10 hours ago, time2rock said:

Add Seahawks Associate HC Sean Desai to the list of external candidates that we are requesting to interview for the open DC spot.

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2023/02/17/report-eagles-request-interview-with-sean-desai/

I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the route Howie takes. I remember seeing an interview with Howie on how all of the big head coaching names were gone when Doug was fired so he decided to look at who would be part of the next wave of head coaches for the following year and Siri kept coming up. Desai is a guy who will be a hot name next year so maybe Howie takes a shot at him this year.

12 hours ago, EazyEaglez said:

Why doesn’t it make sense?  

This ... for starters. 

  

2 hours ago, time2rock said:

This ... for starters. 

  

His results led to a mostly middle of the pack defense also. Of course there could be a lot of factors in that, but let’s see what happens if he gets the job which certainly isn’t a guarantee. 

8 minutes ago, EazyEaglez said:

His results led to a mostly middle of the pack defense also. Of course there could be a lot of factors in that, but let’s see what happens if he gets the job which certainly isn’t a guarantee. 

Agreed on the last part.  Either they’re just doing their due diligence, satisfying a Rooney Rule, willing to change their defensive philosophy/scheme, or there is pressure from above to do the latter after watching a perfect opportunity to add another trophy get pissed away by a certain level of incompetence by the former DC to make the necessary adjustments needed in the 2nd half.

3 hours ago, time2rock said:

This ... for starters. 

  

Our best defenses were with DC’s who blitzed a lot. Think Buddy Ryan and Jimmy Johnson. 

The two coordinators who never blitzed, Schwartz and Gannon, everyone hated. 

I’m ready for a change in philosophy. 

29 minutes ago, Road to Victory said:

Our best defenses were with DC’s who blitzed a lot. Think Buddy Ryan and Jimmy Johnson. 

The two coordinators who never blitzed, Schwartz and Gannon, everyone hated. 

I’m ready for a change in philosophy. 

Jimmy and Buddy were a different era of NFL. If you go look at the defenses that give up the fewest points, they’re all in the bottom half of the league in blitz percent. Conversely, none of the top 5 blitz percent teams even cracked the top 10 in points allowed. 
 

Heavy blitzing defenses do not work in today’s NFL. 

1 hour ago, nipples said:

Jimmy and Buddy were a different era of NFL. If you go look at the defenses that give up the fewest points, they’re all in the bottom half of the league in blitz percent. Conversely, none of the top 5 blitz percent teams even cracked the top 10 in points allowed. 
 

Heavy blitzing defenses do not work in today’s NFL. 

Good point but I think the blitz is still effective when it’s used in certain spots and against certain QB’s. Schwartz and Gannon hardly ever blitz. I mean if you throw a ton of blitzes at Mahomes he’ll destroy you but you can’t just let him sit back and pick you apart all game. 

2 hours ago, Road to Victory said:

Our best defenses were with DC’s who blitzed a lot. Think Buddy Ryan and Jimmy Johnson. 

The two coordinators who never blitzed, Schwartz and Gannon, everyone hated. 

I’m ready for a change in philosophy. 

How can we truly say this when neither of those defenses won a Super Bowl? Heck Bud Carson got more out of Buddy’s defense than Buddy ever did. Buddy never even won a playoff game, but the biggest difference is the league has changed a lot since that era. Teams are passing 70-80% of the time now. There were far more run first concepts back in that era than now. Even during the JJ era the Eagles were one of the few teams that passed as often as they did. If the Eagles decided to go with a more blitz heave package then they better bring in the right personnel to get that done. They also better have the coach that understands the talent on the roster. Overall though I’m having a hard time buying into this idea that they will suddenly become a more blitz oriented team. Gannon actually blitzed more year two than one. He should’ve tried more in that super bowl. He never went after Mahomes and he picked him apart. There’s a happy medium, but I don’t think the guys they’re interviewing are quite that medium. 

