New Carolina Panthers head coach, and former Eagles assistant, Ron Rivera spoke for the first time about his hiring of Sean McDermott, who you may or may not know was the last Eagles defensive coordinator.
McDermott seemed overmatched at times, although he hardly was working with the Steel Curtain. More like Jane Curtin, because some of those guys were jokes last year.
“We knew this was an opportunity to get Sean out of the shadow of Jim, which was a very difficult situation,” Rivera said Thursday, per Reuben Frank of CSNPhilly.com.
Obviously, Rivera was very familiar with McDermott from working with him in Philadelphia, and he was eager to bring him into the fold. I think McDermott was unemployed for about two days.
“Sean’s somebody I worked with for five seasons and got to know very well, and we very much share the same philosophy in terms of being aggressive and attacking style of defense and it comes from being around Jim Johnson,” Rivera said. “I knew we shared the same philosophy, and that’s one of the reasons I wanted to bring him in when I saw that he was available.”
So, why didn’t he work out in Philadelphia?
“The expectations,” Rivera said.
Rivera did go through the tape from last year, and apparently liked what he saw (or at least didn’t hate it).
“It’s not like they didn’t play well last year,” he said. “They got to the playoffs, they did some really good things on defense. I watched some of the tape to familiarize myself with some of the opponents, and they played Indy and I thought he did a great job with the game plan, and we copied a bit of what he did.
“So it was exciting to get an opportunity to work with somebody that I knew and somebody who I shared the same philosophy with, so when we were putting together a staff I thought Sean really represented that very well.”
I said before that I think this role will be perfect for the still young McDermott. He can be “defensive coordinator” under Rivera, even though Rivera is the defensive coordinator. He can learn from him and maybe have his load lightened. Could/should be a good learning experience.
Is’t not like McDermott had a lot help from position Coaches R Segrest and
B Shuey.. I think SM can develop into a godo DC in a few years, but he was behinf the 8-ball from the get go trying to follow JJ and Coach AR not really getting him players and or coaches to help him grow as a Coach..
I do think that McDermott had schemes too complicated and loved to have too many Zone Coverages and DL dropping back in Coverages instead of attacking the lind of scrimmage, and I also felt that the LB’s always lined up to deep in their Base alignments instead of closer to the LOS and especially on 1st Down and running plays.. I’ve seen way too many time Bradleys & othere LB’s lined up 5-6-7 yards behind the DL on rusnning plays so by the time the LB fills the Hole, the opposing team RB has 4-5 Yards before ever getting hit by an Eagle Defender…
Off the subject but I’ll love to hear G’s take on the holy family situation and Dave Duerson saying buddy Ryan called him the N word.
McDermott was setup to fail….the Eagles talent at LB and in the secondary was mediocre at best… Roseman and Reid are to blame for the poor personnel moves…