A NEW SEASON IS HERE (ALMOST): PRESEASON LOOK AT THE DEFENSE

Well, I'm back from a long hiatus. To avid readers who have been nagging the Eagellectual, my apologies for the extended delay. The truth is that I've been too busy to post before this week, because I've been in the midst of a move back to Philly, so that I can be better positioned to blog on the Birds. This blog being the reason, of course, that I have returned to Philly, every day I've spent on moving, has in effect been work for the blog (this is directed at you, Mike the Lawyer and Dan the Businessman).



As we know, the Eagles are about to begin the full team-full contact version of training camp--the unoffical start of the 2009 NFL season.



Before I look at some key issues facing this team goign itno camp, I want to again acknowledge the change in Defensive Coordinator. Jim Johnson will be sorely missed.



As for his replacement, young Sean McDermott (still older than the Eagellectual) of LaSalle High, he is a true Jim Johnson disciple and should be well prepared to implement Jim's scheme. What he does not have, though, is the dcades of experience. Sean will be very much on his own as well. Believe it or not, at age 35, he really is the senior defensive guy on this team. There is no more Steve Spagnuolo, Jim Harbaugh, or Pete Jenkins (not to mention Brian Dawkins) for McDermott to lean on, so he'll be taking on an awful lot of responsibility with less veteran help than even Johnson had for most of his career. It is quite a responsibility, and I hope he is up for it, but he has been being groomed for this position ever since Spagnuolo left for New York.



Now, let's look at some of the key issues and battles facing McDermott's new defense. (My next post will discuss the offense).



More Pass Rush from the front four.

If you read the Eagellectual, you'll know that I've been beating this drum like Todd Rungren all offseason. I love blitzing, but it made us so vulnerable in that Cards game. We need more consistent pass rush from the front four, particularly from the RDE spot. This is where, I hope, Victor Abiamiri comes in.

This will be the difference between being a very good defense and a great one. The main candidates for the RDE spot are Victor Abiamiri (out now for three weeks with a stained pec, from offseason lifting), Chris Clemons, and 2008 3rd round pick Bryan Smith. I think the Eagles' plan is to rotate these three. Clemons and Smith are just too small to play every down in this league, but they have speed that Abiamiri has rarely shown. If, by some chance, though, Abiamiri can stay healthy and put it all together, and somehow justify the use of a 2007 second round pick on him, he could be a difference maker for this defense. If not, he’s probably out of here after this year and the Birds are probably looking at Defensive Ends next offseason. The other possibility here is that Darren Howard takes on a larger role, but I think the Eagles would like to primarily keep him in that nickel defensive tackle role. He’s not getting any younger, and he was great in that role in the second half of the season and playoffs, and so I expect the Eagles would like to keep him in the role so that he doesn’t wear down. There are also some unsubstantiated rumors afloat that the Eagles might make a play for Derrick Burgess who is holding out not for money, but simply to get the hell away from the Raiders (who could blame him).

At tackle we’re looking good as long as everyone stays healthy. Patterson and Bunkley both came off their best NFL seasons. Their ability to control the middle, especially Bunkley’s strength at controlling the point of attack, even int eh face of frequent double teams (Bunkley’s so strong he really plays like he weighs about 15 pounds more), was really the key to the Eagles’ vast improvement in run defense. Trevor Laws is also an intriguing player that I expect to rotate in more often, provide some injury insurance, and perhaps take on a third down role alongside Darren Howard. In third and long, though, expect the Birds to continue sliding Abiamiri into the tackle spot next to Howard and then bringing in Smith or Clemons on the right edge.

At linebacker, the Eagellectual loves Stewart Bradley. Bradley maed a couple bad plays in the Championship Game against Arizona, including being out of position on that Tim Hightower fourth down conversion, but I think he will continue to improve. By all accounts he’s a real smart kid (and the Eagellectual always likes smart kids), and he plays aggressively and has shown that he is strong—he doesn’t get pushed around by RBs or TEs. Look for him to continue to improve. Gocong did what he needed last year. He may never be a star but he’s clearly serviceable, and last year was probably the best season we’ve had from any one at the strongside position since Carlos Emmons was here. Dhani Jones, you are not missed (you know he has a cable show, and a line of bowties, now—unbelievable how a mediocre defensive player can become famous just by wearing a bowtie). At the weakside, there is ostensibly a position battle between last year’s end of the season starter Akeem Jordan and the man whose job he took: Omar Gaither. Jordan seemed bigger and more disciplined and not much slower than Gaither, so I believe the job is Jordan’s to lose. Gaither tries too hard to make plays some time, and I think the Eagles know this. I think the Eagles intend to use Gaither the way they used Ike Reese in his Eagles prime—as a utility linebacker that can back up every position (weakside, middle, and strongside by way of stepping in at middle and letting Bradley slide out to the position he first played for the Eagles), and also as a special teams beast. The remaining two linebacker spots (usually the Eagles keep 6) will be the site of one of the Eagles’ fiercer position battles, with last year’s rookies Andy Studebaker and Joe Mays competing with special teams aces Tank Daniels and Tracy White for those two spots. To make the team, Studebaker and Mays will both have to be very impressive on special teams.