7 minutes ago, EazyEaglez said:

How can we truly say this when neither of those defenses won a Super Bowl? Heck Bud Carson got more out of Buddy’s defense than Buddy ever did. Buddy never even won a playoff game, but the biggest difference is the league has changed a lot since that era. Teams are passing 70-80% of the time now. There were far more run first concepts back in that era than now. Even during the JJ era the Eagles were one of the few teams that passed as often as they did. If the Eagles decided to go with a more blitz heave package then they better bring in the right personnel to get that done. They also better have the coach that understands the talent on the roster. Overall though I’m having a hard time buying into this idea that they will suddenly become a more blitz oriented team. Gannon actually blitzed more year two than one. He should’ve tried more in that super bowl. He never went after Mahomes and he picked him apart. There’s a happy medium, but I don’t think the guys they’re interviewing are quite that medium. 

The reason Buddy never made it to a SB wasn’t because of the defense it was because of the offense. 

And let’s face it we didn’t beat the Patriots because of our defense. Brady lit our defense up for a Super Bowl record. 

Although I agree, we need a happy medium. Gannon and Schwartz were too passive. 

43 minutes ago, Road to Victory said:

Good point but I think the blitz is still effective when it’s used in certain spots and against certain QB’s. Schwartz and Gannon hardly ever blitz. I mean if you throw a ton of blitzes at Mahomes he’ll destroy you but you can’t just let him sit back and pick you apart all game. 

Believe it or not Gannon was pretty much middle of the pack this year in blitz percent. If I remember right the Eagles ranked around 17th in blitz %.
 

Top 5 blitzing defenses were: Arizona, NYG, Denver, Miami, Green Bay. Only one to crack the top 15 even in points was Denver.  If you expand it and look at the top 10 blitzing defense you can add: Pitt, LAC, Carolina, Tampa, and Detroit. Only Pittsburgh was top 10 in points and they were right at #10.
 

So basically, if the top 10 blitzing defenses, only one of them was top 10 in points allowed.   

 

14 minutes ago, nipples said:

Believe it or not Gannon was pretty much middle of the pack this year in blitz percent. If I remember right the Eagles ranked around 17th in blitz %.
 

Top 5 blitzing defenses were: Arizona, NYG, Denver, Miami, Green Bay. Only one to crack the top 15 even in points was Denver.  If you expand it and look at the top 10 blitzing defense you can add: Pitt, LAC, Carolina, Tampa, and Detroit. Only Pittsburgh was top 10 in points and they were right at #10.
 

So basically, if the top 10 blitzing defenses, only one of them was top 10 in points allowed.   

 

Not a ton of talent on most of those defenses. 

I don't even care about more blitzing ... can we just see more Man 2 Man "Press Coverage" against the better QB's? To me the problem against the QB's isn't really the amount of times we blitz them, it's the amount of times we played our Corners 5 to 8 yards off the LOS. The good QB's will take that cushion all day long and it you happen to miss a tackle or take a bad angle ... you are going to give up big plays. They may not be over the top big plays like Gannon was trying to avoid, but a big play is a big play no matter if it's over the TOP or as a result of YAC on an 8 yard completion! Yes, Gannon's off-coverage works against bad to mediocre QB's ... but in most instances those types of QB's are not playing in Championship Games or in Super Bowls. 

what made JJ so great was not the fact that he blitzed a lot, but that he was a mastermind at disguising blitzes..so the opposition didn't know it was coming until the QB was flat on his back....IMO many times when Gannon blitzed, he telegraphed it and when the offense knows it's coming, they too can adjust on the fly and neutralize it...

 

Either Gannon picked Rallis over Dennard Wilson or the Eagles are hiring Wilson as DC

1 hour ago, pgcd3 said:

 

Seems like a mistake for Gannon.  I'd think he'd be better off with an older coordinator.  For sure whoever runs the offense should have some gray hairs.

5 minutes ago, Procus said:

Seems like a mistake for Gannon.  I'd think he'd be better off with an older coordinator.  For sure whoever runs the offense should have some gray hairs.

I think the Gannon head coach experience will be a train wreck

Hopefully the next DC knows this should never happen. 

 

 

18 minutes ago, NOTW said:

Hopefully the next DC knows this should never happen. 

