Is It Time for a Defensive Scheme Change in Philadelphia?
We are inching closer to the halfway mark of the NFL season, and the Eagles sit firmly at 3-3 and a painful .500 mark. By now, nearly every football fan alive is very much aware of the defensive struggles the Birds have gone through, and how poorly the secondary has played for the entire season.
Eagles fans want a change in personnel, asking the team brass to trade for basically every capable defensive back in the league (and Von Miller). However, there might be a change coming from within that may help mend the defensive woes of the team.
Philadelphia’s defense ran by DC Jim Schwartz, operates on a base 4-3 scheme, with two outside cornerbacks and two safeties over the middle. The team plays a lot of off-man coverage, which means corners stay roughly 10 yards off the line of scrimmage and, in theory, serves to best protect them from getting burned deep. This alignment has been a staple for Schwartz’s defense for basically his entire career but, as of the last couple of seasons, has not achieved very high success rates, mainly for lack of fitting personnel for it.
Rasul Douglas doesn’t move very well for a defensive back. He’s not fast nor fluid in his movement and asking him to stick with today’s NFL receivers step by step after giving them a cushion to develop their routes is ill-advised to put it nicely. What he excels at is physicality, as an aggressive 6’2”, 205 pounds CB that can beat up receivers at the line and disrupt their routes early, providing more time for the pass-rush to get home and thus helping the entire defense function better.
Ronald Darby is not well suited to shadow the likes of Julio Jones (we saw how that panned out in Week 2) or any other big, physical receiver because he just doesn’t have the size for it at 5’11”, 193 pounds. He is, however, a tremendous athlete who can run and move with anybody in the league and should be asked to do so more often.
Jalen Mills, once he returns, is a very similar player to Douglas but, as a former college safety, with better play recognition and quickness. Thus, he tends to be more versatile and open a wider array of coverages for the coordinator to call.
As for Avonte Maddox, he’s the Swiss Army knife. The man will line up everywhere and, even though he bites on double moves more often than one would like, be very serviceable.
One thing that has changed substantially this season is the pressure scheme. Schwartz has employed way more three-safety looks to blitz with one or more of them, mainly Andrew Sendejo (who is very good at blitzing, by the way).
The Eagles are also a big nickel team, with Malcolm Jenkins serving as a sub-package LB several times over this and last seasons. The sheer amount of defensive backs in coverage often helps to disguise some of the problems in the defense, but playing too often in this alignment usually hurts the run defense which is a huge point of pride for this unit.
In short, the Eagles need to try something different in order to fix the defense. Games, where the secondary makes Kirk Cousins look like prime Peyton Manning, are just unacceptable. Changes need to be made, either coming from the inside or by bringing in someone new from another organization.
FEATURED IMAGE: Duane Burleson/Associated Press
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Categorized:Eagles