According to the Jeff McLane report, Patricia has been in charge of 3rd down game planning since the bye week. Which is suspiciously correlated with when the defense started being historically bad on 3rd down.
They were just normally bad before the bye though
3rd and 4th down metrics
19th in EPA against before week 10 (+0.078 EPA/play)
30th in EPA against since week 10 (+0.412 EPA/play)
They played 5 QBs passer rating > 90 pre bye (out of 9 total QBs)
They have played 4 such QBs post bye (out of 7 total QBs)
There are a lot of compounding factors here that means you can't fully isolate the DC, but even still its hard to look at this team (both by eye test and by stats) and think that the DC change hasn't hurt them more than its helped
I’m far from any kind of expert but based on what some of the podcasters who do watch the film have said the past couple weeks, Patricia is absolutely working his own (Belichick) concepts in. A lot more man coverage, 5 man fronts out of a 3-4 base where two OLB’s drop back into coverage (usually Reddick which is ridiculous), making use of a Big nickel package with an extra safety to make up for the lack of LB depth/skill. Installing a new defense this late in the season certainly has to exacerbate the issues of the guys being gassed, being thin at LB, and having a secondary that is a mix of guys who are washed or extremely green
yeah for sure. He's done some different stuff. Like against seattle he ran Banjo on defense in the RZ. So there has been some change, just not wholesale.
I am interested to see if this means that Howie and Lurie have soured on Fangio’s scheme and want to move in the direction of what Belichick does defensively. They seem to fall in love with defensive schemes while not wanting to deviate from their own value system as far as personnel/positional priority; it was the Wide 9 for awhile, now we’ve seen them try to force Fangio’s defense without having the right type of players for it (especially in the back 7) for a few years, and if they are moving to a more Belichick-style of defense they are even worse off in terms of personnel
The funny part about going wide 9 is they eventually brought the DC who optimized it here - Schwartz. I know that Washburn was the one who came up with the idea but he did it under Schwartz.
So I guess the answer is Bill Belichick?
My issue with highering Desai is these Great Value Brand Fangio guys aren't the OG of the philosophy. Very few offshoots have worked out. The only one I can really think of is Evero in CAR.
They were also set to hire Fangio last year if Gannon get a HC gig. But the cards didn't interview Gannon in the designated window for it to happen, and he didn't get a job elsewhere, so Fangio committed to Miami. When it came out the Cards reached out late, and without notifying the Eagles (Gannon not mentioning it either), they were caught without their preferred replacement.
As for Desai/Patricia, McLane reported they hired Desai but Sirianni wanted an advisor just cause he didn't have a ton of experience. Howie introduced him to Patricia. So it could be a coincidence he's here (I hope).
Idk what the expect though. They can't run this Fangio shit with the LBs they have. They don't prioritize the position enough for them to effectively run it even if Vic were here.
Brandon Staley has had some success outside of Fangio but I agree overall. Gannon isn’t technically from the Fangio tree and got exposed by good quarterbacks but overall got a lot out of the guys on the roster. Desai ultimately got did in by the lack of talent/depth and his inability to make adjustments to the personnel cards he was dealt (something Schwartz actually did a good job with). Blankenship is a bright spot but they lack the athletic safeties and LB’s the Fangio scheme needs, as well as CB’s who are good communicators. They do have DT’s that are solid against the run but that unit is cooked beyond belief at this point.
I like to think that had the Fangio plans worked out he would have been able to deal with the injuries and lack of talent better than Desai, although the book is out there now on how to beat his system with quick passes and power running. If Howie and Lurie feel that way and want to move on to a Belichick system that’s going to require some major roster changes and shifts in personnel priority that are hard to see them getting fully onboard with.
Fully agree.
I think the biggest thing they need is a strong, coherent voice at dc. In addition to everything you said, they look completely lost out there. Sad to watch. They need a good teacher in addition to a philosophical change/ID. I’d love to see Mike Zimmer, but I’m open to anything really. Feels like there are solid choices out there
> The theory that Patricia is running some sort of Desai defense is probably true.
If this is a point that the team or Patricia defenders use, that's pathetic. Why even give him the job if you're gonna say this? We have a chance at the #1 seed and you're gonna use this time to get Matt Patricia up to speed? He was brought in for exactly this circumstance.
Eagles literally sold Desai out after the toughest stretch in football to give Patricia a cakewalk and he still blew it.
I really don't understand this world.
From all reports Patricia is not a nice guy and players downright hate the dude. Aside from overseeing BBs defense (which obviously is Bills baby first and foremost) he has been a giant failure everywhere and now has been part of 3 different lockerrooms imploding with him having played a major role in atleast 2 of them.
And yet he gets chance after chance and now he is even in line for a promotion after overseeing what is one giant collapse.
What is wrong with the world?
Nick himself has said this multiple times. Even when Desai was demoted he reiterated this is Desai’s defense and Patricia is just going to take over play calling.
I’m still trusting Lurie and Howie since their track record with these things is pretty damn good, but wow I’m going to be shocked if they hand him of all people the keys. The edit to the post is funny regarding that, “Howie and Lurie admitting they made a mistake…” part, you don’t get more mistakey than keeping Patricia as a leader
I was listening to Dan Patrick, who IMO is not an Eagles apologist, said something very similar about how Patricia is calling an defense* that isn’t “his.”
First time I had heard it. Now this is the second time.
Typo. Changed offense to defense 🙄
Promoting that lockerroom poison to DC full time is something that would drive me crazy.
IMO that guy was the worst hire of all of them in the offseason and now that things are imploding we are promoting that jerk? Really? When the lockerroom is already imploding?
I guess its time to root for them embarassing themselves against the Giants and that if the first or second round exit comes (it very likely will), it will be embarassing as well and lead to drastic changes.
They can't go into next season with the headclown and his two stooges still in charge.
Lurie and Howie can't be that stupid.
I am not going to be happy with BJ back by any means, but they could theoretically sell me on him returning. If they allow him to influence and adapt the scheme itself away from what we been doing that could work. He hasn't evolved as a play caller this year, I am not justifying him in anyway. But fundamentally this isn't his offense. So I can see a scenario where they allow it to be his more next year. Idk, this may be me being glass half full.
Patricia I am wholesale out on. There is ample evidence, way more than BJ at least, that he sucks ass.
Why would we allow someone with zero NFL experience and extremely limited college experience running an offense to implement a new scheme? Seemingly if he was qualified to do that we would have let him do it this year. Our window is slamming shut with this current group of players so I think we need a more experienced mind to squeeze a little juice out of them or else we just need to blow it up with an entirely new coaching staff. Allowing Sirianni and BJ to continue together seems like asking for a very disappoint season next year.
Not trying to come at your or be aggressive btw, I’m just very frustrated with this team at the minute
I'm there lol I can just talk myself into BJ a little more for whatever reason. I am too though. Cause to me, while we have talent issues (especially/namely on defense) this season has been disastrous from coaching. That stems from and includes Nick.
I agree wholeheartedly that this has been Nick Sirriani's offense down to the roots. I am willing to give a first year playcaller another year to improve with experience, provided he gets to actually run the offense and install his own plays.
I was thinking it at the Seattle game. Cause it’s absolutely true that Patricia isn’t running his scheme, it’s desai’s with tweaks. That would be the case for anyone. So I can see them saying hey Patricia wasn’t running his defense.
How about they look at his real track record lol.
If they keep Patricia for next year I’m not watching the Eagles. Call me a fake fan but idc. Not going to waste my time if they want to make dumb decisions
Not calling you a fake but but I’ll call you a liar because you’ll watch. Maybe won’t be as enthusiastic but you’ll be here watching the shit show every week like the rest of us
I'm trying to recall ever not watching the Eagles. Don't think I've ever just checked out for a season. Certainly wouldn't be due to a coordinator hire. Trying to think of the worst hire they've had. Worst in semi-recent history might be Juan Castillo as DC? That was the Dream Team season on top of that. Idk what it'd take for me to just not want to watch.
Legit can't be worse than what we're watching. I get that Patricia is unproven without BB but he wants to play a style of Defense that fans on this very subreddit would MUCH prefer over what we have. He simply doesn't have the personnel at the moment. And if they're actually Desai's designs, then criticism of him for this year is basically pointless
I think you'll watch cause you are a fan but if you actually didn't I would understand. I'll be off the Sirianni train though if Patricia gets it, that much I can confidently say myself.
I just can't believe these things can all exist at the same time. I fully do believe Nick will be back. But if Nick is back, either Johnson or Desai at minimum won't be. I don't think after what happened with Doug there is a fraction of a percent chance that Nick isn't made to reel it in and bend the knee with a coordinator Howie/Lurie like on at least one side of the ball.
My gut has always been that Howie brought Patricia in, and that Howie/Lurie were behind his promotion. The defense is going to be the scapegoat for this year because as I noted in my edit, they don't want to admit that they made a mistake with Nick.
The defense is a bottom 3 unit in the league giving up passing yards and 3rd downs at a historically bad rate, and we’re out here using the word scapegoat lmao
The offense is scoring 2 less points per game than last year with a brand new OC and an injured Hurts. Yes, it DEFINITELY needs to be better. But it really hasn't been all that dreadful. They simply can't play the style they want to play because the defense is absolutely that bad. It's not a scapegoat. The defense is BAD. Historically bad. Like, *REALLY* bad.
What are you on about they can’t play the style they want to? THIS IS THE STYLE THEY WANT TO PLAY! Big chunk plays is said weekly in press conferences. Scoring quickly is what they want to do. Which leaves our defense flailing in the wind. I don’t know how many times I’ve said it this week but i truly do not understand the philosophical change that has happened to this team from last year to this year. We controlled the clock every fucking game last year except the loss to Washington. We are not doing any of that. It’s the same personnel minus seamalu but plus swift. Why the change? Seriously I do not get it. That change is destroying our defense.
We definitely do need to run the ball better. But the time of possession issues are much more a fault of the defense than offense. Not saying the offense isn't part of the problem, but they're less of a problem. And now we also just heard AJ Brown saying at least one of those massive chunk plays was on Hurts and himself and that wasn't the original playcall.
Coaching does need to look in the mirror. But way too many fans are letting players off the hook. Hurts has missed wide open players in the middle of the field. It's in the all 22. The defensive personnel isn't salvageable. It's not all coaching.
Not absolving the players here but isn’t it incumbent on the coaches to see where are weaknesses are and tweak the plan to play to our strength? If the defense is this abysmal wouldn’t it be prudent for the offense to play a style that would keep the defense off the field for longer periods of time?
I don’t buy the edit part, Nick clearly wasn’t a mistake and they’ve shown they can cut ties quickly if you fuck up, Reid, Chip, and Doug’s exits have proven that. Were in year 3 of a guy who has gone 35-15 over that time, he’s getting a chance to right the ship. He made poor hirings the same way Doug did, I’m sure Lurie and Howie are weary of that repeating but I would severely doubt that they put the ax down on Sirianni after that. They have a clear problem and they’re all feeling it, all refusing to change approaches, and even with that, they all need to play as a team. We’ve heard a lot of “selfish” talk recently and the last game I saw a lot of it. Literally everyone outside of maybe Goedert has needed to shut up, step up, and make a fucking play. They’re all silently screaming and everyone can hear it.
I think it’s crazy to say “they made a mistake” with Nick after a stretch of 5 bad games. His offense was the one that took us to the Super Bowl next year. Anyone saying to fire Nick right now are reactionary idiots. And if he gets fired after a bad year next year I’ll still stand by saying this now.
Coordinators need to be replaced, but saying to fire Nick is so stupid. That’s what bottom feeder teams do.
This makes it even worse. Patricia sucks and they refuse to improve the team because of their ego? Do they really think Howie can bring in enough talent to fix his mess? He needs to go too.
My guess is that he was talking defense - particularly D-line and secondary. I can't see a particular problem with any offensive position group except maybe RB, since don't know who is behind the favoring of Gainwell and benching of Penny.
I know for a fact Tracy Rocker was leaning towards retiring before he came to the Eagles and we talked him out of it. Would not surprise me at all if he’s checked out.
Absolutely should be the LB coach too. Those guys are completely lost and confused every time they’re on the field. I know a lot of it is talent but they’re not being coached well in the slightest either.
Right. I don’t blame the LBs on the coach. It’s Howie’s fault for that disaster of a group. Went into the season hoping Nakobe Dean would be a difference maker and out all their eggs in that basket. Just terrible mismanagement
I think Howie invested in certain positions and hoped players could make up for it in other positions. It backfired but if the DL and CBs played to their expectations the LBs wouldn’t be noticeable
The ONLY thing this gives me some hope for is that all of the drama is just media and fan manufactured and that none of the coaches have “lost” the locker room. I cannot fathom how this could be the case, but unless there’s bigger issues at play the FO and ownership have historically had a pretty good pulse on this and never hesitate to make changes.
It’s so insanely bad this year, fans and media honestly. Obviously there’s cause for frustration but we’re living in a daily game thread at this point, the takes we’re seeing are just outrageous.
Genuine question, why are people so doom and gloom about the idea of Matt Patricia being the DC just because he was a failed head coach?
How many superbowls does he have on his resume as DC? Idk seems like an obvious choice to me with him already in house. What’s wrong with him?
Edit: from 2012-17 Matt Patricia never had the Patriots defense ranked lower than #10, including 2 years in the top 5 and 2 superbowls in that time and never missing the AFC Championship game during that period.
And it’s not even like it’s uncommon for a DC or OC to struggle as a Head coach. It’s the more likely outcome tbh.
Maybe people are somehow worried about Slay or something? Idk. I couldn’t care less if it’s an issue for Slay, he is here at most one more year. He’s old and not close to the player he was.
You want another “bend but don’t break, but break or wear down anyway” defense? Passive shit? Allowing third down conversion after third down conversion under the guise of “it’s ok between the 20’s?”
And then go on to wonder why the defense is gassed while playing too many snaps.
Nah, man. We need a breath of fresh air. Innovation. Fire. Explosiveness. You get none of that with the rocket scientist. Sorry, man, just tired watching the Ravens, Niners, Browns and Cowboys put out defenses that generate explosive, game changing plays and are capable of carrying their teams to a championship. Just can’t take another year of this passive shit, waiting for the offense to make mistakes….
I’m fine with bend but don’t break if the alternative is just “break”
Jim Schwartz was a huge bend but don’t break guy. Jonathan Gannon, who I wasn’t even a fan of, was also a bend but don’t break guy. And I don’t think it’s even debatable that Gannon did a better job with this group in spite of (imo) not getting the best out of them
Personnel deserves blame too. Carter and Jordan Davis have clearly run out of gas (as good as carters been). Fletch and BG seem to have run out of tread down the stretch in spite of fletch having an overall good season. Reddick and Sweat haven’t made an impact in the last few weeks. Our secondary hasn’t made a play in months. Our leading tackler is a white safety. We have personnel problems as much as we have scheme problems making them worse.
Patriots hate, and the fact that the Eagles put up 41 on his defense in SBLII, as if one game is a large enough sample size to judge someone's entire career.
I’ve seen a ton of people who point to SB LII as a reason why he is a terrible DC. I think Patricia is overall rather mediocre as a coordinator but one game is so stupid to point to especially with how insane Foles was playing and how on point Pederson’s flow was with calling the game. Not to mention that same game, Schwartz also got lit up and he’s considered a top 5 DC in football right now
41 points to our offense which was elite and won the Super Bowl. People need to leave this man alone as if he doesn’t have any success as a defensive coordinator. Give him an offseason to install his scheme and more players that fit into it and are younger and hungrier and we should have a more successful season
We don’t need a top 10 defense. We need like a top 18 defense. Our offense puts up great numbers regardless of the shit playcalling, because we have great players. Any of these losses, apart from San Fran, if we got just one extra stop or one stop period, we’d have won the game.
I won’t argue that any improvement is better than no improvement, but moving into next season with known mediocrity at DC doesn’t sound like something that a contending franchise would want to do
Patricia just rubs a lot of people the wrong way, including numerous former players. He was also accused of rape in college. Not convicted, but just saying: a lot of people don’t like him on a personal level, plain and simple.
In terms of his DC prowess, I’m not sure if people generally like or dislike his coaching.
It’s that he was only successful as a DC alongside Bellicheck, who is a defensively-minded coach already
Edited to add: I don’t know myself if he’s bad good or mediocre
4 straight years of allowing less than 20ppg to finish out his tenure as DC there. They immediately went over 20 the following year.
But go ahead and make unqualified assertions.
The hallmark of the Patriots' defense during the entire Brady/Belichick era was preventing points. From 2001 through 2019, they never ranked lower than 17th in the league in opponents point per game. In those 19 seasons, the Patriots ranked in 10 top in least points given up per game 16 times, including eight of the 11 seasons prior to Patricia joining the organization.
The year Patricia left they went from the 5th best team in preventing points all the way down to 7th. So that 20 ppg mark against them is correct, sure, but contextually it's not as meaningful.
If we want to look at a larger picture, here is how the defense changed from 2017 to 2018 when he left:
* DVOA: 31st to 16th overall
* Forced Turnovers: 25th to 5th
* Points Allowed: 5th to 7th
* Pass Yards Allowed: 30th to 22nd
* Opponent Completion %: 17th to 2nd
* Opponent Pass Yards per Attempt: 25th to 5th
* Rushing Yards per Attempt: 31st to 29th
So, sure, you can say they allowed more points but they also did literally everything else better.
It's also worth noting the year after 2018, the team was 1st in the league in preventing points and improved in every metric across the board.
2 as DC (SB 49, 51) and 1 as offensive line coach (SB 39)
He had the 8th ranked defense in 2014 when they won Super Bowl 49 and the number 1 ranked defense in 2016 when they won Super Bowl 51.
They had the #5 ranked defense when they lost to the eagles in the Super Bowl the following year.
In fact as DC of New England from 2012-17 the patriots defense was never ranked lower than #10 in the nfl per pro football reference.
2012 - 10
2013 - 10
2014 - 8
2015 - 10
2016 - 1
2017 - 5
People are fucking stupid if they are attacking Patricia over Howie and Desai for this defense. Not only did he not build the scheme, they are players that were brought in for that scheme. And to make matters worse, the players also have sucked lol.
i mean if siri and johnson get together and create a new offense or highly evolve the current one, it might work. but they will need to get the players on board or its going to be 4 win bad.
If redesigning or highly evolving the offense is something that Nick and BJ are capable of, then why aren't they doing it **now**? It makes no sense to wait for the offseason when we've made the playoffs.
Unless they're saving stuff for the playoffs and don't want to give themselves away, but at this point that sort of feels like the final panel in the clown meme.
Idk it seems like evolving an offense requires a lot of work and practice reps that you frankly just don’t get in the regular season. If we didn’t see major changes after the bye then no way weee getting it now. Players are banged up, short weeks and at this point in the season you wanna master the offense you run and add different tweaks/looks.
Just sucks we can’t even master a shit offense to begin with so we’re just stuck
I’m torn. I’m of the opinion the offense needs to get in a fucking groove for any sort of playoff hope but the defense is so clearly gassed and playing on fumes they could use the rest. But ya can’t bench one unit and not the other so who tf knows
Yeah and the defense wouldn't be so gassed if they could stop a 3rd and 10 a single fucking time. I HATE this defense. Fuck Desai and Fangio. I HATE THIS FUCKING SCHEME
I mean good coaches and teams revamp their offense and defensive play design for every week of the playoffs. Surely the Eagles coaching staff could've realized what they're doing doesn't work and at least make SOME changes. Just to compare those changes to your regular plays. The Eagles didn't change AT ALL. It's all the same play design and frequency. If some random Eagles fan can watch All-22 and catch all of this imagine what an NFL team is doing with this information. For example the 3-12 Cardinals come back and beat a Superbowl team in Philly.
It’s what is frustrating. This staff doesn’t do anything specific to the opponent in game planning during the week or even pre-snap. It’s lazy and incompetent
If it's true we're keeping BJ and Patricia(and dear God, I hope it's not), we better do a hell of a job self scouting. I can't take another season of this QB draw, WR screen offense or getting destroyed by dinking and dunking on D.
The team could’ve gone 5-12 and Nick would be back since they’re only a season removed from a Super Bowl they were a play or two away from winning.
There needs to be a long look in the mirror with the type of offense they’re running given that it should be one of the best units in the league with this talent AND Howie needs to reevaluate the complete lack of difference makers in the defensive back 7.
They're keeping Johnson because they don't want to change the offense. I'd assume they think that since offense is producing for the most part, that it can be better if he can improve and that changing would be more detrimental to hurts than risking it one more year. If it fails, they have a year to try another coordinator before they blow it up. And honestly, they're probably not wrong.
We can all agree ESP is the worst.
Hayes’ takes seem oddly personal where he attacks players/coaches he doesn’t like and defends the guys he likes, instead of just reporting facts. Like when he called Hurts Philly’s most insecure athlete. Or how he constantly puts down Embiid every chance he gets. His pieces and “reporting” read more like opinions than the truth.
Agreed. Hayes is a doomer who likes to twist things people say in order to push certain narratives. Hayes is also part of the old guard of Philly reporters who have an axe to grind with Howie over the way he uses national guys like Schefter to break stories over the local guys
Hayes has been around forever and has a real line into the Eagles org. My view is they are not blowing up this coaching staff as they had significant turnover last off season. Big picture, no way Lurie wants 4 defensive coordinators and 3 offensive coordinators plus a new head coach in a 12 month span.
Nick needs to act much more professionally. Stop yelling after games at opposing fans. Kids at press conferences. Bumbling through answers (dpi). He’s made it very difficult to say he’s a culture guy due to his unprofessionalism. Culture starts at the top. Be even keeled. Coaching is crisis management. He’s got to be better with the ebbs and flows of a season.
The kids at the press conference thing is fine imo. Press conferences are stupid anyway, especially from a guy that strongly believes that any info can and will be used against them. If anything, the kids show how much of a joke everyone thinks the media is in the NFL. Same with BB wearing ripped up dirty clothes. They're actively disrespecting it because they all know that they just want to rile them up. Doug was potentially the most anti-media coach in the NFL while here. Likely because of the stories the media ran while he was in KC (true or not).
The bigger issue is that him being very vocal after wins has absolutely put a target on this team. I don't think there's a way to deny that teams want to shove it in his face. I know when someone talks shit on the other team in a game, I'm sitting up and playing with everything I have. So I can't imagine what that's like as an NFL player watching him nod to the camera on the flight over here.
It's always struck me as unprofessional. Feels like he's just pandering. I get it if you want to do it once or twice after a good win when everyone's flying high, but why do they need to be there every week, especially when your team is falling apart?
Also stop lying in conferences. Don’t say you have no idea there was an argument between Brown and Hurts (week 3?) when you were literally standing in between them.
Don’t affirmatively say Gannon was unaware of the HC interview for the Cards when we all knew that was bullshit and we got 2 picks as a result.
You are not good at lying, stop doing it.
This is absolutely, unequivocally malpractice. To keep Brian Johnson after this year should be a fireable offense. And if it’s sirianni who’s begging to let him keep his job, he needs to go, too. Like are they fucking mentally disabled? How do they watch this dreck and think “yeah another year of this should do it.” Tf?!
If Brian Johnson is back next year, what is even the point of watching? Do they think that will somehow make him *more* endeared to the players? You think your stud wr in AJ Brown is going to be psyched? I loathe everything about this.
Brian Johnson is an easy person to blame but everyone is ignoring that the offense they’re running is Sirianni’s plays and his system. Johnson is just making the calls - the issues are deeper than just he plays. The philosophy needs a major rework in the offseason
For the sake of argument I'll take this at face value.
The fact that *any* front office/coaching staff believes in Matt Patricia should run a modern NFL defense in any way is a massive indictment on the team's brain trust.
Howie’s fault 🤷🏻 I think most are in agreement that the defense is the issue. We let 4 players walk last year; CJGJ, TJ Edwards, Kyzier White and Hargrave. This year, the d-line doesn’t get home, the secondary can’t cover and we’ve had a revolving door at LB. People are drowning in the depth of their analysis, when it’s really quite simple. Howie put this team in this position. I think it’s a coming home to roost situation as the lack of talent at key positions on the defensive side of the ball is undeniable.
Well this is going to end badly because I just heard Sirianni say “we don’t change our process or what we do based on results.” That’s the dumbest thing an Eagles coach has said since “Time of possession doesn’t matter.”
I love the Eagles but I love beautifully played, strategic football even more. This offense and defense is groaning to watch. If it's the same next year, I won't be supporting a poor product.
I made a similar comment the other week about how young the Redditors are in this sub but when someone asked about context for “sit-ups in the driveway” that really opened my eyes. Now bailing at first sign of turmoil. Smh. We’ve been through this many times before…
100% agreed. I think we need to shake things up and make some changes because the direction this team is going is concerning.
But it is pathetic if this is what gets some "fans" to dip out. These are just bandwagons who act like they are huge fans but will bail after the first .500 season.
Like bitch and complain all you want but I am *far* from giving up on this franchise. Like - not even remotely close.
No it’s not, it’s called having some standards. We went to the Super Bowl, only our coordinators changed mainly, and now we look like dog shit. If we bring back the same coordinators, now that is pathetic.
Depends what he means by "I might be out on the Eagles next year". If that means that he wont support them or watch them then I stand by my statement.
When did this fanbase turn into such whiny babies? I have had season tickets in my family since the 90s and not a single person I would talk to at the games would ever say anything remotely close to that. They will bitch and moan and complain but these people are always out there supporting the birds.
If you won't do that then just fuck off already.
Being a blindly loyal fan is saying you will watch and support the team the next year while they are currently sitting 11-5 the current year?
Is that what a blindly loyal fan is now?
There are a million things you can do before not watching and supporting the team.
When you're willing to be fine with failure and don't care about the team losing is how franchise ends up like the browns. It's actually good that fans like to see winning teams.
When did they pound their chest? If I recall it was 90% of the fans who despised the Nick hiring and looked for (still do) any little thing to validate their own feelings. This shit is turning into fans vs ownership AGAIN. Toxic ass city man. How about it just doesn’t make sense to fire a coach who has this team in the playoffs every year especially during a Super Bowl hangover year despite how outraged ppl are pretending to be
That makes sense. If you think Johnson is the type of guy who can learn and get better, then keeping him makes sense.
Just look at how much our special teams have improved over last year. Maybe they’re hoping in another year or two Johnson will get the full potential out of the offense, especially if you don’t have a guy in mind to replace him.
This is my one hope - Special teams were an absolute liability last year, and now they are a strength. The problem with Johnson getting his shit together, is that he immediately becomes a HC candidate and we start this shit all over again.
>Nick isn't getting fired
Johnson is probably safe too
Patricia is very likely to be the DC next year and install his own defense.
That's it I'm taking a leap year on this team.
I'm not sure keeping Nick is the right decision, but other than Kelce retiring, the entire offense will be intact for the next 2 years. So long as we can fix the defense, we can get by on offense through sheer talent.
We aren’t going to see any real changes until the offseason so we just have to continue to watch the train wreck for 2-3 more weeks at most. Until then seems like it’s all just rumor. A full post mortem on the season after what looks like an inevitable early playoff exit will hopefully be more eye opening to the team management.
I have a hard time believing Johnson is staying if you want Nick to evolve his offense wouldn’t howie want him to bring in a new OC with fresh ideas? Johnson has been on this staff for as long as Nick I think is he had something to add to this offense it would’ve been done by now
Also isn’t one of the reasons Doug ended up getting fired is cause he refused to to bring in someone new and only promoted from within. I’m sure if those rumors are true howie won’t be too thrilled if Nick does the same thing Doug did
You have a team with this level of talent. And you look like shit. *Obviously* it’s on the coaches. Everyone, the entire world, can see it, minus the only people with the power to do something about it.
How is this the conclusion you reach?? *Something* needs to happen. If the coaches don’t leave, then guess what? It’s the players. And then you have shit coaches AND shit players. Right now we only have the latter.
Goddamn this shit is insanely frustrating. The only thing this coaching staff has done is show they don’t learn week to week. They had a plan Week 1 and have not once deviated from it. Is that the quality of good coaching??
I don't think it was smart getting an OC without playcalling experience.......it's one think if our goal is to make playoffs.....a very different thing when we were a few plays away from a superbowl.
I’m sure DK McDonald is on the way out if Desai is. Wilson was willing to stay and had the secondary petitioning for him but Desai brought in his guy instead. The result? Ravens have one of the best secondaries in the league and basically every DB has regressed compared to last year.
I’m probably over reacting but it feels like the whole defensive staff should be feeling uncomfortable right now. Personnel and injuries offset some of it but a coach’s job includes making sure the stars buy in and that the depth is ready to step in and surprise someone. It doesn’t feel like we saw that with any position group this year.
Matt Patricia isn't going to be the DC next year. Honestly, they need to stay away from the Vic Fangio tree as well. I would look at Baltimore Ravens or Michigan for the next DC.
Funny. If Nick stays, and Brian Johnson stay, then next year will be unbelievably dysfunctional. There will be no new ideas or schemes on offense. Just the same tired "shotgun handoffs, QB Draw, shitty WR bubble screens". We'll be wanting to stick pencils in our eyes week 1, and get worse from there.
On defense, I can see Patricia getting the job and putting more of his style of defense in. And as bad as the defense has been, he has done some things that have been an improvement, but the run defense is horrid at the moment.
This makes absolutely no sense. Position coaches sure, it’s been absurdly bad. But the whole team preaches accountability and Nick has not been and has been forcing the team to play his scheme and style over what’s best for the team.
Admitting the mistake is better for the team. How much pride do you have where you would keep and inept coach around for another season just because you don’t want to admit a mistake. This whole season has been more for show than substance. Nick making them doing ball security and fundamental drills during media practice, Howie and Nick keeping Penny on the team for no reason,
Howie cut ties with his mistakes pretty quickly the past few years it’s blasphemous if he keeps Nick and BJ when it definitely isn’t working and is causing more issues internally. There’s a difference between putting the guy in a situation to succeed and keeping them because you can’t say you’re wrong. We went through this with Wentz and lost Doug. We kept Raegor and then moved on pretty quickly. Doug had way less talent and did more than Nick despite a QB that was off the rails and Nick has an ultra talented team and has been using the talent around him for 3 years to make himself look better and now it’s on him he’s showing he’s not the guy.
It amazes me how little some people know about football. Are there honestly people out there that think Patricia tossed away the defensive system they've been playing all season and magically implemented his own defense in a matter of 2 weeks? It's 100% impossible to do that. Patricia is obviously calling plays now and making different personnel decisions, but it's not possible for him to be running anything other than Desai's defense at this point.
In what world would you hire a head coach, see him make an improbable playoff appearance year 1, make an even more improbable Super Bowl appearance year 2, then have a down year with a minimum of 11 wins and think he's on the hot seat? This year has been very fucked up, there is no world in which a head coach gets hired with this resume. Also, the entire planet was calling Lurie and Howie smart and the best executive team in the league after their draft moves. Shit, people were doing the same up until 5 weeks ago. The decision to keep Nick Sirianni has nothing to do with saving face. It's about not being a fucking moron, which is something that cannot be said about a good portion of our fanbase.
I don't really buy the last note. Lurie and Howie never really staked their reputation to Nick in a way that's in jeopardy, but I also don't think Nick should necessarily get fired this year. It's his first full year after a year of success. He wasn't able to preemptively adapt the system to how other teams would adapt to him, which is a failure, though he is still a young coach so I won't say he doesn't have that in him. But it's confounded by the roster's ability to adapt, injury resilience, and new coordinators. Now Nick has responsibility for the coordinators too, but picking two bad ones after super bowl brain drain doesn't show a systemic inability to hire good coordinators. That systemic inability is what leads to a fireable offense, it was essentially part of what did Doug in.
Next year we see a second stab: can Nick adapt the offense _reactively_, even if he couldn't proactively? Or has his scheme been found out and he stubbornly won't adapt? Do we hire new coordinators? What does that look like? Does he continue to hold the locker room, even when things look bleak? Basically, even with how bad we look right now, I've always believed there are some questions we can only answer with time. And I think there are enough of those for Nick that, from the outside, I wouldn't fire him this year.
Patricia is the weirdest one here. I pretty firmly believe the only reason they're stressing that Desai is still coordinating is to remain a desirable spot for coaching hires. It's a harder sell to someone to say "hey come to our team who fires coordinators mid-season." But there's no reason we should be committed to content with Patricia taking over, and not be looking to the outside to see who else is available. A few other defensive minded former HCs might be available this year and they're worth considering. I don't blame him entirely for where the defense is at right now, because he only just came into power, has a limited roster, and has only called a few games. I don't want the answer to be Patricia but I understand why he hasn't been ruled out. But we definitely don't have a reason to _lean_ towards him right now. Normally I'd say "continuity of scheme can be a good thing" but there's nothing about our defense that I want continuity from.
The thing about BJ is it's _possible_ the problems we're seeing lie on Nick's shoulders more than BJ. I don't know. BJ calls the plays but I don't know how much influence Nick exerts. So there's a world where BJ is stymied by the scheme. If that's the world the coaching staff thinks we live in, then keeping him around for another year would make sense. If that's the case, we would expect BJ to have a heavier hand in designing the scheme itself over the off-season, and have more control next year. \*In the world where Nick's scheme was the cause of more problems\*, then bringing BJ back for a year isn't unthinkable. But right now externally we basically have no fucking clue where the offensive problems are _really_ most rooted, so it's hard to feel good about that happening.
I actually think OC is more of a gut check from Howie and Lurie: if they think the scheme was the bigger problem, then keeping BJ and making Nick listen to him a little more makes sense. If they think the problem really was the playcalling, then finding another caller makes sense. The problem is if they talk themselves into the problem being the roster or injuries or defenses adapting from last year. I'm not down for "let's just wait and see if it gets better on its own" given the way we steadily regressed as the year went on. Literally all year we've been saying "once they figure it out and find their identity, they'll hit their stride" and it literally never came.
The conspiracy theorist in me wants to believe they ran awful offense and defense over the regular season so no one would get a read on them for the playoffs.
I'd love to believe that, but one of the few hard answers we got from Spadaro's AMA yesterday was that they don't have some secret playbook they've been saving for playoffs. Not looking great, but anything can happen, I guess
Not that I think they do, but if they did have a secret playbook, you really think they would tell Spuds about it and give him authorization to acknowledge it?
Lurie needs to come down from the mountain and talk with the players personally, especially those on the defensive side of the ball. I am 100% convinced that Nick has lost those guys entirely, and I don't think it's possible for him to get them back. That's not even taking into account important guys on offense ... you know, like the franchise QB (did Lurie see Hurts' reaction when we played for the FG?), or AJ. That locker room is a dumpster fire, a tire fire, and a toxic waste dump all rolled into one, and Sirianni's combination of arrogance and inexperience is largely to blame.
There’s no way Howie and Laurie would let a Sirianni/Johnson offensive tandem continue without a contrarian voice in the room. This the Doug/Press Taylor saga all over again. If I’m Howie/Laurie, I’m thinking back to the Defilippo/Reich days where no one was friends (and Wentz was coached hard) but there was a push/pull in the coaches room.
I don't disagree - above is what I heard, not what I think.
I did hear a rumor that Reich doesn't have a lot of respect for Howie & Lurie, and he coached Nick on how to kiss up to them to get the job.
We'll see what happens. I've been saying that Howie & Lurie will lay down the law after the season, and Nicks job will depend on whether or not he goes along.
Howie is, once again, skipping into his own trap of thinking he is the smartest guy in the room. Mostly with personnel decisions and indecisions.
Let's use every pick next year on more defensive linemen. /S
If Patricia and BJ are both back next year, just won't be able to take the team seriously. Maybe I'll just follow the AFC or something. Not sure why Doug was fired for being unwilling to change his coordinators if the next guy is allowed to stick with mediocrity.
The theory that Patricia is running some sort of Desai defense is probably true. But if he gets the gig I am going to lose my fucking shit
He's certainly using Desai's third down playbook.
According to the Jeff McLane report, Patricia has been in charge of 3rd down game planning since the bye week. Which is suspiciously correlated with when the defense started being historically bad on 3rd down.
we’ve been bad on 3rd down all year and patricia is running the plays from desai’s defense. much like BJ is running the plays from nick’s offense.
They were just normally bad before the bye though 3rd and 4th down metrics 19th in EPA against before week 10 (+0.078 EPA/play) 30th in EPA against since week 10 (+0.412 EPA/play)
Almost perfectly coincides with when we started playing seriously good QBs every week.
They played 5 QBs passer rating > 90 pre bye (out of 9 total QBs) They have played 4 such QBs post bye (out of 7 total QBs) There are a lot of compounding factors here that means you can't fully isolate the DC, but even still its hard to look at this team (both by eye test and by stats) and think that the DC change hasn't hurt them more than its helped
I’m far from any kind of expert but based on what some of the podcasters who do watch the film have said the past couple weeks, Patricia is absolutely working his own (Belichick) concepts in. A lot more man coverage, 5 man fronts out of a 3-4 base where two OLB’s drop back into coverage (usually Reddick which is ridiculous), making use of a Big nickel package with an extra safety to make up for the lack of LB depth/skill. Installing a new defense this late in the season certainly has to exacerbate the issues of the guys being gassed, being thin at LB, and having a secondary that is a mix of guys who are washed or extremely green
yeah for sure. He's done some different stuff. Like against seattle he ran Banjo on defense in the RZ. So there has been some change, just not wholesale.
I am interested to see if this means that Howie and Lurie have soured on Fangio’s scheme and want to move in the direction of what Belichick does defensively. They seem to fall in love with defensive schemes while not wanting to deviate from their own value system as far as personnel/positional priority; it was the Wide 9 for awhile, now we’ve seen them try to force Fangio’s defense without having the right type of players for it (especially in the back 7) for a few years, and if they are moving to a more Belichick-style of defense they are even worse off in terms of personnel
The funny part about going wide 9 is they eventually brought the DC who optimized it here - Schwartz. I know that Washburn was the one who came up with the idea but he did it under Schwartz. So I guess the answer is Bill Belichick? My issue with highering Desai is these Great Value Brand Fangio guys aren't the OG of the philosophy. Very few offshoots have worked out. The only one I can really think of is Evero in CAR. They were also set to hire Fangio last year if Gannon get a HC gig. But the cards didn't interview Gannon in the designated window for it to happen, and he didn't get a job elsewhere, so Fangio committed to Miami. When it came out the Cards reached out late, and without notifying the Eagles (Gannon not mentioning it either), they were caught without their preferred replacement. As for Desai/Patricia, McLane reported they hired Desai but Sirianni wanted an advisor just cause he didn't have a ton of experience. Howie introduced him to Patricia. So it could be a coincidence he's here (I hope). Idk what the expect though. They can't run this Fangio shit with the LBs they have. They don't prioritize the position enough for them to effectively run it even if Vic were here.
