Eagles Hire D.J. Eliot as New LBs Coach

The Eagles have their new linebackers coach.

D.J. Eliot, who had been the defensive coordinator/outside linebackers coach at Temple University, will jump to the professional ranks for the first time in his coaching career.

Speculation that the Eagles would hire former Detroit Lions coach and long-time Patriots assistant Matt Patricia as the new LB coach was off base.

A linebacker himself as a college player at Wyoming, Eliot, 46, had DC experience at Kentucky (2013-16), Colorado (2017-18), and Kansas (2019-20) before arriving at Temple for the 2022 season.

He has a history with two of the Eagles' current linebackers: Davion Taylor at Colorado and Kyron Johnson at Kansas.

New Eagles defensive coordinator Sean Desai started his coaching career at Temple under Al Golden as a defensive and special teams coach.

Eliot himself started as a grad assistant at his alma mater before handling the same job with Houston and Miami before getting his first official job as the defensive backs coach at Texas State in 2003.

From that point forward he coached LBs at Texas State (2004-05), and Tulsa (2006). When Eliot made the leap to DC at Kentucky he continued to coach the LBs as well and the same held true at Colorado, Kansas, and Temple.

The only respite from the position for Eliot came in from 2007-09 at Rice when he coached the defensive line and 2010-12 when he mentored defensive ends at Florida State.

Eliot replaces Nick Rallis, who left Philadelphia to become the new DC in Arizona under Jonathan Gannon, Desai's predecessor as the Eagles' defensive coordinator in 2021-22.

Philadelphia still needs a secondary coach to replace Dennard Wilson, who left the organization after being passed over for the DC for Desai. The Eagles described the parting of ways with Wilson as mutual while Marcus Hayes of the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that head coach Nick Sirianni made the decision to move on from Wilson.

Defensive quality control coach Joe Kasper also left to become the safeties coach with the Miami Dolphins and has yet to be replaced.

The Eagles also made a minor roster move on Thursday, moving on from veteran offensive lineman Brett Toth.

Toth did not play in the 2022-23 season after tearing his ACL in Week 18 of the 2021 season. A versatile player, Toth was injured while playing center. He's a natural tackle but has also played OG.

The Eagles did eventually start Toth’s practice window late in the 2022 season but never activated the former Army Cadet due to the depth on the offensive line.

Philadelphia saves $1,035,000 in cap space by releasing Toth with the new league year set to begin on March 15.

-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Football 24/7 and a daily contributor to ESPN South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen