I think it’s going to be very fascinating concerning the way the Eagles use safety/nickel back Chauncey Gardner-Johnson in their defense. He’s not a pure safety, but he’s really another Avonte Maddox because he has man-to-man coverage skills. They’ll able to utilize him in man-to-man coverages, where he alone is responsible for covering one of the other team’s best receivers.
In fact, they will have no problem having him one-on-one with a speedy wide receiver. That’s what he gives you that Anthony Harris doesn’t give you. Harris was a pure safety, who is more comfortable playing over the top (deep) where he’s basically covering a deep zone or over top of the other guys, who are playing man-to-man. Guys that aren’t comfortable playing man-to-man are slower and they lack the quickness and speed necessary to cover these speedy wide receivers. They are guys who are good tacklers. They don’t mind coming up and tackling but they don’t have the ability, specifically the quickness and the speed needed to cover the top wide receivers in the NFL. But Gardner-Johnson has those skills and that’s why he was a nickel back in New Orleans. He will be a tremendous addition to the secondary. It’s going to give who’s going to give defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon more flexibility in what he does with his defense.
He is another Avonte Maddox, who is capable to covering wide receivers man-to-man and coming up and tackling big physical and hard charging running backs. They both can play man-to-man and have no problem with that. It’s what you love to have in your secondary because that gives you a lot of flexibility. You have many options as a defensive coordinator and that will leave the quarterback guessing about what you’re going to do on the next play.
You can be aggressive by locking people down in man-to-man coverage or you can play zone and make the quarterback take the short throw. You can make it look you’re blitzing from one side of the defense, but come at the offense from the other. You can do all types of blitzes and coverages because of having Gardner-Johnson rather than Harris.
The Eagles have as much talent as anybody in the league, but they’ve got to go out there and do it. Jonathan Gannon has got to utilize properly. The Eagles D should be taking the ball away from offenses as much as any defense in the league. The have many players with multiple talents.