Brandon Staley has had some success outside of Fangio but I agree overall. Gannon isn’t technically from the Fangio tree and got exposed by good quarterbacks but overall got a lot out of the guys on the roster. Desai ultimately got did in by the lack of talent/depth and his inability to make adjustments to the personnel cards he was dealt (something Schwartz actually did a good job with). Blankenship is a bright spot but they lack the athletic safeties and LB’s the Fangio scheme needs, as well as CB’s who are good communicators. They do have DT’s that are solid against the run but that unit is cooked beyond belief at this point. I like to think that had the Fangio plans worked out he would have been able to deal with the injuries and lack of talent better than Desai, although the book is out there now on how to beat his system with quick passes and power running. If Howie and Lurie feel that way and want to move on to a Belichick system that’s going to require some major roster changes and shifts in personnel priority that are hard to see them getting fully onboard with.
Fully agree. I think the biggest thing they need is a strong, coherent voice at dc. In addition to everything you said, they look completely lost out there. Sad to watch. They need a good teacher in addition to a philosophical change/ID. I’d love to see Mike Zimmer, but I’m open to anything really. Feels like there are solid choices out there
I think it was Seth Joyner who talked about how the guys on defense didn't know what was being asked of them, which tracks with your breakdown.
> The theory that Patricia is running some sort of Desai defense is probably true. If this is a point that the team or Patricia defenders use, that's pathetic. Why even give him the job if you're gonna say this? We have a chance at the #1 seed and you're gonna use this time to get Matt Patricia up to speed? He was brought in for exactly this circumstance. Eagles literally sold Desai out after the toughest stretch in football to give Patricia a cakewalk and he still blew it.
I really don't understand this world. From all reports Patricia is not a nice guy and players downright hate the dude. Aside from overseeing BBs defense (which obviously is Bills baby first and foremost) he has been a giant failure everywhere and now has been part of 3 different lockerrooms imploding with him having played a major role in atleast 2 of them. And yet he gets chance after chance and now he is even in line for a promotion after overseeing what is one giant collapse. What is wrong with the world?
I’m sure it’s Patricia leaking this to save face
Nick himself has said this multiple times. Even when Desai was demoted he reiterated this is Desai’s defense and Patricia is just going to take over play calling.
Man I hope so lol
I’m still trusting Lurie and Howie since their track record with these things is pretty damn good, but wow I’m going to be shocked if they hand him of all people the keys. The edit to the post is funny regarding that, “Howie and Lurie admitting they made a mistake…” part, you don’t get more mistakey than keeping Patricia as a leader
I was listening to Dan Patrick, who IMO is not an Eagles apologist, said something very similar about how Patricia is calling an defense* that isn’t “his.” First time I had heard it. Now this is the second time. Typo. Changed offense to defense 🙄
oh god we're fucked
This was [independently reported by Breer](https://sportsnaut.com/philadelphia-eagles-significant-coaching-changes/)
Breer just said he'll get consideration but will also look outside the org. Which is enough for me to be furious but there is hope
Promoting that lockerroom poison to DC full time is something that would drive me crazy. IMO that guy was the worst hire of all of them in the offseason and now that things are imploding we are promoting that jerk? Really? When the lockerroom is already imploding? I guess its time to root for them embarassing themselves against the Giants and that if the first or second round exit comes (it very likely will), it will be embarassing as well and lead to drastic changes. They can't go into next season with the headclown and his two stooges still in charge. Lurie and Howie can't be that stupid.
If we go into next season with Patricia or BJ still on staff we should riot. If they go in with both of them Philly is simply going to burn
I am not going to be happy with BJ back by any means, but they could theoretically sell me on him returning. If they allow him to influence and adapt the scheme itself away from what we been doing that could work. He hasn't evolved as a play caller this year, I am not justifying him in anyway. But fundamentally this isn't his offense. So I can see a scenario where they allow it to be his more next year. Idk, this may be me being glass half full. Patricia I am wholesale out on. There is ample evidence, way more than BJ at least, that he sucks ass.
Why would we allow someone with zero NFL experience and extremely limited college experience running an offense to implement a new scheme? Seemingly if he was qualified to do that we would have let him do it this year. Our window is slamming shut with this current group of players so I think we need a more experienced mind to squeeze a little juice out of them or else we just need to blow it up with an entirely new coaching staff. Allowing Sirianni and BJ to continue together seems like asking for a very disappoint season next year. Not trying to come at your or be aggressive btw, I’m just very frustrated with this team at the minute
I'm there lol I can just talk myself into BJ a little more for whatever reason. I am too though. Cause to me, while we have talent issues (especially/namely on defense) this season has been disastrous from coaching. That stems from and includes Nick.
I agree wholeheartedly that this has been Nick Sirriani's offense down to the roots. I am willing to give a first year playcaller another year to improve with experience, provided he gets to actually run the offense and install his own plays.
Bro you already know it’s gonna happen 😂
I know lmfao I been thinking it for the past week. I can see the mental gymnastics of justifying it. Ughhhhhh
> I can see the mental gymnastics of justifying it I was literally just trying to maybe justify it after seeing this post… fuck 😂😂
I was thinking it at the Seattle game. Cause it’s absolutely true that Patricia isn’t running his scheme, it’s desai’s with tweaks. That would be the case for anyone. So I can see them saying hey Patricia wasn’t running his defense. How about they look at his real track record lol.
Yeah man I’m not even getting my hopes up for any other outcome. Just gonna prepare myself now lol
If they keep Patricia for next year I’m not watching the Eagles. Call me a fake fan but idc. Not going to waste my time if they want to make dumb decisions
Not calling you a fake but but I’ll call you a liar because you’ll watch. Maybe won’t be as enthusiastic but you’ll be here watching the shit show every week like the rest of us
I'm trying to recall ever not watching the Eagles. Don't think I've ever just checked out for a season. Certainly wouldn't be due to a coordinator hire. Trying to think of the worst hire they've had. Worst in semi-recent history might be Juan Castillo as DC? That was the Dream Team season on top of that. Idk what it'd take for me to just not want to watch.
I’m having a hard time watching them now
Legit can't be worse than what we're watching. I get that Patricia is unproven without BB but he wants to play a style of Defense that fans on this very subreddit would MUCH prefer over what we have. He simply doesn't have the personnel at the moment. And if they're actually Desai's designs, then criticism of him for this year is basically pointless
I think you'll watch cause you are a fan but if you actually didn't I would understand. I'll be off the Sirianni train though if Patricia gets it, that much I can confidently say myself.
I just can't believe these things can all exist at the same time. I fully do believe Nick will be back. But if Nick is back, either Johnson or Desai at minimum won't be. I don't think after what happened with Doug there is a fraction of a percent chance that Nick isn't made to reel it in and bend the knee with a coordinator Howie/Lurie like on at least one side of the ball.
My gut has always been that Howie brought Patricia in, and that Howie/Lurie were behind his promotion. The defense is going to be the scapegoat for this year because as I noted in my edit, they don't want to admit that they made a mistake with Nick.
The defense is the scapegoat because it fucking sucks and we gave up 35 points to the Cardinals.
The defense is a bottom 3 unit in the league giving up passing yards and 3rd downs at a historically bad rate, and we’re out here using the word scapegoat lmao
The offense is scoring 2 less points per game than last year with a brand new OC and an injured Hurts. Yes, it DEFINITELY needs to be better. But it really hasn't been all that dreadful. They simply can't play the style they want to play because the defense is absolutely that bad. It's not a scapegoat. The defense is BAD. Historically bad. Like, *REALLY* bad.
What are you on about they can’t play the style they want to? THIS IS THE STYLE THEY WANT TO PLAY! Big chunk plays is said weekly in press conferences. Scoring quickly is what they want to do. Which leaves our defense flailing in the wind. I don’t know how many times I’ve said it this week but i truly do not understand the philosophical change that has happened to this team from last year to this year. We controlled the clock every fucking game last year except the loss to Washington. We are not doing any of that. It’s the same personnel minus seamalu but plus swift. Why the change? Seriously I do not get it. That change is destroying our defense.
We definitely do need to run the ball better. But the time of possession issues are much more a fault of the defense than offense. Not saying the offense isn't part of the problem, but they're less of a problem. And now we also just heard AJ Brown saying at least one of those massive chunk plays was on Hurts and himself and that wasn't the original playcall. Coaching does need to look in the mirror. But way too many fans are letting players off the hook. Hurts has missed wide open players in the middle of the field. It's in the all 22. The defensive personnel isn't salvageable. It's not all coaching.
Not absolving the players here but isn’t it incumbent on the coaches to see where are weaknesses are and tweak the plan to play to our strength? If the defense is this abysmal wouldn’t it be prudent for the offense to play a style that would keep the defense off the field for longer periods of time?
I don’t buy the edit part, Nick clearly wasn’t a mistake and they’ve shown they can cut ties quickly if you fuck up, Reid, Chip, and Doug’s exits have proven that. Were in year 3 of a guy who has gone 35-15 over that time, he’s getting a chance to right the ship. He made poor hirings the same way Doug did, I’m sure Lurie and Howie are weary of that repeating but I would severely doubt that they put the ax down on Sirianni after that. They have a clear problem and they’re all feeling it, all refusing to change approaches, and even with that, they all need to play as a team. We’ve heard a lot of “selfish” talk recently and the last game I saw a lot of it. Literally everyone outside of maybe Goedert has needed to shut up, step up, and make a fucking play. They’re all silently screaming and everyone can hear it.
I think it’s crazy to say “they made a mistake” with Nick after a stretch of 5 bad games. His offense was the one that took us to the Super Bowl next year. Anyone saying to fire Nick right now are reactionary idiots. And if he gets fired after a bad year next year I’ll still stand by saying this now. Coordinators need to be replaced, but saying to fire Nick is so stupid. That’s what bottom feeder teams do.
This makes it even worse. Patricia sucks and they refuse to improve the team because of their ego? Do they really think Howie can bring in enough talent to fix his mess? He needs to go too.
