Eagles Add a LB

Butkus. Singletary. Morrow. The names of legendary Bears linebackers just rolls off the tongue. Who will ever forget the fear that Dick Butkus put into opponents? Who will ever forget the piercing eyes of Mike Singletary as he stared at the offense like a maniacal warrior? Who will ever forget Nicholas Morrow piling up 11 tackles and a TFL against the Eagles in a game in December of 2022?

Legends, each one of them.

And now the legendary Nicholas Morrow has decided to don the midnight green of such linebacking legends as Jamar Chaney and Akeem Jordan. What a glorious time to be alive.

The Eagles lost starting LBs TJ Edwards and Kyzir White in free agency. Nakobe Dean will replace one of them and that left an opening for another staring LB. Mr. Morrow has now taken the other spot.

Joking aside, this is a solid move. The Eagles are high on Dean and want him on the field. Morrow is a cheap replacement for Edwards. When you have financial limitations, you have to find the right player at the right price. Bobby Wagner would have been a better addition, but also would have cost more. Morrow was the right price. Time will tell if he’s the right player.

Morrow started all 17 games for the Bears last year and led them in tackles. That was his first season in Chicago. He spent his first five years with the Raiders, including the 2021 season which he missed with a foot injury. Morrow started 11 games in 2020 and finished third on the team in tackles. He lacks ideal size at 6-0, 225, but he’s a good athlete. In his two years as a starter, Morrow showed potential as a playmaker.

2020 – 78 tackles – 8 TFLs – 9 PD – 1 INT – 1 FF – 1 FR
2022 – 116 tackles – 11 TFLs – 2 PD – 1 INT

Those teams were two of the worst defenses in the league. It will be interesting to see how Morrow responds to playing on a good unit. The Eagles might not finish second in Total Defense this year, but they have enough good pieces returning to be in the top half of the league.

Last year Morrow spent part of the season playing alongside Roquan Smith. Interestingly, the Bears had Morrow wear the helmet with the green dot and act as the defensive play-caller. Uusually you wouldn’t take that away from a player like Smith and give it to a new guy. Obviously the coaches had some trust in him.

“He’s cerebral. Really smart,” linebackers coach Dave Borgonzi said. “He’s played a couple different positions. He’s been in a few different systems. He’s got a really unique perspective. He’s played for six years with different coordinators, so he’s seen a lot of different schemes. Really smart. Understands football. And he’s challenging as a coach because he’ll present things that are a different way to think about it.”

It is somewhat ironic that Morrow came to Philly after the Bears signed Edwards to replace him. Chicago coach Matt Eberflus is a big believer in LBs and wanted to spend money to upgrade. He signed Edwards and Tremaine Edmunds to take over the middle of the defense. The Eagles prefer to focus on the DL so they invested resources up front and Morrow was a good fit financially. It is also worth noting that Morrow’s best game last year came against the Eagles. He had 11 tackles and played well. That obviously made some kind of an impression.

I am curious to see how the Eagles use Dean and Morrow. Dean played MLB in college, but focused on WLB last year. Morrow has mainly played OLB in the NFL. Last year he split time between WLB and MLB. With Smith, he was in the middle. After Smith was traded, Morrow moved to WLB. Morrow said he felt more comfortable at WLB, but can play both. It will be interesting to see what the Eagles do. Maybe they put Morrow in the middle because they want his speed there. We heard all last year about Edwards speed not being an issue, but maybe that is something the Eagles want in the middle. Or they could put Dean in there and let him run the defense. We’ll see.

Edwards is a player I really struggled with. There were times when he was very impressive and looked like a LB you had to keep. There were other times when he would struggle and frustrate me. He is one of the few guys who felt both underrated and overrated at the same time. Watching Morrow in his place might make me appreciate Edwards more. Or it might make us go “Eh, not that much different.”

Morrow is a band-aid move. The Eagles need a veteran at LB until they come up with a long term solution. They’ll check out draft prospects, but this isn’t a great year to need a LB. I’ve been watching prospects for the past few days. There are some good athletes who excel in space, but there aren’t nearly enough guys who look made for the inside. I’ll be writing about them in a separate post.

*****

The Eagles are getting closer to filling out their coaching staff.

The Philadelphia #Eagles are expected to hire veteran secondary coach Taver Johnson, sources tell @on3sports.

Johnson had been working at Eastern Michigan. Previously worked in the NFL with the #Raiders and for college teams like Ohio State and Purdue. https://t.co/DlIXY67ten pic.twitter.com/J5lopbVrrP

— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) March 21, 2023

Johnson has a really interesting background. He started out in D3 and worked his way to bigger schools and eventually the NFL. He’s been in the SEC, Big Ten and Notre Dame. He has seen it all.

We know Nick Sirianni loves teachers. Johnson seems to fit that mold. You don’t climb the coaching ladder the way he did without being a good teacher. When you’re down at the D3 level, it isn’t about fame or money. You love football, or “ball” as Sirianni so annoyingly likes to say. You don’t recruit your way to wins. You coach. You teach.

Johnson spent five years at D3 schools before becoming a graduate assistant at Notre Dame. He then went to Miami of Ohio for four years before he got a chance to coach in the NFL in 2004. He headed back to college football and didn’t get back to the league until 2019.

All in all, Johnson has been with nine schools and two NFL teams. He was the Defensive Pass Game Coordinator and Safeties Coach for Eastern Michigan last season. Their mascot is the Eagles so he’s got an easy transition from that perspective.

On the surface this may seem like an odd hire. Who is this guy? Is he really going to be a good DBs coach?

Sirianni seems to know what he wants in coaches. He’s not interested in making splashy hires or rushing to find the first guy that seems okay. Sirianni is picky. He wants coaches that understand his ideas on culture and know how to teach players. All coaches talk about the importance of details, but Sirianni puts actions behind those words. I remember James Bradberry picking off a pass vs the Jags this year. Sirianni praised him after the game for landing on his back so he could control the ball better. That’s a teaching point for receivers and DBs. So simple and obvious, but also brilliant. Who thinks of that? Well, guys like Sirianni.

Sirianni did a great job of building his initial staff. We’ll see if he’s able to make good replacement hires. That will be critical to the Eagles having continued success.

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