We're about to learn exactly who Gannon is

[time2rock]

We're about to learn exactly who Gannon is

 

 

 

Reuben Frank

EAGLES INSIDER

Here’s what Eagles fans saw in Jonathan Gannon: A coach who was overmatched from the jump, wasn’t aggressive enough, didn't make adjustments, saw his unit get torn apart by every good quarterback it faced and butted heads with a six-time Pro Bowl defensive lineman.

Here’s what the rest of the world saw in Jonathan Gannon: A coach who led a no-name unit without much talent to a No. 10 NFL ranking, whose unit was third-best in the league preventing big plays, who adjusted so well that his defense allowed the 11th-fewest second-half points in the league, who did such a good job learning how to deploy his personnel that after Week 8, the Eagles allowed the fourth-fewest points in the league (not including the meaningless finale against the Cowboys) and who came to a good understanding with Fletcher Cox on how he should be used.

Rare that two perspectives would differ so greatly, but Eagles fans demand defensive excellence above all else and things did not get off to a very good start last year for Gannon’s unit — or anyone else on the Eagles.

But they got better in a big way, and when you step back and take a look, the fact that this was a top-five defense over the second half of the season with Alex Singleton, Steven Nelson, Hassan Ridgeway, Ryan Kerrigan, Eric Wilson, Genard Avery and Anthony Harris all playing major roles speaks volumes about Gannon’s ability to coach effectively with less than stellar personnel.

The league noticed.

The Texans, Vikings and Broncos all interviewed Gannon for their head coaching openings — the Texans met with him twice — despite the fact that he had just one year experience as a coordinator.

They saw a young coach whose undermanned unit improved dramatically as the year went on and was one of the best in the league by the end of the year.

I’m not sure why anybody was surprised a rookie defensive coordinator without much talent had his unit torched in his first month on the job by two of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history — Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady — as well as a few others, but things got a lot better after that lousy start.

Now Gannon has tools. Nine guys who played at least 250 snaps on defense last year are gone (Singleton, Nelson, Ridgeway, Kerrigan, Wilson, Avery, Harris, Rodney McLeod, Davion Taylor). That’s a lot.

They’ve been replaced by Jordan Davis, Nakobe Dean, Haason Reddick, Kyzir White, James Bradberry, Reed Blankenship, Josh Jobe and Chauncey Gardner-Johnson.

That appears to be a mammoth talent upgrade. And their ability and versatility will give Gannon the flexibility to be far more multiple, far more creative and far more unpredictable than last year's defense. And, yes, far more aggressive.

Howie Roseman has given Gannon everything he needs to make this an elite defense.

He added star power in Reddick and Bradberry. He added intriguing rookies in Davis and Dean. He added playmakers in White and Gardner-Johnson.

He added talent on every level, and the ball is truly in Gannon’s court now. There’s no reason for this team to be second-to-last in the league in sacks, 26th in takeaways, 23rd on third down or last in completion percentage.

And they won’t be.

It’s never fair to judge anybody after one year on the job. 

The Eagles once had a defensive coordinator whose unit his first year on the job ranked 22nd in the league in points allowed, 24th in yards allowed, 28th in rushing yards allowed and 20th in sacks. And the Eagles went 5-11 and finished last in a five-team NFC East.

His name was Jim Johnson.

And he had Jeremiah Trotter, Brian Dawkins, William Thomas, Troy Vincent and Bobby Taylor on his defense.

Within a year, Johnson had the No. 4 defense in the league, the Eagles were a playoff team, and Johnson was on his way to etching his name into Eagles lore as one of the greatest coaches in franchise history.

This isn’t to compare Gannon and Johnson. The point is that it’s never fair to make any final evaluations — whether it’s Jalen Hurts, Nick Sirianni, Gannon, Brandon Graham or anybody — after one week or one month or one year.

All that said, Gannon has to produce this year.

Roseman got the goods, and Gannon has no excuses.

If this defense doesn’t dominate, if this defense doesn’t shut teams down, if this defense doesn’t harass quarterbacks and create turnovers and make big plays, then Gannon absolutely needs to go.

I’m guessing he will go. Right to a head coaching job.

https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/eagles/were-about-learn-who-eagles-defensive-coordinator-jonathan-gannon

[weko]

Detroit is a big physical team good Oline. They will try to run it down our throat. Gannon needs to show he knows how to stop the run

[time2rock]

23 minutes ago, weko said:

Detroit is a big physical team good Oline. They will try to run it down our throat. Gannon needs to show he knows how to stop the run

... and the opposing QB.  Tired of watching every decent QB completing 80% of his passes and making bottom level QBs look like top 15 players.  

[CouchKing]

25 minutes ago, weko said:

Detroit is a big physical team good Oline. They will try to run it down our throat. Gannon needs to show he knows how to stop the run

I wanna see Gannon on the field, playing middle linebacker, calling the D, and making tackles.