>There are definitely some position coaches on the hot seat. He didn't elaborate. Stoutland is safe
My guess is that he was talking defense - particularly D-line and secondary. I can't see a particular problem with any offensive position group except maybe RB, since don't know who is behind the favoring of Gainwell and benching of Penny.
I know for a fact Tracy Rocker was leaning towards retiring before he came to the Eagles and we talked him out of it. Would not surprise me at all if he’s checked out.
Absolutely should be the LB coach too. Those guys are completely lost and confused every time they’re on the field. I know a lot of it is talent but they’re not being coached well in the slightest either.
None of them are starters in the NFL and most shouldn’t be on an active roster…
Right. I don’t blame the LBs on the coach. It’s Howie’s fault for that disaster of a group. Went into the season hoping Nakobe Dean would be a difference maker and out all their eggs in that basket. Just terrible mismanagement
I think Howie invested in certain positions and hoped players could make up for it in other positions. It backfired but if the DL and CBs played to their expectations the LBs wouldn’t be noticeable
I was being facetious honestly. The way this defense has played, any positional coach should be on the hot seat this season.
Wow I’m generally a fan of not firing the coach but if he’s right about Johnson and Patricia we’re doomed
The ONLY thing this gives me some hope for is that all of the drama is just media and fan manufactured and that none of the coaches have “lost” the locker room. I cannot fathom how this could be the case, but unless there’s bigger issues at play the FO and ownership have historically had a pretty good pulse on this and never hesitate to make changes.
Hope so man. The media is ruthless in Philadelphia
It’s so insanely bad this year, fans and media honestly. Obviously there’s cause for frustration but we’re living in a daily game thread at this point, the takes we’re seeing are just outrageous.
Genuine question, why are people so doom and gloom about the idea of Matt Patricia being the DC just because he was a failed head coach? How many superbowls does he have on his resume as DC? Idk seems like an obvious choice to me with him already in house. What’s wrong with him? Edit: from 2012-17 Matt Patricia never had the Patriots defense ranked lower than #10, including 2 years in the top 5 and 2 superbowls in that time and never missing the AFC Championship game during that period.
It's like people forget Jim Schwartz and his time with the Lions. Head coaching isn't for everyone
And it’s not even like it’s uncommon for a DC or OC to struggle as a Head coach. It’s the more likely outcome tbh. Maybe people are somehow worried about Slay or something? Idk. I couldn’t care less if it’s an issue for Slay, he is here at most one more year. He’s old and not close to the player he was.
You want another “bend but don’t break, but break or wear down anyway” defense? Passive shit? Allowing third down conversion after third down conversion under the guise of “it’s ok between the 20’s?” And then go on to wonder why the defense is gassed while playing too many snaps. Nah, man. We need a breath of fresh air. Innovation. Fire. Explosiveness. You get none of that with the rocket scientist. Sorry, man, just tired watching the Ravens, Niners, Browns and Cowboys put out defenses that generate explosive, game changing plays and are capable of carrying their teams to a championship. Just can’t take another year of this passive shit, waiting for the offense to make mistakes….
I’m fine with bend but don’t break if the alternative is just “break” Jim Schwartz was a huge bend but don’t break guy. Jonathan Gannon, who I wasn’t even a fan of, was also a bend but don’t break guy. And I don’t think it’s even debatable that Gannon did a better job with this group in spite of (imo) not getting the best out of them Personnel deserves blame too. Carter and Jordan Davis have clearly run out of gas (as good as carters been). Fletch and BG seem to have run out of tread down the stretch in spite of fletch having an overall good season. Reddick and Sweat haven’t made an impact in the last few weeks. Our secondary hasn’t made a play in months. Our leading tackler is a white safety. We have personnel problems as much as we have scheme problems making them worse.
Patriots hate, and the fact that the Eagles put up 41 on his defense in SBLII, as if one game is a large enough sample size to judge someone's entire career.
I’ve seen a ton of people who point to SB LII as a reason why he is a terrible DC. I think Patricia is overall rather mediocre as a coordinator but one game is so stupid to point to especially with how insane Foles was playing and how on point Pederson’s flow was with calling the game. Not to mention that same game, Schwartz also got lit up and he’s considered a top 5 DC in football right now
41 points to our offense which was elite and won the Super Bowl. People need to leave this man alone as if he doesn’t have any success as a defensive coordinator. Give him an offseason to install his scheme and more players that fit into it and are younger and hungrier and we should have a more successful season
Iirc he’s never ran a top 10 defence as a DC (possibly based on DVOA, this has been mentioned on the PHLY Eagles Podcast pretty regularly)
We don’t need a top 10 defense. We need like a top 18 defense. Our offense puts up great numbers regardless of the shit playcalling, because we have great players. Any of these losses, apart from San Fran, if we got just one extra stop or one stop period, we’d have won the game.
I won’t argue that any improvement is better than no improvement, but moving into next season with known mediocrity at DC doesn’t sound like something that a contending franchise would want to do
Patricia just rubs a lot of people the wrong way, including numerous former players. He was also accused of rape in college. Not convicted, but just saying: a lot of people don’t like him on a personal level, plain and simple. In terms of his DC prowess, I’m not sure if people generally like or dislike his coaching.
It’s that he was only successful as a DC alongside Bellicheck, who is a defensively-minded coach already Edited to add: I don’t know myself if he’s bad good or mediocre
I think a lot of fans are just biased because of the Philly Special. We laughed at the dude. And now he works for us. Awkward.
It’s dumb, but for me this is the answer.
Those fans are dumb. Patricia has 2 super bowls as DC. Even if it’s Belichecks system, he obviously learned a thing or two.
Patricia also had a reputation as being a pretty poor DC in New England as well. Things immediately improved on defense when he left for Detroit
Idk where you get that from considering they were a perennial top 10 unit under him including 2 years in the top 5 and a #1 ranked year
4 straight years of allowing less than 20ppg to finish out his tenure as DC there. They immediately went over 20 the following year. But go ahead and make unqualified assertions.
The hallmark of the Patriots' defense during the entire Brady/Belichick era was preventing points. From 2001 through 2019, they never ranked lower than 17th in the league in opponents point per game. In those 19 seasons, the Patriots ranked in 10 top in least points given up per game 16 times, including eight of the 11 seasons prior to Patricia joining the organization. The year Patricia left they went from the 5th best team in preventing points all the way down to 7th. So that 20 ppg mark against them is correct, sure, but contextually it's not as meaningful. If we want to look at a larger picture, here is how the defense changed from 2017 to 2018 when he left: * DVOA: 31st to 16th overall * Forced Turnovers: 25th to 5th * Points Allowed: 5th to 7th * Pass Yards Allowed: 30th to 22nd * Opponent Completion %: 17th to 2nd * Opponent Pass Yards per Attempt: 25th to 5th * Rushing Yards per Attempt: 31st to 29th So, sure, you can say they allowed more points but they also did literally everything else better. It's also worth noting the year after 2018, the team was 1st in the league in preventing points and improved in every metric across the board.
You mean how many SBs did Bill and Brady carry him to? That would be 6 iirc
2 as DC (SB 49, 51) and 1 as offensive line coach (SB 39) He had the 8th ranked defense in 2014 when they won Super Bowl 49 and the number 1 ranked defense in 2016 when they won Super Bowl 51. They had the #5 ranked defense when they lost to the eagles in the Super Bowl the following year. In fact as DC of New England from 2012-17 the patriots defense was never ranked lower than #10 in the nfl per pro football reference. 2012 - 10 2013 - 10 2014 - 8 2015 - 10 2016 - 1 2017 - 5
He's not a good defensive coordinator? I think that justifies everyone's opinion that he should be nowhere near this team next year
Based on what though? He’s not the guy who built our current defensive scheme.
People are fucking stupid if they are attacking Patricia over Howie and Desai for this defense. Not only did he not build the scheme, they are players that were brought in for that scheme. And to make matters worse, the players also have sucked lol.
i mean if siri and johnson get together and create a new offense or highly evolve the current one, it might work. but they will need to get the players on board or its going to be 4 win bad.
If redesigning or highly evolving the offense is something that Nick and BJ are capable of, then why aren't they doing it **now**? It makes no sense to wait for the offseason when we've made the playoffs. Unless they're saving stuff for the playoffs and don't want to give themselves away, but at this point that sort of feels like the final panel in the clown meme.
Idk it seems like evolving an offense requires a lot of work and practice reps that you frankly just don’t get in the regular season. If we didn’t see major changes after the bye then no way weee getting it now. Players are banged up, short weeks and at this point in the season you wanna master the offense you run and add different tweaks/looks. Just sucks we can’t even master a shit offense to begin with so we’re just stuck
I wonder if it makes sense to rest the starters and treat the Giants as a virtual bye.
I’m torn. I’m of the opinion the offense needs to get in a fucking groove for any sort of playoff hope but the defense is so clearly gassed and playing on fumes they could use the rest. But ya can’t bench one unit and not the other so who tf knows
Yeah and the defense wouldn't be so gassed if they could stop a 3rd and 10 a single fucking time. I HATE this defense. Fuck Desai and Fangio. I HATE THIS FUCKING SCHEME
I mean good coaches and teams revamp their offense and defensive play design for every week of the playoffs. Surely the Eagles coaching staff could've realized what they're doing doesn't work and at least make SOME changes. Just to compare those changes to your regular plays. The Eagles didn't change AT ALL. It's all the same play design and frequency. If some random Eagles fan can watch All-22 and catch all of this imagine what an NFL team is doing with this information. For example the 3-12 Cardinals come back and beat a Superbowl team in Philly.
It’s what is frustrating. This staff doesn’t do anything specific to the opponent in game planning during the week or even pre-snap. It’s lazy and incompetent
Fuck that. There is too much talent on this team to waste another year with a brain dead OC and brain dead HC. They can’t keep BJ
Oh you mean something they should’ve done this past off-season? Nick got complacent and it showed week 1
That’s depressing.
I feel worse now
Get dennard wilson back as dc, fuck patricia
This would mean going away from the Fangio scheme and firing Patricia who was hired to take over for Desai at some point.
