Posted June 20th, 2023 | 3 Comments »Buddy Ryan built a phenomenal defensive line when he took over the Eagles in 1986. They continued to have success on the DL after Ryan’s departure. The Eagles tried to build the OL to match that and just couldn’t get it right. Andy Reid changed that when he arrived in 1999. He made the line of scrimmage a priority and the Eagles were able to become good on both sides of the ball.
Big Red has been gone for a decade, but his philosophy never left. The Eagles continue to focus on the trenches and that has paid off.
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So how do you end up with the best OL and DL in the league?
There are multiple reasons. First, you spend the resources needed to find key players. Lane Johnson was a Top 5 pick. Landon Dickerson was an early second round pick. Cam Jurgens was a second round pick. Tyler Steen was a third round pick. Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham, Jordan Davis, Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith were all first round picks. You have to draft linemen early and often to build deep, talented lines.
Money. Whether paying your guys or free agents, good linemen don’t come cheap. The Eagles have spent a ton of money on the lines. Jordan Mailata, Jason Kelce and Johnson all make big money. Haason Reddick, Josh Sweat, Cox and Graham all make good money.
Good scouting is critical. The Eagles spent resources on the OL in the early 90’s.
1991Â
Pick #8 – OT Antone Davis
Pick #75 – OG Rob Selby
1993
Pick #19 – OG Leonard Holmes
1994
Pick #14 – OT Bernard Williams
Pick #77 – OG Joe Panos
Those players all had talent, but they weren’t ideal picks. Williams is the most frustrating. He was a gifted LT, but was also a pothead. He was suspended for the 1995 season for marijuana and never came back to the NFL. He chose weed over football. That’s the kind of detail you need your scouts to find out before the draft. Watching game tape is only part of the equation. You’ve got to figure out who has the right habits and is willing to do what it takes to succeed.
Coaching is huge as well. Those guys listed above all had legit talent. The Eagles didn’t develop them very well. Juan Castillo did some good things with the Eagles OL in the Reid era, but Jeff Stoutland has proven to be a great OL coach. He’s been able to coach high picks, but also to have success with mid-rounders and even late round players. Stoutland does an excellent job of developing players.
The DL is getting good coaching as well. Tracy Rocker works with the big guys and Jeremiah Washburn works with the edge rushers. Rocker has gotten good play from Cox. Javon Hargrave had a career year for him last season. Milton Williams has developed well. The big test will be to see how Davis and Carter do this year. Rocker certainly has good talent to work with. Washburn got career years from Sweat and Reddick last season. He got a career-high in sacks from BG and now gets to work with future HOF’er Nolan Smith (too soon?).
I think another key to the success is being patient with players. The Eagles gave Mailata time to develop. He was drafted in 2018 and didn’t play in his first game until 2020. That’s real patience. The Eagles gave Sweat time as well. He barely played as a rookie and then became a situational rusher the next year. He started three games in 2020 before becoming a full-time starter in 2021. Think about Marlon Tuipulotu. He really struggled as a rookie in the preseason. The Eagles kept him on the roster and he became a role player last year before getting hurt. Not all coaching staffs and front offices are that patient.
The Eagles talk about how much they believe in focusing on the line of scrimmage. They back up those words with actions and the results have been great. They’ve got plenty of young talent on both lines so the line play could continue to be a strength for a while.
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If you want more OL talk…
Did Jimmy blame most of the sacks on Jalen Hurts, saying he’s not a very good QB and is holding the team back? You’ll have to read the article to find out.
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Posted June 19th, 2023 | 8 Comments »Nick Sirianni has done a great job in his two years as the Eagles head coach. He’s built a strong culture that has helped the team succeed. Sirianni and his staff are great teachers, focusing on small details that can help players perform at their best. The staff has done a good job with resting players to keep them healthy and fresh.
Sirianni and the staff have also done a great job with X’s and O’s.
Chip Kelly brought RPOs to Philly back in 2013 and they’ve been part of the offense ever since. Sirianni and the offensive coaches have figured out ways to maximize RPOs with Jalen Hurts.
In 2022, Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles might have been the most prolific purveyor of the RPO — he completed 61 of 84 RPO attempts for 512 yards, 106 air yards, five touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 113.6. As the Eagles are adept at adding everything from motion to screen stuff to pull off their RPO stuff, defenses are constantly in a bind.
