Eagles Hire Sean Desai as Defensive Coordinator

Mar 1, 2023

It took a long time – in large part due to their Super Bowl run – but the Philadelphia Eagles have found their new defensive coordinator in former Seattle Seahawks associate head coach and defensive assistant Sean Desai after previous DC Jonathan Gannon left to become the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals.

Desai has over a decade of defensive coaching experience at the NFL level, but his only season as a defensive coordinator was with the Bears in 2021. In that lone season, Chicago ranked 6th in yards allowed, including the third best pass defense. Conversely, though, they finished 24th in rushing, 22nd in points allowed, and only had 16 takeaways, which ranked in the bottom 10 of the league. This Bears defense had some household names including Khalil Mack and Roquan Smith, plus a breakout 18.5 sack season from Robert Quinn, so Desai’s results could perhaps be considered mildly disappointing. However, the Eagles defensive unit is much deeper and talented as a whole, assuming they bring back at least a portion of their key free agents on that side of the ball. Desai will have more to work with, but expectations will be high.

Interestingly, Desai worked under Vic Fangio in Chicago from 2015-2018. Fangio was unofficially working with the Eagles this past season by advising Gannon with his construction of defensive gameplans. After the Eagles won the NFC Championship, Fangio signed a two-week contract with the team so that he could be a more in-depth part of their Super Bowl gameplan. The Eagles clearly valued his input, and it can perhaps be inferred that Desai’s presumed knowledge of Fangio’s scheme made him an intriguing candidate to them.

Desai also has some prior roots in Philadelphia, as his first coaching job was as the “Defensive and Special Teams Coach” for Temple University from 2006-2010.

The Eagles faithful will be looking for a change of pace from Gannon’s often conservative approach on defense. Gannon was easily the most criticized figure of the Eagles’ organization over the past two seasons, most of which was (in my opinion) pretty overblown, but there is no doubt he could have afforded to call more man coverage and blitzes during his tenure, including the second half of the Super Bowl, which will unfortunately probably be what he is most remembered for in Philadelphia.

With the Eagles’ coaching staff now set, Howie Roseman and co. can now turn their attention towards free agency, which will largely include trying to retain as many defensive pieces as possible for Desai to deploy. 8 of their 11 defensive starters are scheduled to hit the open market, including both starting safeties and linebackers. NFL free agency begins on March 15.

Eagles Hire Sean Desai as Defensive Coordinator

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