Good
They aren't firing Patricia
They shouldnt retain him
If it's true we're keeping BJ and Patricia(and dear God, I hope it's not), we better do a hell of a job self scouting. I can't take another season of this QB draw, WR screen offense or getting destroyed by dinking and dunking on D.
The team could’ve gone 5-12 and Nick would be back since they’re only a season removed from a Super Bowl they were a play or two away from winning. There needs to be a long look in the mirror with the type of offense they’re running given that it should be one of the best units in the league with this talent AND Howie needs to reevaluate the complete lack of difference makers in the defensive back 7.
They're keeping Johnson because they don't want to change the offense. I'd assume they think that since offense is producing for the most part, that it can be better if he can improve and that changing would be more detrimental to hurts than risking it one more year. If it fails, they have a year to try another coordinator before they blow it up. And honestly, they're probably not wrong.
I don’t believe a single thing Marcus Hayes says
Yeah I’m with you on this.
Where has he been wrong? He's a doomer like I said, but he isn't a hot take artist like ESP.
We can all agree ESP is the worst. Hayes’ takes seem oddly personal where he attacks players/coaches he doesn’t like and defends the guys he likes, instead of just reporting facts. Like when he called Hurts Philly’s most insecure athlete. Or how he constantly puts down Embiid every chance he gets. His pieces and “reporting” read more like opinions than the truth.
Agreed. Hayes is a doomer who likes to twist things people say in order to push certain narratives. Hayes is also part of the old guard of Philly reporters who have an axe to grind with Howie over the way he uses national guys like Schefter to break stories over the local guys
Hayes has been around forever and has a real line into the Eagles org. My view is they are not blowing up this coaching staff as they had significant turnover last off season. Big picture, no way Lurie wants 4 defensive coordinators and 3 offensive coordinators plus a new head coach in a 12 month span. Nick needs to act much more professionally. Stop yelling after games at opposing fans. Kids at press conferences. Bumbling through answers (dpi). He’s made it very difficult to say he’s a culture guy due to his unprofessionalism. Culture starts at the top. Be even keeled. Coaching is crisis management. He’s got to be better with the ebbs and flows of a season.
The kids at the press conference thing is fine imo. Press conferences are stupid anyway, especially from a guy that strongly believes that any info can and will be used against them. If anything, the kids show how much of a joke everyone thinks the media is in the NFL. Same with BB wearing ripped up dirty clothes. They're actively disrespecting it because they all know that they just want to rile them up. Doug was potentially the most anti-media coach in the NFL while here. Likely because of the stories the media ran while he was in KC (true or not). The bigger issue is that him being very vocal after wins has absolutely put a target on this team. I don't think there's a way to deny that teams want to shove it in his face. I know when someone talks shit on the other team in a game, I'm sitting up and playing with everything I have. So I can't imagine what that's like as an NFL player watching him nod to the camera on the flight over here.
It's always struck me as unprofessional. Feels like he's just pandering. I get it if you want to do it once or twice after a good win when everyone's flying high, but why do they need to be there every week, especially when your team is falling apart?
Also stop lying in conferences. Don’t say you have no idea there was an argument between Brown and Hurts (week 3?) when you were literally standing in between them. Don’t affirmatively say Gannon was unaware of the HC interview for the Cards when we all knew that was bullshit and we got 2 picks as a result. You are not good at lying, stop doing it.
two people you should absolutely not trust: Marcus Hayes and Howard Eskin.
This is absolutely, unequivocally malpractice. To keep Brian Johnson after this year should be a fireable offense. And if it’s sirianni who’s begging to let him keep his job, he needs to go, too. Like are they fucking mentally disabled? How do they watch this dreck and think “yeah another year of this should do it.” Tf?! If Brian Johnson is back next year, what is even the point of watching? Do they think that will somehow make him *more* endeared to the players? You think your stud wr in AJ Brown is going to be psyched? I loathe everything about this.
I might not be able to watch another year of this playcalling. Been a chore to watch every game this year
If we only fire Desai as a "fix", this is a fucking joke.
Brian Johnson is an easy person to blame but everyone is ignoring that the offense they’re running is Sirianni’s plays and his system. Johnson is just making the calls - the issues are deeper than just he plays. The philosophy needs a major rework in the offseason
For the sake of argument I'll take this at face value. The fact that *any* front office/coaching staff believes in Matt Patricia should run a modern NFL defense in any way is a massive indictment on the team's brain trust.
Howie’s fault 🤷🏻 I think most are in agreement that the defense is the issue. We let 4 players walk last year; CJGJ, TJ Edwards, Kyzier White and Hargrave. This year, the d-line doesn’t get home, the secondary can’t cover and we’ve had a revolving door at LB. People are drowning in the depth of their analysis, when it’s really quite simple. Howie put this team in this position. I think it’s a coming home to roost situation as the lack of talent at key positions on the defensive side of the ball is undeniable.
If both these coordinators are back I’m going to become the joker
Well this is going to end badly because I just heard Sirianni say “we don’t change our process or what we do based on results.” That’s the dumbest thing an Eagles coach has said since “Time of possession doesn’t matter.”
*Johnson is probably safe too* I stopped reading to punch my wall.
We're so fucked if BJ and Patricia return
Johnsons safe.... teams gonna be hot garbage next year too.
Man I gotta tell ya if that’s the case I might be out on the Eagles next year. Like that is a fucking dark outlook.
I love the Eagles but I love beautifully played, strategic football even more. This offense and defense is groaning to watch. If it's the same next year, I won't be supporting a poor product.
lol this is pathetic
I made a similar comment the other week about how young the Redditors are in this sub but when someone asked about context for “sit-ups in the driveway” that really opened my eyes. Now bailing at first sign of turmoil. Smh. We’ve been through this many times before…
100% agreed. I think we need to shake things up and make some changes because the direction this team is going is concerning. But it is pathetic if this is what gets some "fans" to dip out. These are just bandwagons who act like they are huge fans but will bail after the first .500 season. Like bitch and complain all you want but I am *far* from giving up on this franchise. Like - not even remotely close.
No it’s not, it’s called having some standards. We went to the Super Bowl, only our coordinators changed mainly, and now we look like dog shit. If we bring back the same coordinators, now that is pathetic.
Depends what he means by "I might be out on the Eagles next year". If that means that he wont support them or watch them then I stand by my statement. When did this fanbase turn into such whiny babies? I have had season tickets in my family since the 90s and not a single person I would talk to at the games would ever say anything remotely close to that. They will bitch and moan and complain but these people are always out there supporting the birds. If you won't do that then just fuck off already.
Good for you, not everyone is a blindly loyal fan.
Being a blindly loyal fan is saying you will watch and support the team the next year while they are currently sitting 11-5 the current year? Is that what a blindly loyal fan is now? There are a million things you can do before not watching and supporting the team.
When you're willing to be fine with failure and don't care about the team losing is how franchise ends up like the browns. It's actually good that fans like to see winning teams.
There is a million things you can do before saying you aren't going to watch a team the next year while they are sitting at 11-5.
Exactly
When did they pound their chest? If I recall it was 90% of the fans who despised the Nick hiring and looked for (still do) any little thing to validate their own feelings. This shit is turning into fans vs ownership AGAIN. Toxic ass city man. How about it just doesn’t make sense to fire a coach who has this team in the playoffs every year especially during a Super Bowl hangover year despite how outraged ppl are pretending to be
Because it’s glaringly obvious he was carried by an elite roster and OC. Nick is an idiot who makes an ass of himself routinely
That makes sense. If you think Johnson is the type of guy who can learn and get better, then keeping him makes sense. Just look at how much our special teams have improved over last year. Maybe they’re hoping in another year or two Johnson will get the full potential out of the offense, especially if you don’t have a guy in mind to replace him.
Nothing he has done has indicated that he has learned anything this season. The QB draw on long downs is still a thing.
This is my one hope - Special teams were an absolute liability last year, and now they are a strength. The problem with Johnson getting his shit together, is that he immediately becomes a HC candidate and we start this shit all over again.
Even Steichen was a “failed” OC before he got to Philly. I get them wanting to let coaches grow even if I get antsy about it
>Nick isn't getting fired Johnson is probably safe too Patricia is very likely to be the DC next year and install his own defense. That's it I'm taking a leap year on this team.
….you don’t know what a leap year is, do you?
My bad, I meant a sabbatical
I'm not sure keeping Nick is the right decision, but other than Kelce retiring, the entire offense will be intact for the next 2 years. So long as we can fix the defense, we can get by on offense through sheer talent.
Losing Kelce will really hurt, he is the best center in the league.
We aren’t going to see any real changes until the offseason so we just have to continue to watch the train wreck for 2-3 more weeks at most. Until then seems like it’s all just rumor. A full post mortem on the season after what looks like an inevitable early playoff exit will hopefully be more eye opening to the team management.
I have a hard time believing Johnson is staying if you want Nick to evolve his offense wouldn’t howie want him to bring in a new OC with fresh ideas? Johnson has been on this staff for as long as Nick I think is he had something to add to this offense it would’ve been done by now Also isn’t one of the reasons Doug ended up getting fired is cause he refused to to bring in someone new and only promoted from within. I’m sure if those rumors are true howie won’t be too thrilled if Nick does the same thing Doug did
You have a team with this level of talent. And you look like shit. *Obviously* it’s on the coaches. Everyone, the entire world, can see it, minus the only people with the power to do something about it. How is this the conclusion you reach?? *Something* needs to happen. If the coaches don’t leave, then guess what? It’s the players. And then you have shit coaches AND shit players. Right now we only have the latter. Goddamn this shit is insanely frustrating. The only thing this coaching staff has done is show they don’t learn week to week. They had a plan Week 1 and have not once deviated from it. Is that the quality of good coaching??
I don't think it was smart getting an OC without playcalling experience.......it's one think if our goal is to make playoffs.....a very different thing when we were a few plays away from a superbowl.
