If anything, things turned out worse than anyone expected, as the 11-5 Eagles entered Week 18 at the 5-11 New York Giants ranked near the bottom of the league in several key defensive categories, including pass defense ( No. 28). ), points per game (29), third down defense (30) and red zone defense (30).
Overall, Philadelphia ranks 23rd in defense and head coach Nick Sirianni demoted first-year DC Sean Desai to Matt Patricia after a 33-10 loss at Dallas on Dec. 3, when the team was 10-3. Team sources told SI.com’s Eagles Today that Sirianni began thinking about reassigning Desai and Patricia during the team’s bye week, when Philadelphia was 8-1, while exchanging information on “Freaky Friday.“
It was a strange move that many outside the organization saw as panic and the early returns were not positive and mostly status quo, a struggling unit with issues especially in highly leveraged situations.
It was so bad that the organization is sure to overhaul everything on that side of the football in the offseason, from scheme and philosophy to coaching and personnel, unless the wild-card round begins an improbable run to a second straight Super Bowl. in the playoffs, where the Eagles will likely start as the fifth seed, meaning each trip to Las Vegas will include three postseason road games.
There’s a small chance the Eagles will still win the #2 pick if they beat the Giants on Sunday (likely) and the Dallas Cowboys lose at Washington (unlikely).
It is shocking, however, that the chances for the final of the Eagles depend on the defense going from subordinate to useful.
The road to the latter lies in three players – Pro Bowl cornerback Darius Slay, slot cornerback Avonte Maddox and linebacker Zach Cunningham.
Slay is set to return from arthroscopic knee surgery, but will be ruled out of Week 18 in part because of the dirty playing surface at MetLife Stadium.
With the return of the veteran, who turned 33 earlier this week, it will have a bit of a domino effect, allowing James Bradberry to return to the CB2 role and rookies Kelee Ringo and Eli Ricks to be used wisely instead his place throwing them into the deep end of the pond.
Maddox is back from a sin suffered last week against Minnesota in Week 2. The Eagles used eight bodies at the position with Maddox and fought hard.
When healthy, Maddox is one of the best playmakers in football, perhaps the Eagles’ best outside ball and a great option for runners. None of that materialized in a 35-31 loss to Arizona in Week 17, when a rusty Maddox played poorly and sprained his elbow. Let’s hope another 60 minutes of football gets Maddox back to where he was before his injury.
Cunningham, who has missed four of the last five games with hamstring and knee injuries, returns against the Giants and is perhaps the most intriguing of the trio, a late training camp signing after GM Howie Roseman twice grabbed the apple – Cunningham and Myles Jack — from it since things looked shaky at the LB position about 10 days into camp.
Seven year veteran Cunningham quickly took the WILL position and Jack “retired” saw the writing on the wall. Jack later returned to an organization with which he is more familiar, the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Cunningham was called by many the best lineman on the Eagles. The argument here is that Nick Morrow had higher extremes — higher records against Washington in Week 4 and Seattle in Week 15, and lower records in Week 12 against Buffalo and Week 13 against San Francisco.
Anyway, Cunningham was more solid and at least useful during almost every week he played, and his presence on the court is a model for the Eagles’ up on defense in the postseason.
