year.  The key to his season will be the pass rush of the defensive line.

Overall this defense will play well if they’re playing with a lead.   If the offense struggles and they’re playing from behind against good running games, their lack of size could be a problem.

Again I can’t guarantee that this defense will be significantly better this time around than the group in 2009, but they’re going to be faster and more aggressive.