Eagles Defense Has Tremendous Potential, But….

The speed of the Eagles defense jumps out at you when you see them workout.   They’re excited about their potential and realize they could be very good.  Looking at this group I see so much promise, but I still wonder about how much production we will see because I wonder how consistent they’ll be.

How will they react when things aren’t going well?  Will they get consistent play from their talented cornerbacks and will two of their safeties step up?

Their defensive linemen are especially active.  Defensive ends Trent Cole and Jason Babin, who are extra-effort guys seem to be everywhere.  Rookie Fletcher Cox has to be the fastest defensive tackle in the NFL and rookie linebacker Mychal Kendricks must be the fastest linebacker in the league.

I can tell clearly that Kendricks is quicker and faster than all of the Eagles safeties other than maybe Nate Allen.  Maybe.

I’ve seen very few 300 pound defensive linemen who can run like Cox.

Defensive line coach Jim Washburn demands that his defensive linemen hustle to the football once the quarterback lets it go, so it seems sometimes that the Birds have more than 11 guys on the field.  They are built to defend the pass and contain the run.

It will be very important that the Eagles offense executes in the first half of games in order to get into the end zone and force offenses to play a “come from behind” game.  I didn’t say score I said get into the end zone.  Their games will be so much easier if they can put the ball into the end zone in the first quarter because this defense is built to rush the passer and blanket opposing receivers.

They’re going to blow some teams out with their tremendous speed on both sides of the ball, but the games which will decide how good they are and whether they have a big year will be those games where offenses are allowed to play a ball possession style.

You will have to wear these guys down in order to have the most success moving the ball against them.  They’re still not very big, but the coordination of the entire defense will be better and the tackling will hopefully improve demonstrably.

I like the fact that experienced middle linebacker DeMeco Ryans will be leading the way and he knows how important it is that these defensive players get to know each other on and off the field, while building a closeness to help them survive those tough times.

“Through training camp, you always have different guys coming in each year,” Ryans said. “So through the process of training camp, you all get to learn each other, get to be around each other a lot more. You get used to hanging around each other. You get to know the guys. That’s what training camp is all about. Especially being here in Lehigh, you get everybody, the camaraderie, guys get closer together. That’s how you build a team.”

Each and every one of these defensive players knows they have tremendous potential.