The Eagles should make Carolina Panthers defensive coordinator Sean McDermott their next head coach. There might be other guys out there who can do the job on the defensive side of the ball, but over the last four years McDermott has been the best defensive coordinator in the NFL.
The Eagles have enough good players on their DEFENSE to have one of the best defenses in the league, especially if they feature a 4/3 front. Fletcher Cox, Bennie Logan, and Vinny Curry are good football players on the defensive line, but with the right coaching they could be better. Cox has Hall of Fame talent, if he is put in the right defense and turned loose.
At the linebacker positions, they need better coaching. Jordan Hicks and Mychal Kendricks are both young and talented. The can both be very good. I would put Connor Barwin at the strong side linebacker position and have him battle the league’s tight ends. He’s got the speed, length and quickness to match up great with them. Tight ends have hurt the Eagles defense and Barwin could put a stop to it. I would still give him chances to rush the passer.
The Eagles have two of the best safeties in the NFL in Walter Thurmond and Malcolm Jenkins. I liked what I saw out of Eric Rowe and Nolan Carroll at the cornerback position. Young safety Ed Reynolds showed promise.
McDermott cut his teeth as a secondary coach. He’s very good at disguising coverages and blitzing quarterbacks. He can create pass rush pressure without pass rushers. Imagine what he can do with some pass rushers.
The defensive discipline versus the run and the pass both fell apart as the season went along. In the run defense, the defensive line, linebackers and defensive backs were all on different pages as a season preceded. A good coaching staff could correct that.
Look at the Carolina defense and you see one of the most disciplined defenses in the league, year in and year out. They all know how to tackle and they tackle. There were times this year, when not one Eagles defender could make a tackle.
Carolina plays the sweep a certain way each time it is run. Their stacked linebackers play power plays the same way each time. The Eagles defense fell apart because they played a certain play one way one time then another way at another time. Each defender has to know where his needs major improvement with their discipline.
I asked Thurmond about it and I also asked Jenkins about it, but they danced around the question and didn’t give me a clear answer for why the secondary’s commitment to getting physical with receivers at the line of scrimmage evaporated as the season proceeded. They started off strong, but by the end of the season, they looked just like the 2014 Eagles secondary. As far as I’m concerned that is a coaching problem.
I’m confident that a defensive coordinator like McDermott will be successful at keeping that secondary focused and on the same page. He will make sure that the corners and safeties will stay with their techniques, play in and play out, game in and game out throughout the season.
I think the Eagles will have a top five defense under McDermott without adding anybody.
Wow G-Man, a little Optimistic about the Talent Level of the Defense of the Eagles which Ranked 30th in Total Defense 2015 and 29th in 2014 Season
Fletcher Cox is a Stud,
Bennie Logan is a Solid Rotational Player
Jordan Hicks showed some real Potential but let’s not put him the Pro-Bowl after 5 Games.. Remember many on here did that with Joe Mays and Jamar Cheney after a small Sample of Playing
Michael Kendricks is one of the most Inconsistent Players on the Team,
1 Week he looks Good and Aggressive, then the Next Week he’s invisible and plays timid.. He should be much more consistent at this stage of his Career and I think lacks the Heart & Toughness to be a Top Defender
Connor Barwin is Consistent and a Solid Player, Not Great in any one area but the Best Overall LB the Eagles have in Terms of Playing all 3 Downs
Brandon Graham is a Pass-Rusher and best Used coming off the Edge as is Vinny Curry.
Safety Tandem of Jenkins/Thurmond was the Best Safety Combo the Eagles have had in some time, but lets not reach and say the Best in the NFL..
that’s a Stretch…
I think he’s correct. Could you name two better safety tandems in the league right now? Thomas and Chancellor haven’t been the same since last year. Maybe injury.
I really think McDermott would do an outstanding job. We have really good pieces.
1) Bengals Safety Tandem of Reggie Nelson & George Illoka
2) Seahawks Tandem of Earl Thomas & Kam Chancellor
3) Cardinals Tandem of Tyrann Mattiue & Rashad Johnson & Deone Buchannon which they line up everywhere
4) 49ers Tandem of Alvin Bethea & Eric Reid
5) Broncos with the #1 Defense and Tandem of TJ Ward & Darian Stewart
6) Texans with the #3 Defense with Rahiim Moore and Eddie Pleasant
7) Jets with the #5 Defense with Marcu Gilchrist and Calvin Pryor
8) Panthers with #6 Defense with Roman Harper & Yes Kurt Coleman who had a Career Season (Coleman finished with 90 Tackles, 1 Sack and 7 Int’s)
Looking at Tackle Statistics can be mid-leading
Jenkins had 109 Tackles with Thurmond with another 71 Tackles which is a great Total for a Safety Tandem but also a poor reflection on the Eagles LB Corp’s to be honest.. Being the Teams Tackling Leaders as the last Line Defense is and Indictment on how poorly the Front 7 was playing and the overall Scheme in my Opinion
4 of the Top 6 Leading Tacklers on the 2015 Eagles were DB’s (Jenkins,Thurmond,Maxwell & Carroll along with LB Kendricks and DL Cox) Where is the Production of the other LB’s ?
More than any commentary ,I’ve read post Giants win ,this one is more an indictment of Bill Davis ,than an endorsement ,of any one individual..If the talent level can leap from the garbage bin to tiffanys showcase ,why is ,bill still around?
Eagles were dead last in TOP at 35 mins a game. Eagles D played 16% more than every other team they faced. 16% more than the average team in the NFL.
Just becoming average with TOP (30mins) and get that team off the field for those extra 5 mins and look what happens:
Total D gave up 6426 yrds good for 30th….
take them off the field for that extra 16% and….
