Eagles' rebuilt defensive front has chance to dominate

 

 

 

Reuben Frank

EAGLES INSIDER

When opposing quarterbacks drop back to pass against the Eagles, when opposing running backs take off, when offensive linemen take on defenders, they’re going to see a dramatically different front 7 than a year ago.

Howie Roseman made it a priority to infuse the Eagles’ defense with high-level talent this offseason, and although the secondary still hasn’t undergone significant change, Roseman has truly reshaped the Eagles’ defensive front.

Alex Singleton, who played 720 snaps last year, and Hassan Ridgeway, Ryan Kerrigan and Genard Avery, who all played between 330 and 380 snaps, are gone.

Derek Barnett and T.J. Edwards, who played about 700 snaps each, have dropped down the depth chart.

That’s 1,781 snaps and 23 starts gone and 1,403 more snaps and 29 starts presumably demoted.

That’s a lot.

The Eagles didn‘t have the worst defense in history last year. Not including the meaningless season finale against the Cowboys when the backups played, the Eagles ranked 8th in the NFL in points allowed (20.9 per game) and 11th in passing yards allowed (216), 7th in rushing yards allowed (104) in Jonathan Gannon’s first year as defensive coordinator. They held teams opponents to 17 or fewer points eight times, and only six other teams did that.

But the eye test said they had to get better. A lot better.

Every established quarterback they faced tore them apart, and they allowed opposing QBs to complete 69 percent of their passes – 3rd-worst in the league. They allowed 42 percent conversions on third down, 10th-worst. And they were 31st in sacks with just 29 – equaling the fewest in franchise history.

So Howie got to work.

He signed edge specialist Haason Reddick, whose 23 ½ sacks over the last two years are 5th-most in the league (and 10 more than any Eagle). He signed linebacker Kyzir White, who played at a Pro Bowl level last year for the Chargers. He drafted mammoth defensive tackle Jordan Davis in the first round and stole linebacker Nakobe Dean in the third.

Essentially, Reddick, White, Davis and Dean have replaced Barnett, Singleton, Ridgeway and Edwards, and you never know how it’s going to come together until they hit the field this fall, but those are all big-time moves.

Gannon loves rotating his linemen, and now he’ll be able to do it with quality people across the board.

Fletcher Cox and Javon Hargrave both played about 65 percent of the snaps last year, and now Gannon has the luxury of limiting the 31-year-old Cox’s snaps even more, which should help him be more effective when he does get in there.

And outside, Barnett goes from starter to presumably coming in fresh on certain passing downs, which might jump-start his disappointing production. Whatever the Eagles get from Brandon Graham is a bonus, but now you have Reddick, Sweat, Graham and Barnett rushing the quarterback, and that group has to be good for more than 29 sacks. A lot more, you would think.

It will be interesting to see how Gannon uses his linebackers, but if Dean is healthy I would anticipate him being as close to a three-down linebacker as the Eagles have. White has the versatility to play on running and passing downs as well, and I’d expect Dean to play well over 70 percent of the snaps and White maybe 65 to 70 percent, with Edwards having a reduced but significant role in sub packages or when Dean or White need a break.

With Rodney McLeod and Steven Nelson both gone, the secondary still needs some work, but a significantly upgraded front 7 should make life a lot easier for the defensive backs by making life a lot harder for quarterbacks. We’ll see.

This is a different defense than 2021. Seven of the 17 Eagles who played at least 275 snaps last year are gone and another will should have lesser roles.

The Eagles brought in speed, strength, power, playmaking and versatility and they shed guys who ranged from poor to adequate.

There’s still work to do, but sitting here in May this has a chance to be an elite front. It’s going to be fun to watch and for much of last year that sure wasn’t the case.

https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/eagles/eagles-rebuilt-defensive-front-has-chance-dominate

They do have a chance to really have a dominant front but as things stand I do worry that the secondary is going to hurt them.

A running offense slows down the game, giving seemingly better defensive stats. Despite rankings, it was a middle of the road defense.

Key to a good DL is depth and the ability to rotate players.  Gave the Eagles a distinctive advantage in 2017.  It was something that AR's Eagles with Jim Johnson at the helm tried to put together, but more often than not, were unsuccessful in doing so.

A really good front 7 can help and hide some Secondary issues.

If Gannon really is interested in switching things up more and using more 34 looks (guessing he was limited in being able to do so due to not having the right front 7 players at his disposal), it only made sense to get that right this offseason. In the bigger picture, it was going to take more than a single offseason to complete the rebuild.  Next offseason should focus more on the secondary.  

8 hours ago, LacesOut said:

A really good front 7 can help and hide some Secondary issues.

Not when the d-cord is asking the DBs to play 10yds off. 

DT looks very strong. DE looks OK, maybe. LB'ers should be much, much better. Overall, we'll have to wait and see.

14 hours ago, Portyansky said:

Not when the d-cord is asking the DBs to play 10yds off. 

Yeah you have a valid point there. Ugh.

The LBs could, hopefully, be a lot better this year. 

I'm excited to see the front 7 this year, not so excited to see the back 4.  Signing Bradberry would help

Kyron Johnson will be a great special teams ace but I also see him being highly productive when it comes to 10-13 snaps to rush the oasser. I couldn’t imagine Dean Johnson and Reddick all blitz at once that would be so much speed it would be insane