Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

More Coaching News

Posted January 22nd, 2024 | 2 Comments »

The Eagles haven’t hired anyone, but we are starting to get a clearer idea of what could be happening in the coming days or weeks. Let’s start with the biggest item.

Gunn is still pretty plugged in when it comes to the Eagles. If he’s hearing this, that must be the direction the Eagles are heading in.

I thought keeping Johnson might make sense, but it probably wouldn’t help him. If there is a new play-caller and the offense looks better, Johnson isn’t getting any credit for that. If he goes to a new team and does well he gets the credit or blame based on how they perform. High risk, high reward situation.

This frees up the Eagles to bring in a new offensive coordinator and let them call plays. They’ll have to balance their ideas with Nick Sirianni’s existing playbook. I have to stress that I don’t think the Eagles need to scrap that. They need to build on it. That’s why outside ideas can be so valuable.

I’m interested in Kellen Moore of the Chargers (formerly Cowboys OC). Unfortunately the Chargers just blocked him from interviewing with the Bears. LA still considers him a candidate to be the head coach (he already interviewed). Eric Bieniemy makes a lot of sense to me. Arthur Smith is fascinating, but I’m not sure he’s got the answers needed to fix the passing game.

We are starting to hear some leaked names for the open defensive coordinator position.

That is an interesting pair of names.

Jim Johnson was the Eagles DC from 1999-2008. His LBs coach from 1999-2003 was Ron Rivera. One of the LBs was Mike Caldwell, from 1999-2001. Nick Sirianni has no ties to Andy Reid, but this would make some sense.

Sirianni needs a veteran DC. He needs someone who can run that side of the ball. Rivera has 6 years of DC experience and was a head coach for 13 seasons. He certainly knows how to run a defense and handle his side of things.

Rivera has struggled with consistency, but has gotten excellent results in each stop. He was part of Top 5 defenses in PHI, CHI, SD, CAR and WAS. That’s pretty impressive. In that sense, he might remind you of Jim Schwartz. When he had the right players, his scheme thrived. When there were personnel issues, the defense was up and down.

Caldwell was the ILBs coach when Tampa won the Super Bowl in 2020 and when they beat the Eagles in the wild card round in 2021. He then became the DC for the Jaguars for the next two seasons. They had mediocre defenses both year, but finished Top 8 in takeaways both times. I’m sure that caught Sirianni’s attention.

I like the fact that Sirianni is looking at different types of coaches. Rivera’s background is mainly 4-3. He’s always been good with LBs. Caldwell has 3-4 and 4-3 experience and understands blitzing. Sirianni isn’t just focused on the next person in the Fangio style. The Eagles could take a look at Brandon Staley, but they aren’t focused on that style. Focus on the coach more than the scheme.

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This should be interesting.

Keep your expectations reasonable. You aren’t going to get the hard-hitting answers you might want. Remember that Sirianni will always take the blame publicly. He’ll say something about doing what is in the best interests of the team, but he’s not going to start ripping Sean Desai or Brian Johnson. Nor should he. There’s just nothing to gain from that.

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Jason Kelce continues to be awesome.

https://twitter.com/JeffSkversky/status/1749562007315964227

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The First Domino

Posted January 21st, 2024 | 1 Comment »

Let the firings begin.

This one isn’t a firing, but still…

Neither of those is a shocker.

Desai seems like a good guy so I’m sorry for how all of this turned out. At the same time, coaches are hired to be fired. That’s the nature of the business. Hopefully he’ll learn from this situation and do a better job when he gets another chance, if he gets another chance.

Patricia has failed in his past few jobs so I’m not sure what his future is. He better hope Bill Belichick gets a job and wants to bring him along.

We haven’t heard anything about the offense yet. They might not fire Brian Johnson, but rather add an outside coach and change up duties. The offense failed at the end, but was successful for much of the year. You don’t need to wipe the slate clean and rebuild that side of the ball. It is also possible that the relationship between Johnson and Jalen Hurts complicates things. They have been friends for year. The Eagles might fear that firing Johnson would have a negative effect on Hurts. We’ll see.

The defense needed a complete overhaul.

Martindale would seem to be opposite of what Sirianni wants because of all the risk-taking he does. Still, the Giants did lead the NFL in takeaways and didn’t exactly have great talent so Martindale is worth checking out.

Nielsen did a lot of good things in his one year with Atlanta. He had been with the Saints prior to that so he’s been part of some good defenses.

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Congrats to the Lions on making the NFC title game.

More than a few people tweeted that the Eagles should have kept CJGJ.

They tried to. Howie made him an offer. CJGJ was looking for a huge deal. He turned the Eagles down and then was shocked when the rest of the league showed minimal interest. Finally Detroit offered him a deal and he took it.

The league knows CJGJ is really talented. He also has an awkward reputation and teams were scared to give him big money. We’ll see how free agency goes this offseason.

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Jason Kelce went to the KC-BUF game to support his brother. I’d say he had a good time.

https://twitter.com/PHLEaglesNation/status/1749234763615850710

I hate that the Eagles are out, but I love that Kelce is able to go have a good time. He is good for football as a sport and as a business. He seems less like a Hall of Fame player and more like your cool cousin.

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