The defensive backfield is another site of fierce competition, and it would not be a surprise to see the Eagles keep ten defensive backs and maybe even only run with five linebackers. At corner we have three excellent veterans in Asante Samuel, Ellis Hobbs, and Sheldon Brown. I’m not sure what to make of Brown’s contract situation, but I think most likely, he’ll just have to shut up and play, and I think Brown will probably play much more steadily than Lito did last year. Partly, I believe this b/c Brown seems to have a bit more even-keeled personality, but more importantly, Brown is a better corner and he is not a gambler. Lito, when he played last year, was dying for interceptions, so I think he gambled even less responsibly than in previous years. Brown will win his new contract, here or elsewhere, not by flashy interception returns, but by continuing to lock down by himself the number two receiver on every team he faces, just like he did last year. I’m not overly worried about this, but Hobbs is a heck of an insurance policy if there are any problems. Then, if you read the Eagellectual, you know I love Joselio Hanson as a slot defender. Figuring out how to best use these guys, in tandem with a very interesting safety corps will be one of McDermott’s big challenges.

At the safety spot, Quintin Mikell is coming off an amazing year. He did everything you want a safety to do, playing deep, playing near the line, in coverage, in the run game, in goalline situations, blitzing, you name it. Mikell was a revelation last year, and I expect him to become a defensive star this year. Then the big question on everyone’s mind is how they replace Dawk. In terms of Dawk’s fading skill set, I think it was time to move on. While a heck of a hitter still, Dawkins had lost too many steps in coverage, and so Johnson had to do all sorts of things to scheme Dawkins into positions where his skills could be on display and his weaknesses could be covered up. The team, will, however, miss the veteran presence on a very young defense with a very young coaching staff, especially with Johnson gone. The most veteran Eagle on that defrense is Sheldon Brown, and it’s hard to see him being THE team leader when he’s upset with his contract. To replace Dawkins on the field though, the Eagles have all sorts of confidence in Quintin Demps (without checking the NFL record book, the Eagellectual can say with some confidence that this probably is the first all-Quintin safety tandem in league history). Demps is fast and long and was a great ball-hawk in college. While a lot of people are hung up on the flea flicker touchdown to Fitzgerald where Demps slipped (which, incidentally, was as much the fault of Dawkins who had Fitz at the line of scrimmage and bit too hard on the run action), I think the main place Demps needs to improve is in the run game. On key run plays in that Arizona game last year, twice he was out of position. But they have a nice little insurance policy in Sean Jones from Cleveland. Coming off a year where he was slowed by injury, Jones can step in and play at either safety position, but he is more of a strong safety, enough that they might be more likely to move Mikell over to FS if necessary. The other two players in the mix here are former Raider Rashad Baker and fifth round draft pick Victor “Macho” Harris, a hard-hitting Virginia Tech corner, who figures to work more at free safety in the NFL, and has been doing so in camp thus far. Baker is strictly a reserve player, but he would provide an excellent replacement for Greg Lewis’s role as gunner (first man downfield) on the punt and kick coverage teams.

This could be an excellent defense. We’ll have a look at the offense too, between now and the first preseason game.