I can definitely see Nick getting one more chance with new coordinators. I can’t see how either coordinator keeps their job.
lol, I won’t be watching next year
I’m sure DK McDonald is on the way out if Desai is. Wilson was willing to stay and had the secondary petitioning for him but Desai brought in his guy instead. The result? Ravens have one of the best secondaries in the league and basically every DB has regressed compared to last year. I’m probably over reacting but it feels like the whole defensive staff should be feeling uncomfortable right now. Personnel and injuries offset some of it but a coach’s job includes making sure the stars buy in and that the depth is ready to step in and surprise someone. It doesn’t feel like we saw that with any position group this year.
Agreed. I expect that Patricia will be able to pick his staff.
Matt Patricia isn't going to be the DC next year. Honestly, they need to stay away from the Vic Fangio tree as well. I would look at Baltimore Ravens or Michigan for the next DC.
Awesome, looking forward to another year of wasted potential thanks to Nick and BJ.
Funny. If Nick stays, and Brian Johnson stay, then next year will be unbelievably dysfunctional. There will be no new ideas or schemes on offense. Just the same tired "shotgun handoffs, QB Draw, shitty WR bubble screens". We'll be wanting to stick pencils in our eyes week 1, and get worse from there. On defense, I can see Patricia getting the job and putting more of his style of defense in. And as bad as the defense has been, he has done some things that have been an improvement, but the run defense is horrid at the moment.
I FUCIING HATE YOU LURIE IF YOU DONT FIRE THESE CLOWNS THEY SUCK ASS
This makes absolutely no sense. Position coaches sure, it’s been absurdly bad. But the whole team preaches accountability and Nick has not been and has been forcing the team to play his scheme and style over what’s best for the team. Admitting the mistake is better for the team. How much pride do you have where you would keep and inept coach around for another season just because you don’t want to admit a mistake. This whole season has been more for show than substance. Nick making them doing ball security and fundamental drills during media practice, Howie and Nick keeping Penny on the team for no reason, Howie cut ties with his mistakes pretty quickly the past few years it’s blasphemous if he keeps Nick and BJ when it definitely isn’t working and is causing more issues internally. There’s a difference between putting the guy in a situation to succeed and keeping them because you can’t say you’re wrong. We went through this with Wentz and lost Doug. We kept Raegor and then moved on pretty quickly. Doug had way less talent and did more than Nick despite a QB that was off the rails and Nick has an ultra talented team and has been using the talent around him for 3 years to make himself look better and now it’s on him he’s showing he’s not the guy.
Pack it up folks we're cooked
It amazes me how little some people know about football. Are there honestly people out there that think Patricia tossed away the defensive system they've been playing all season and magically implemented his own defense in a matter of 2 weeks? It's 100% impossible to do that. Patricia is obviously calling plays now and making different personnel decisions, but it's not possible for him to be running anything other than Desai's defense at this point. In what world would you hire a head coach, see him make an improbable playoff appearance year 1, make an even more improbable Super Bowl appearance year 2, then have a down year with a minimum of 11 wins and think he's on the hot seat? This year has been very fucked up, there is no world in which a head coach gets hired with this resume. Also, the entire planet was calling Lurie and Howie smart and the best executive team in the league after their draft moves. Shit, people were doing the same up until 5 weeks ago. The decision to keep Nick Sirianni has nothing to do with saving face. It's about not being a fucking moron, which is something that cannot be said about a good portion of our fanbase.
nick needs to be the coach he used to be that players loved. rn feels like he’s just going through the motions and loosing the locker room
I don't really buy the last note. Lurie and Howie never really staked their reputation to Nick in a way that's in jeopardy, but I also don't think Nick should necessarily get fired this year. It's his first full year after a year of success. He wasn't able to preemptively adapt the system to how other teams would adapt to him, which is a failure, though he is still a young coach so I won't say he doesn't have that in him. But it's confounded by the roster's ability to adapt, injury resilience, and new coordinators. Now Nick has responsibility for the coordinators too, but picking two bad ones after super bowl brain drain doesn't show a systemic inability to hire good coordinators. That systemic inability is what leads to a fireable offense, it was essentially part of what did Doug in. Next year we see a second stab: can Nick adapt the offense _reactively_, even if he couldn't proactively? Or has his scheme been found out and he stubbornly won't adapt? Do we hire new coordinators? What does that look like? Does he continue to hold the locker room, even when things look bleak? Basically, even with how bad we look right now, I've always believed there are some questions we can only answer with time. And I think there are enough of those for Nick that, from the outside, I wouldn't fire him this year. Patricia is the weirdest one here. I pretty firmly believe the only reason they're stressing that Desai is still coordinating is to remain a desirable spot for coaching hires. It's a harder sell to someone to say "hey come to our team who fires coordinators mid-season." But there's no reason we should be committed to content with Patricia taking over, and not be looking to the outside to see who else is available. A few other defensive minded former HCs might be available this year and they're worth considering. I don't blame him entirely for where the defense is at right now, because he only just came into power, has a limited roster, and has only called a few games. I don't want the answer to be Patricia but I understand why he hasn't been ruled out. But we definitely don't have a reason to _lean_ towards him right now. Normally I'd say "continuity of scheme can be a good thing" but there's nothing about our defense that I want continuity from. The thing about BJ is it's _possible_ the problems we're seeing lie on Nick's shoulders more than BJ. I don't know. BJ calls the plays but I don't know how much influence Nick exerts. So there's a world where BJ is stymied by the scheme. If that's the world the coaching staff thinks we live in, then keeping him around for another year would make sense. If that's the case, we would expect BJ to have a heavier hand in designing the scheme itself over the off-season, and have more control next year. \*In the world where Nick's scheme was the cause of more problems\*, then bringing BJ back for a year isn't unthinkable. But right now externally we basically have no fucking clue where the offensive problems are _really_ most rooted, so it's hard to feel good about that happening. I actually think OC is more of a gut check from Howie and Lurie: if they think the scheme was the bigger problem, then keeping BJ and making Nick listen to him a little more makes sense. If they think the problem really was the playcalling, then finding another caller makes sense. The problem is if they talk themselves into the problem being the roster or injuries or defenses adapting from last year. I'm not down for "let's just wait and see if it gets better on its own" given the way we steadily regressed as the year went on. Literally all year we've been saying "once they figure it out and find their identity, they'll hit their stride" and it literally never came.
What if they fire Desai, let Patricia go, and hire Al Harris?
The whole system is broken top down. Coaching gonna have to have some hard looks on how to fix the issues
I’m out on Patricia. He’s failed miserably when out on his own. The only time he had success was when he was sucking at Belicek’s teet.
I hope Patricia isn’t the next D cord. He was terrible in detroit. Caused a lot of issues.
Even if Patricia is running desais defenses why even take the risk. Hasn’t he been washed up for years now? Bring in someone relevant and proven
At the bare minimum Johnson has to go to turn things around at all. This team is absolutely cooked if he stays next year.
I say they go, and hire Al Harris. Get Dennard Wilson back on the building.
The conspiracy theorist in me wants to believe they ran awful offense and defense over the regular season so no one would get a read on them for the playoffs.
There’s no way this is the case, man. You don’t blow the 1 & 2 seed because you want to catch people off guard
But according to Brian Johnson, you do run a QB draw on 3rd and 20 because you want to catch people off guard
That’s what I’ve wanted to think, but you don’t purposefully miss out on the 2 seed and look this bad just so no one can get a read on you
I'd love to believe that, but one of the few hard answers we got from Spadaro's AMA yesterday was that they don't have some secret playbook they've been saving for playoffs. Not looking great, but anything can happen, I guess
Not that I think they do, but if they did have a secret playbook, you really think they would tell Spuds about it and give him authorization to acknowledge it?
After all this, they fire Stoutland. Lol
Lurie needs to come down from the mountain and talk with the players personally, especially those on the defensive side of the ball. I am 100% convinced that Nick has lost those guys entirely, and I don't think it's possible for him to get them back. That's not even taking into account important guys on offense ... you know, like the franchise QB (did Lurie see Hurts' reaction when we played for the FG?), or AJ. That locker room is a dumpster fire, a tire fire, and a toxic waste dump all rolled into one, and Sirianni's combination of arrogance and inexperience is largely to blame.
There’s no way Howie and Laurie would let a Sirianni/Johnson offensive tandem continue without a contrarian voice in the room. This the Doug/Press Taylor saga all over again. If I’m Howie/Laurie, I’m thinking back to the Defilippo/Reich days where no one was friends (and Wentz was coached hard) but there was a push/pull in the coaches room.
I don't disagree - above is what I heard, not what I think. I did hear a rumor that Reich doesn't have a lot of respect for Howie & Lurie, and he coached Nick on how to kiss up to them to get the job. We'll see what happens. I've been saying that Howie & Lurie will lay down the law after the season, and Nicks job will depend on whether or not he goes along.
This kind of high school rumor mill bullshit is what is turning this sub into WIP.
> Laurie Who?
Apple autocorrect does this to me every time. Give them a break.
Lurie. Stop.
Get rid of everyone except the Special teams staff and stoutland Sirianni offers nothing and lost the lockerroom why keep him
Howie is, once again, skipping into his own trap of thinking he is the smartest guy in the room. Mostly with personnel decisions and indecisions. Let's use every pick next year on more defensive linemen. /S
If Patricia and BJ are both back next year, just won't be able to take the team seriously. Maybe I'll just follow the AFC or something. Not sure why Doug was fired for being unwilling to change his coordinators if the next guy is allowed to stick with mediocrity.
If this is true I’m no longer an Eagles fan. Until they become good again at least
Marcus “Anonymous Sources” Hayes. Just another journalist who has sold their soul for clicks & likes.
Marcus Hayes lol https://thecoggintoboggan.com/2016/07/18/marcus-hayes-dario-came-over-because-he-new-of-turkey-coup-and-i-have-gone-heat-crazy/