USA Today
Eagles Defensive Turnaround will Require Different Solution than Last Year
The Eagles were 4-6 with 10 games to play last year and ended up winning five of their last six to make the playoffs at 9-7.
Some of the credit for that turnaround went to defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz and veteran safety Malcolm Jenkins, who went to Schwartz and said maybe the defense would be better served by simplifying things, especially on the backend of the defense - the secondary.
That put the onus on the defensive line, and players like Fletcher Cox, Michael Bennett, and Chris Long responded, to name a few, responded.
This year, sitting at 3-4, turning things around will require another solution.
“I think we had a real change on both sides of the ball (last year),” said Jenkins on Tuesday. “You had Nick Foles come in and obviously that changed a lot of what we did offensively.
“Defensively, we really had to change dramatically because of the personnel we had out there, so we went to a very, very simple scheme and let our defensive line eat. A little bit different situation this year, because our defensive line, we’re thin there, we’re fighting.
"Linebacker has been a position we have some young guys learning to play, still trying to get healthy on the outside at corner. Obviously some guys have to step up and play significant roles for us.”
The Eagles’ defensive line is a far cry from what it was in 2018, with Bennett and Long no longer around.
It is much different at tackle, where the Eagles are now playing with a front four that will be constructed of mostly practice squad players, Cox excluded, of course.
Defensive tackles Anthony Rush and Albert Huggins were signed on Monday evening off the practice squads of the Oakland Raiders and Houston Texans, respectively.
They will join Hassan Ridgeway, a castoff of the Indianapolis Colts in the offseason, provided Ridgeway’s ankle allows him to play Sunday in Buffalo.
Maybe Timmy Jernigan, who has been out with a foot injury since Week 2, will return this weekend, after he was seen doing some loosening up prior to practices last week.
“This is a league that rewards long-term perseverance," said Schwartz. "It isn't a short-term team. I've been on teams that started really well. I was on a team that started 5-2 and I think won one more game the rest of the year. A couple different times. I’ve been on a team that started 1-4 and finished in the AFC championship game and was a second half away from going to the Super Bowl.
“It's not necessarily the team that has the greatest fortune over the course of the year, the team that starts great and finishes great. Yeah, that happens. You have sometimes where you just get on a roll early and you sort of run the table and everything is unicorns and rainbows. But that's not real life. We're in real life right now. We need to battle.”
So the Eagles must find another way to turn around their fortunes this season.
“I think the production that you normally get, that we’ve been used to getting from the front four, we’ve yet to see it be consistent,” said Jenkins. “Obviously we’re used to getting pressure with a four-man rush, used to stopping the run with those guys up front and being disruptive, so it puts more of an emphasis on the linebackers and safeties and how we fit the run and how we disguise things to help out the D-tackles, especially keep some of those double-teams off of them and let them have the one-on-one.
“It’s more about adjusting the tools of our scheme rather than creating a whole new package.”
Schwartz was more philosophical.
“I think it's not just a player, it's not just a position, it's not just the defense, it's a group of guys coming together,” he said. “Our part of that is coming together as a defense and fitting in with the offense and fitting in with the special teams and guys that have those roles.”