The RPO is a basic concept, but there are no end to the variations you can come up with. That makes it tough on defenses. They study previous games and focus on tendencies. That’s when the Eagles are so dangerous. They mix in something new and it leaves the defense completely confused. Fred Warner is the best off-ball LB in the league. There were plays in the NFC title game where he didn’t know what to do.
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Then you see something like this. So simple, so tough.
Shane Steichen is gone and he certainly was important, but Sirianni, Brian Johnson and Kevin Patullo will keep coming up with ideas that should continue to challenge defenses. And don’t overlook how important Jeff Stoutland is to all of this. He was involved in RPOs with Chip Kelly, Doug Pederson/Frank Reich and the current staff. He’s seen it all.
Think about the way the Eagles used the QB sneak last year. That went from being a good situational play to a key part of the offense. The coaches had the freedom on third down, knowing if they ended up in 4th and 1 the team had a great chance to convert that. The Eagles started using the “tush push” and then came up with some fakes off that so defenses had to be careful at loading up the middle.
Sirianni might be an offensive coach, but he knew what he wanted on defense. He wanted a scheme that focused on takeaways and limiting explosive plays. That meant a lot of 2-high safeties. That was smart.
Andy Reid brought Jim Johnson to Philly because he like the idea of zone blitzes as a way to confuse QBs and get pressure without taking too many chances. Reid knew what he didn’t want to face. Sirianni probably feels the same way about 2-high safety looks. There are certainly ways to beat it, but you take away a lot of big plays and force the offense to move the ball methodically.
The Eagles pass defense was outstanding in 2022. They led the NFC in lowest passer rating allowed. They tied for 4th in the league in INTs. They led the league in sacks and allowed the fewest passing yards in the NFL. That’s kinda crazy when you consider they played with a lead most of the season. Teams should have been racking up yards while trying to make comebacks.
Jonathan Gannon brought the idea of 5-man fronts and it worked great last season.
Bear front concepts go back decades, but the general idea is the same — you are testing the opposing offensive line with five-man fronts in which there’s a nose tackle, two ends, and two “endbackers” who are quicker edge defenders. The ends in these fronts force single-team opportunities by occupying the outside shoulders of the offensive guards, while the nose tackle takes the center either head-over or in a shade alignment. We’ve seen a return to more of these fronts in recent years.
You need to separate the five-man front from a four-man front with a blitzing defender, which we have done. In 2022, there were 651 defensive snaps in the NFL in which there were five defensive lineman and no blitz. There were 403 such snaps in 2016. Last season, there were 541 in which the defense wasn’t trying to protect in the red zone. In 2016, there were 241.
The Eagles, Bengals, and Raiders were at the top of the list when it came to these fronts, and the Eagles were particularly devastating with it.
The Eagles pass rush wasn’t nearly as good in 2021. They didn’t have the personnel to make it work as well. Having Linval Joseph/Jordan Davis at NT and Haason Reddick at OLB made all the difference in the world.
Sean Desai has run 5-man fronts and will likely keep that part of Gannon’s scheme. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it…so to speak.
The Eagles pass rush had a ton of success with 4-man rushes.
Last season, per Sports Info Solutions, no team had more solo sacks (49) and combined sacks (56) with four pass-rushers than the Philadelphia Eagles. The defending NFC champs also ranked sixth in four-man quarterback hurries with 129, third in quarterback hits with 124, and third in total four-man pressures with 238, behind only the Dallas Cowboys and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Rushing four and getting pressure is huge. It allows you to drop seven players into coverage, making things that much harder on the QB. You can rush four and have success if you have good players, which the Eagles did.
Gannon also mixed in stunts effectively. He didn’t do a lot of this so offenses wouldn’t focus on it. When the Eagles did stunt, they had good success.
Desai is right when he points out that scheme can be overrated in regard to coaches. There is no perfect scheme that magically makes everyone better. But good schematic ideas and adjustments can make a tremendous difference, especially when you have the right players.
Howie Roseman has built a loaded roster and Nick Sirianni and his staff know how to get the most out of these players. That’s a big reason the Eagles will be favored to repeat as NFC champs.
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