Tweak at Safety Was Impressive Game-Planning by Jonathan Gannon

The Eagles went outside the box by giving Avonte Maddox a dual role

CHICAGO - There’s been a lot to like during the Eagles’ impressive 13-1 run that continued with a 25-20 win over Chicago in frigid conditions at Soldier Field on Sunday.

One of the less-obvious tweaks against the pass-deficient Bears is how defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon handled being down his top two safeties, opposite Marcus Epps, in usual starter Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, who remains on injured reserve with a lacerated kidney, and Reed Blankenship, who was sidelined with a sprained knee.

The most obvious directions would have been to play the next man up in K’Von Wallace or elevate veteran safety Anthony Harris, a 2021 starter just brought back to the organization, from the practice squad.

Instead, Gannon took Door No. 3 and did something the DC said he wasn’t going to do, move Avonte Maddox back to safety.

In hindsight, it was just another example of this coaching staff weighing the opposition and tailoring the game plan to be specific for them.

As dynamic as second-year Chicago quarterback Justin Fields is from an athleticism standpoint, he remains very limited as a pocket passer with perhaps the slowest processing skills among NFL starters when it comes to the passing part of things.

The Eagles, meanwhile, had to elevate punter Brett Kern from the PS and wanted to keep Christian Elliss as a spark to the special teams, leaving Harris as the odd man out when it came to elevations. 

The open spot on the roster is still earmarked for Dallas Goedert even though the Eagles slow-played that, again due to the opponent.

So Gannon was down to Epps and Wallace as his only natural safeties against Chicago, the latter having disappointed in coverage during his opportunities in the past but has played well when it comes to run support.

Instead of going conventional, Gannon went piecemeal because he didn’t have to play nickel all that much due to Fields’ deficiencies. That opened up Maddox to have a dual role. When the Eagles were in their five-man fronts, Maddox slid back to safety. When Gannon needed a nickel CB, Maddox went back to his normal role and Wallace was the safety.

Maddox played all 59 defensive snaps and was a playmaker, getting in on two forced fumbles, Wallace was in for 41 and finished with a team-high nine tackles.

The plan worked brilliantly.

Assuming it will continue like that moving forward isn't necessarily the case, though.

Gardner-Johnson is not eligible to come off IR until Jan. 1 and Blankenship has a one-to-three-week injury so he could be in play for Dallas on Christmas Eve,

The bigger spoke in the wheel, though, is the Cowboys’ offense with Dak Prescott, who is far more capable of hurting a defense in the passing game than Fields.

That means more nickel and Maddox back is his familiar role.

Of course, the rotation could expand to include Josiah Scott, who replaced Maddox at slot CB when the latter was down with an ankle injury.

If Gannon likes having Maddox on the field all the time perhaps the dual role could continue with Scott mixing in at the nickel spot when Maddox’s coverage skills are needed on the back end.

-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 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