Smooth Summer for Eagles Defensive Coordinator Jonathan Gannon
PHILADELPHIA - Jonathan Gannon's first training camp as the Eagles' defensive coordinator has gone very well in perhaps the most football passionate city in America.
The 38-year-old wunderkind, spawned by Mike Zimmer with a little Matt Eberflus sprinkled in, was once a defensive back at the University of Louisville and looks like he could still play in pinch, as he bounces around after calling the defense into a walkie-talkie, often into the ear of Eric Wilson, the free-agent signing from Minnesota who is shaping up to be the quarterback of Gannon's defensive units as the first-team MIKE linebacker.
The generational disconnect evaporates with Gannon, who would prefer everyone call him JG, not wasting time on ego and hubris like a certain self-important coach up the Jersey Turnpike.
In training camp, the play of the Eagles' defense has been downright breathtaking at times, often a PBU parade stemming from the multiple looks of a talented defensive front, a LB corps that has performed much better than expected, and a defensive backfield fueled by the late addition of Steve Nelson, who has brought physicality and competency to the back end opposite of Darius Slay.
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If anything, Gannon has flown under the radar because everything has been so good.
His "HITS Principle" of hustle, intensity, takeaways, and smarts has been embraced to the point most of his students have bruised knuckles from trying to punch the football away from hapless playmakers holding onto the rock for dear life.
If this were the NBA, the Eagles' ball-deflection chart would be something to brag about.
“We have a very distinct language with how we force fumbles, how we scoop and score, how we block interception returns,” Gannon said. “It just puts a very clear picture of what the standard is, what the expectation is, of how we conduct our business.”
That business has been picking up to the point Gannon might face a hurdle he never saw coming on Sept. 12. The Eagles defense has somehow gone from lowered expectations to perhaps unrealistic ones after just 11 training camp practices.
From a personnel perspective, the defensive line is the only part of Gannon's defense that truly stands out and the plan is to take full advantage of that with varied looks, everything from the conventional 4-3, to three-man and five-man fronts with the occasional overload blitz brought from the edges from a hybrid defender like Ryan Kerrigan or Genard Avery.
Fletcher Cox leads the Eagles' talented defensive front
USA Today
It wasn't lost on Gannon that the best NFL defense in 2020 - Brandon Staley's Rams -- used more different looks than anyone else up front.
“If our players can do it, yes,” Gannon said when asked if his defense would be using a multitude of different looks. “I would say that if you look at the No. 1 defense in the league last year, the L.A. Rams, they had by far the most different personnel groupings and the highest amount of different fronts. Not to say that we’re going to do that, but I do think that versatility in your front and coverage makes it hard on the offense.
"We’re going to do that.”
Star defensive tackle Fletcher Cox, like Aaron Donald with the Rams, is the centerpiece to the theory.
“I think we should move [Cox] around,” Gannon said. “When you put him over the center, it’s a hard matchup for a center. He’s obviously a premium player of ours. …we’re going to do everything we can for him to let him go and be disruptive and play his game."
Other lynchpins figure to be Josh Sweat, who has looked like a world-beater this summer, and rookie Milton Williams, who the Eagles envision as a Brandon Graham-like player who can move seamlessly between the inside and outside on the line.
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The back seven isn't as talented but the early returns indicate Gannon will get more than the sum of his parts.
He doesn't have an Anthony Barr-like player at the second level but he's throwing everything at the wall to find a piece that can rush and drop into coverage with Avery holding off Joe Ostman and rookie Patrick Johnson to date. Ultimately, that role could go to Kerrigan, who is out for the next 10 days or so after minor thumb surgery.
“Anthony Barr was a little different because with Zim, he kind of played WILL,” Gannon said. “... I think the guys that we have in that spot right now give us a very diverse skill set. Just like everybody on the defense, we’re going to try to accentuate that skill set and put those guys in spots to do what they do best."
Gannon has mixed and match the WILL and MIKE positions more than any other part of the roster but seems to now be settling on Wilson and Alex Singleton now that the latter has returned from the RESERVE/COVID-19 list.
“One of the reasons why we [mix and match] is that is there is a comfort zone with certain guys that when they look next to them, they know who is going to be next to them, and right now we do not want them in that comfort zone,” Gannon explained. “... Everybody has to be able to think and communicate."
The secondary, Gannon's wheelhouse, is led by Slay on the outside and another former Vikings player, Anthony Harris, on the back end. The addition of Nelson has proven to be a domino effect at CB as a whole and veteran Rodney McLeod has Week 1 in Atlanta on his mind when it comes to a return from an ACL injury.
Staley's success with the Rams led him to the head-coaching job with the Chargers.
Already on the fast track in league circles, Gannon's stay in Philadelphia could be a short one if his early August success foreshadows the future.
John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven 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 both PhillyVoice.com and YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