Total D 5398 yrds good for 9th
Pass D gave up 4273 yrds good for 28th
take them off the field that extra 16% and…..
Pass D gives up 3590…good for 5th
Rush D gave up 2153 yrds good for dead last
take them off the field for that extra 16% and….
Rush D gives up 1808 good for 18th
So…all you have to do is hire me to stand there and yell, “Do not snap the ball till the clock gets below 5 seconds!!!” and the D instantly improves to the middle of the pack.
Don’t even need any new players…..just the understanding that leaving your defense out on the field for what amounts to 2.5 extra games each season is insanely stupid.
Magic!!!!!!
vinnie you will have the best job in FB–i agree the D wasn’t as god awful as it looked. chips ‘more snaps’ philosophy is beyond flawed.
“i agree the D wasn’t as god awful as it looked.”
haveablunt these are the kind of dumb ass statements that really shows you know absolutely nothing about football..
The Eagles got worst has the season went along…they fell apart when they lost the rookie Hicks in the second Dallas game
They coughed up 90 points to Tampa and Detroit…two bum ass teams
They were humiliated by the Cardinals with the way they ran the ball on the Eagles
The defense was as “god awful’ as it looked…if you stop smoking blunts you will beginning to understand what you are looking at…
“Sam Bradford played as well as any QB in the league, with the exception of Russell Wilson and Tom Brady”
hot air, they played poorly– and they absolutely fell apart after hicks went down– point is they were victim of too many 30 second 3 and outs… it is disheartening for a defense to have to play 40 minutes a game– you expose yourself to more injury possibilities and fatique….
Was Rookie Jordan Hicks that Good or are the Other ILB’s for the Eagles
(Ryans,Kendricks and Alonso) that bad ?
I add another ILB in the Draft for sure…
I think we can all agree Pman ..hicks was very instinctual..don’t think that’s coach able..it’s a small sample but ,illuminating his skill sets..
Hopefully Hicks can remain Healthy which has been an issue with his the last 3 Seasons back his U Of Texas Days….
Also sometimes, but not very often, a Young Player gets thrown into the fire so to speak with lots of Playing time due to Injury and relies heavily on their natural god-given, instinctive ability, even though they may not know the playbook and assignments quite yet… Other times Young Players get so bogged down with the assignments and technical things that they play slow and don’t play with their normal reactionary talents…
From what everyone has said about Hicks is that he’s a bright kid who picks up things fast so hopefully he can get back out there and improve on what was a successful Rookie Season .. The Eagles Need him moving Forward
Vin..I respect your opinions no,however as I’ve stated many times ..bill Davis is a mental midget ..his schemes are very vanilla ,his adjustments are invisible ,way too often.If he was given autonomy (as chip deferred ,by not attending defensive meetings) then it’s still on B.D . To make the necessary changes .He obviously was embarrassed by Detroit ,Arizona ,Washington …sorry he’s not getting any slack, for the fact he was operating in a less than optimal ,environment..The stats are ,abysmal ,he’s setting NFL records in futility..He’s part of the problem and he needs ,take his tired act ..out of philly..I want a guy that demonstrates an attack mode defense .blue collar …Bill 30th rankedDavis isn’t competent ..
Don;t get me wrong. Davis is terrible. He’s been terrible whereever he’s been. I am glad he’s on his way out.
Just saying that on top of that ineptitude, you had a stupid system that kept trotting our the over-matched D again and again and again. Honestly, the D has played about 7-8 more games than the average TOP team has over the past 3 years.
That just exacerbates the issues they had scheme and talent-wise.
The Current Eagles Defense needs the Following
Another DT, ILB, A Pass-Rusher DE/OLB and a Strong Safety
(Move M Jenkis to Free-Safety and then move Thurmond
to Cover the Slot as a CB)
Switch to 4-3 and it doesn’t look as bad.
Bull..
Are you kidding me?
Now the problems may have been due to poor coaching but this defense sucked ass in the worst possible way.
They were the direct causes of 2 losses to the Redskins which kept us out of the playoffs.
They were awful against Tampa and Detroit
They got ran over by Arizona..
The vaunted front seven was manhandled in these games as running backs ran up the gut.
Thurmond is terrible in run support…
The notion that they were just so tired because of the offense is hogwash…a bullshit excuse…
How many times did the Eagles have teams in third and long only to give up first downs…if they were so tired get off the field on third downs and get some rest…how about trying that?!
This defense never made clutch big time stops and got very little pass rush out of Graham and Barwin…those guys came up small in key moments of games..
The main reason we are not in the playoffs now is the woeful defense that came up extremely small in so many third and long situations…
obviously the defense played poorly, but I think that a lot of it came down to guys playing out of their natural position and the fact that they MLB play was terrible. Kiko and Ryans couldn’t play at all this year and Kendricks couldn’t make a play.
Switch to a 4-3 and:
Front 4: Graham, Logan, Cox, Curry
MLB Hicks
OLB: Kendricks and Barwin
Even Marcus Smith was making plays on Sunday when they were using more of a hybrid 4-3 instead of the damn 3-4. They never had the dudes to run the 3-4.
Bugsy ..I always felt Marcus Smith was a pawn in a howie / Chip power play ..To me it’s yet another example of the dysfunctional aspect,of the team,and organization..Remember he was jerked in the prior year He Was jerked outside and back inside ..and this year he was minimized by his playing time.Im not sure if he can play ,but he’s shown flashes ,albeit in garbage time vs the Giants ..the most encouraging thing that will come from this regime change ,is guys will be judged on merit ,and not who picked whom..
**Flyers News***
Flyers have Traded Defenseman Luke Schenn & Center Vince Lecavalier to the LA Kings for Forward Jordan Weal and a 2016 3rd Round Pick
Per ESPN & Flyers GM Ron Hextall