time2rock Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 More Coaching News Posted: January 22nd, 2024 | Author: Tommy Lawlor The Eagles haven’t hired anyone, but we are starting to get a clearer idea of what could be happening in the coming days or weeks. Let’s start with the biggest item. Gunn is still pretty plugged in when it comes to the Eagles. If he’s hearing this, that must be the direction the Eagles are heading in. I thought keeping Johnson might make sense, but it probably wouldn’t help him. If there is a new play-caller and the offense looks better, Johnson isn’t getting any credit for that. If he goes to a new team and does well he gets the credit or blame based on how they perform. High risk, high reward situation. This frees up the Eagles to bring in a new offensive coordinator and let them call plays. They’ll have to balance their ideas with Nick Sirianni’s existing playbook. I have to stress that I don’t think the Eagles need to scrap that. They need to build on it. That’s why outside ideas can be so valuable. I’m interested in Kellen Moore of the Chargers (formerly Cowboys OC). Unfortunately the Chargers just blocked him from interviewing with the Bears. LA still considers him a candidate to be the head coach (he already interviewed). Eric Bieniemy makes a lot of sense to me. Arthur Smith is fascinating, but I’m not sure he’s got the answers needed to fix the passing game. We are starting to hear some leaked names for the open defensive coordinator position. That is an interesting pair of names. Jim Johnson was the Eagles DC from 1999-2008. His LBs coach from 1999-2003 was Ron Rivera. One of the LBs was Mike Caldwell, from 1999-2001. Nick Sirianni has no ties to Andy Reid, but this would make some sense. Sirianni needs a veteran DC. He needs someone who can run that side of the ball. Rivera has 6 years of DC experience and was a head coach for 13 seasons. He certainly knows how to run a defense and handle his side of things. Rivera has struggled with consistency, but has gotten excellent results in each stop. He was part of Top 5 defenses in PHI, CHI, SD, CAR and WAS. That’s pretty impressive. In that sense, he might remind you of Jim Schwartz. When he had the right players, his scheme thrived. When there were personnel issues, the defense was up and down. Caldwell was the ILBs coach when Tampa won the Super Bowl in 2020 and when they beat the Eagles in the wild card round in 2021. He then became the DC for the Jaguars for the next two seasons. They had mediocre defenses both year, but finished Top 8 in takeaways both times. I’m sure that caught Sirianni’s attention. I like the fact that Sirianni is looking at different types of coaches. Rivera’s background is mainly 4-3. He’s always been good with LBs. Caldwell has 3-4 and 4-3 experience and understands blitzing. Sirianni isn’t just focused on the next person in the Fangio style. The Eagles could take a look at Brandon Staley, but they aren’t focused on that style. Focus on the coach more than the scheme. ***** This should be interesting. Keep your expectations reasonable. You aren’t going to get the hard-hitting answers you might want. Remember that Sirianni will always take the blame publicly. He’ll say something about doing what is in the best interests of the team, but he’s not going to start ripping Sean Desai or Brian Johnson. Nor should he. There’s just nothing to gain from that. ***** Jason Kelce continues to be awesome. http://igglesblitz.com/2024/01/more-coaching-news/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procus Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Caldwell is interviewing for the LB coach in reality - not as a DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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