 

 

Gannon hiring Eagles LB coach as Cardinals defensive coordinator

 

Nick Sirianni’s coaching staff lost one of its highly regarded young defensive assistants Saturday when new Arizona Cards head coach Jonathan Gannon hired Eagles linebacker coach Nick Rallis as his defensive coordinator.

The news was first reported Saturday evening by NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, who tweeted that "multiple teams tried to lure” Rallis Saturday before he decided to accept Gannon’s offer to join his Cards staff.

The 29-year-old Rallis, who was playing college football six years ago, becomes the youngest coordinator in the NFL.

The Cards haven’t had a top-10 defense since 2015. They ranked 31st this past year in points allowed and 21st in yards allowed. Their outgoing defensive coordinator, Vance Joseph, is expected to interview for the Eagle’ defensive coordinator job according to multiple reports.

Rallis played football at Minnesota and immediately embarked on a coaching career after college, starting out as a quality control coach at Wake Forest under Dave Clawson before joining Mike Zimmer’s staff in 2018 as a defensive quality control coach, where he first worked with Gannon.

After two years doing quality control, Rallis was promoted in 2020 by head coach Mike Zimmer to assistant linebackers coach.

When Nick Sirianni hired Gannon as his initial defensive coordinator in 2021, Gannon brought in Rallis. Even though they didn’t overlap with the Vikings, both had coached under Mike Zimmer in Minnesota.

So Sirianni, who kept his coaching staff intact from 2021 through 2022, has now lost both coordinators and a highly regarded defensive assistant from the Super Bowl staff.

The Eagles didn’t have an assistant linebackers coach this year. Jeremiah Washburn coached the overhang players – pass-rushing outside linebackers and defensive ends.

One possible replacement for Rallis is Tyler Scudder, who served this past year as a defensive assistant after spending 2021 as a coaching assistant.  Scudder, a native of Gettysburg, coached linebackers at Indiana University of Pennsylvania from 2010 through 2012 and at Duquesne from 2014 through 2017. 

He was at Iowa State from 2018 through 2020 as a senior defensive quality control coach under Matt Campbell, Sirianni’s college teammate at Mount Union. The quarterback of those Iowa State teams was Brock Purdy.

With Gannon and Rallis gone, the top remaining defensive assistants are secondary coach Dennard Wilson, defensive line coach Tracy Rocker and Washburn. Others are assistant DBs coach D.J. McDonald, defensive quality control Joe Kasper and Scudder. 

The only offensive coach Sirianni has lost so far is offensive coordinator Shane Steichen, who is now head coach of the Colts.

https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/eagles/jonathan-gannon-cardinals-hiring-eagles-lb-coach-nick-rallis-defensive-coordinator-report

On 2/18/2023 at 6:24 AM, time2rock said:

This ... for starters. 

  

Flat f’n "NO” to Vance Joseph as defensive coordinator.  His coaching record shows defenses that invariably get worse once he gets his hands on them.

Get an experienced guy who actually has a track record of improving defenses.  Saying that, I think it comes down to Dennard Wilson or Sean Desai at this point.  Desai’s career path is similar to Sirianni, although more gradual.

They have a big offseason ahead. Lots of free agents to replace, Hurts contract, replace both coordinators & LB coach, draft replacements for leaving free agents and prepare for one of the league's toughest schedules next season. 

1 hour ago, Alphagrand said:

Flat f’n "NO” to Vance Joseph as defensive coordinator.  His coaching record shows defenses that invariably get worse once he gets his hands on them.

Get an experienced guy who actually has a track record of improving defenses.  Saying that, I think it comes down to Dennard Wilson or Sean Desai at this point.  Desai’s career path is similar to Sirianni, although more gradual.

Not every Jim Johnson defense ranked well before he got here.  So much goes into that. It's really hard to say with coaches. Usually if they are well respected through the league it's meaningful.

I would be perfectly ok with losing every coach on this staff…….if the Eagles has won the SB. 

Gannon's running that Defense in Arizona ... their DC will be DC only in name. Kind of like Bienemy was OC in KC where Reid was running the show, more of an assistant.