[Portyansky]

51 minutes ago, time2rock said:

... and the opposing QB.  Tired of watching every decent QB completing 80% of his passes and making bottom level QBs look like top 15 players.  

Exactly. So worried about the deep pass that he was letting teams dink and dunk all over us. There has to be a proper balance. I hope with all this added talent especially to the secondary our guys won't be giving up so much cushion. With that said, our dline needs to be better as well.

[Rob331]

I don't think any city in th eleague obsesses over it's defensive coordinator as much as Eagles fans. It's not the coordinator, it's not the scheme, IT'S THE PLAYERS making plays. 

Does ayone really believe the completion percentage would have been nearly as high if we had a decent pass rush. 

Roob did a good job of pointing out that the perception of the Eagles defense and the actual results are quite different, and that Gannon did a very nice job with the assets he had. 

Other cities would be thrilled to have a top 10 scoring defense. 

At the end of the day I don't think it's fair to blame Eagles fans - blame the big mouth and click seeking media who act like they represent Eagles fans.

[UK_EaglesFan89]

It is a funny dynamic actually. When you look at the numbers they are pretty good. In fact they are very good. When you add in that he didn't have a lot of talent to work with it is even more impressive. 

And yet... With our own eyes we saw a defense and a scheme that didn't adapt and did the same things over and over. It is very much one of those where it didn't pass the eye test. 

[Infam]

15 hours ago, Rob331 said:

I don't think any city in th eleague obsesses over it's defensive coordinator as much as Eagles fans. It's not the coordinator, it's not the scheme, IT'S THE PLAYERS making plays. 

Does ayone really believe the completion percentage would have been nearly as high if we had a decent pass rush. 

Roob did a good job of pointing out that the perception of the Eagles defense and the actual results are quite different, and that Gannon did a very nice job with the assets he had. 

Other cities would be thrilled to have a top 10 scoring defense. 

At the end of the day I don't think it's fair to blame Eagles fans - blame the big mouth and click seeking media who act like they represent Eagles fans.

I don’t think that’s completely true.

Schwarz, despite people hating the wide 9, made our defense competitive even though he didn’t really have a secondary at all. So the DC matters. A lot.

That said maybe you are right and Gannon did deliever something. I remember Schwarz complaining that if he would Blitz more people would complain about the big plays.. Gannon pretty much went the same way.

Still it did feel like he had way too much respect playing the more successful QBs leading to ‘death by a thousand cuts.’

[Cochis_Calhoun]

16 hours ago, Rob331 said:

I don't think any city in th eleague obsesses over it's defensive coordinator as much as Eagles fans. It's not the coordinator, it's not the scheme, IT'S THE PLAYERS making plays. 

Does ayone really believe the completion percentage would have been nearly as high if we had a decent pass rush. 

Roob did a good job of pointing out that the perception of the Eagles defense and the actual results are quite different, and that Gannon did a very nice job with the assets he had. 

Other cities would be thrilled to have a top 10 scoring defense. 

At the end of the day I don't think it's fair to blame Eagles fans - blame the big mouth and click seeking media who act like they represent Eagles fans.

You only have to look at how McDermott and Bowles were canned here after short stints in Philly and both went on to be among the best DC's in the league before taking Head Coaching jobs.

[Iggles_Phan]

21 hours ago, time2rock said:

They’ve been replaced by Jordan Davis, Nakobe Dean, Haason Reddick, Kyzir White, James Bradberry, Reed Blankenship, Josh Jobe and Chauncey Gardner-Johnson.

That appears to be a mammoth talent upgrade.

Rueb knows that in his list of huge talent upgrades, he included two rookie UDFAs, right?  

I know he's Mr. Positivity, but come on.   Did he have to include as many names as he could find?  Blankenship and Jobe aren't headliners, nor are they guys that should move the needle for anyone's opinion.   And it almost seems like this particular column was written a long time ago, and he just inserted CGJ at the end.  CGJ should be listed before the UDFAs, who shouldn't have even been mentioned.   And the top headliners are also rookies.  Yes, they won the NC last year, and yes, they look like they belong, Davis more so than Dean.  But, they've accomplished exactly ZERO in the NFL thus far.  Let's pump the brakes a little bit.

 

I am looking forward to an improved defense, but this fluff piece is a little over the top.  We'll see soon enough just how improved they are.  Personally, I expect to see Blankenship and Jobe either deactivated most games or just on ST.

[PoconoDon]

If Gannon keeps playing it safe, nothing much will change. As @Iggles_Phan pointed out, they drafted two rookies with good upside but it's not like they signed Reggie White and Lawrence Taylor in their prime. Of course we'd all love that kind of impact, but rookie impact, even with terrific ones, isn't usually game changing. Gannon may not have the confidence in the players to become more aggressive calling his defense. Time will tell.