Rest in Peace Jim Johnson

I was actually just about to publish my first post for the 2009 season when it was announced that Jim Johnson has passed away at age 68, after a struggle with melanoma that had spread to his spine . Johnson was a class act, a brilliant football mind, and an epic worker. Johnson was brusque but candid and wore a near-constant scowl that did nothing to belie his kind heart but everything to demonstrate the seriousness with which he approached defensive football, demanded excellence, and loved the game. Johnson, even as the oldest guy on the staff was consistently the last one to leave the NovaCare building, even during the early offseason when a coach should normally, one would imagine, be less busy than the personnel department. The Eagles, the NFL, and the Philadelphia community lose a lot with the passing of Johnson. He was renowned for blitzing aggressively and creatively. He was especially a proponent of overload blitzing and he executed incredibly successful blitzing defenses with a multitude of different personnel. From his disguising blitzes by using Jevon Kearse as a joker during the Super Bowl run, to his rare but effective use of a double corner blitz in the days of Bobby Taylor, Troy Vincent, and Al Harris, to his skill at accentuating an aging Brian Dawkins's strengths and masking his weaknesses over the last two seasons, Jim Johnson was always looking for new tricks and wrinkles to confuse opposing coaches, quarterbacks, and offensive linemen. A nice analysis of Johnson by a non-partisan observer can be found in an unfortunately too prescient Washington Post article about the strengths and flaws of Johnson's strategy as applied by his January 2009 team as they approached their NFC championship game in Phoenix. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/16/AR2009011603627.html.



Nonetheless, Johnson as much as Andy Reid deserves credit for the success this team has had this decade, especially early in McNabb's career when the offense often consisted of little more than slants to Chad Lewis and timely Donovan scrambles. Johnson will surely be missed and never forgotten.



Look for my intended post in the next couple days.



Pasted below is the team's official statement on Johnson's passing (courtesy of Philadelphiaeagles.com):



July 28, 2009
The Philadelphia Eagles are saddened to announce Jim Johnson has passed away Tuesday afternoon at the age of 68 after a courageous battle with cancer.A veteran of 22 years as an NFL assistant, Johnson is regarded as one of the top defensive masterminds in National Football League history. Over the last decade, he gained a great deal of praise as the orchestrator of the renowned Eagles defense. His aggressive style kept Philadelphia at or near the top of the NFL in nearly every major defensive category since joining Andy Reid's staff on January 22, 1999.


Jim Johnson was beloved by his colleagues, players.



From 2000-08, Johnson's units ranked second in the NFL in sacks (390), 3rd down efficiency (34.0%) and red zone touchdown percentage (43.9%), and fourth in fewest points allowed (17.7 per game). During his 10-year tenure in Philadelphia, the Eagles earned seven playoff berths, five trips to the NFC Championship game and one Super Bowl appearance (following the 2004 season).



As the Eagles' defensive chief, Johnson's defense has produced 26 Pro Bowl selections: Brian Dawkins (7), Troy Vincent (5), Jeremiah Trotter (4), Hugh Douglas (3), Lito Sheppard (2), Asante Samuel (1), Trent Cole (1), Michael Lewis (1), Corey Simon (1), and Bobby Taylor (1).



Four of his defensive assistants have gone on to successful careers with other NFL franchises: Steve Spagnuolo (head coach of the St. Louis Rams), John Harbaugh (head coach of the Baltimore Ravens), Ron Rivera (defensive coordinator of the San Diego Chargers) and Leslie Frazier (defensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings).



Prior to his tenure in Philadelphia, Johnson served as the linebackers coach with Seattle in 1998. That year, Johnson helped the Seahawks register 10 touchdowns on defense, including eight interceptions returned for scores, second-most in NFL history. He arrived in Seattle after a four-year stint in Indianapolis, the last two as defensive coordinator. While with the Colts, Johnson helped them secure a berth in the AFC Championship game at Pittsburgh in 1995.Johnson spent eight seasons with the Arizona Cardinals (1986-93). After overseeing the Cards defensive line for four seasons, Johnson excelled as their secondary coach, helping Aeneas Williams become the first rookie cornerback to lead the league in interceptions (6) since 1981.



Johnson began his coaching career as head coach at Missouri Southern (1967-68), before serving four-year tenures at Drake and Indiana. From 1977-83, Johnson served as defensive coordinator and assistant head coach at Notre Dame, a stint that included a national championship in 1977.An all-conference quarterback himself at Missouri (where he played in the same backfield with long-time NFL executive Bill Tobin), Johnson went on to spend two seasons with Buffalo as a tight end (1963-64).A native of Maywood, IL, Johnson (born 5/26/41) earned a bachelor's degree in education and a master's degree in physical education from Missouri.



Johnson is survived by his wife, Vicky, two children, Scott and Michelle, and four grandchildren, Katie, Justin, Brandon, and Jax.