Finally, a Defensive Coordinator: Bill Davis
The Philadelphia Daily News - Eagletarian
Finally, a Defensive Coordinator: Bill Davis
Les Bowen, Daily News Staff Writer
So, it turns out Chip Kelly wasn't waiting for the Super Bowl, national signing day, or the vernal equinox. He was waiting ... well, we have no idea why he was waiting. The Eagles' new defensive coordinator, a league source confirms, is former Browns linebackers coach Bill Davis, who has been available to be hired for weeks now, and in fact interviewed for the job two weeks ago.
The hiring was first reported by CSNPhilly.com's Geoff Mosher.
Davis was an Eagles ball boy in the Dick Vermeil years, when he was known as "Billy," and his father, Bill Davis, was a Vermeil assistant. The elder Bill Davis later ran Eagles player personnel in the Buddy Ryan era.
The younger Davis, 47, was the Cardinals' defensive coordinator in 2009 and 2010, the 49ers' coordinator in 2005 and 2006, without great results -- his teams finished 32nd, 26th, 20th, and 29th in NFL defense. But he also was not blessed with great talent.
Davis has great experience with the 3-4 setup Kelly is believed to prefer. He also has worked with 4-3 schemes and described his Arizona defense as a hybrid.
Now that he is hired, presumably we will get to meet the rest of Kelly's staff, some of whom have been working at NovaCare for several weeks. Kelly refused to confirm any hires until his staff was complete.
Fans will note that the Eagles now have hired, unofficially, as their offensive and defensive coordinators, two guys from the 2012 Browns, in Pat Shurmur and Davis. Shurmur was the head coach of the 5-11 Browns, one of four teams to actually lose to the Eagles last season.
But when Kelly was hired, everyone made a big deal of how important it would be for a college coach with no NFL experience to hire NFL guys as coordinators, and Kelly seems to have done that. Both coordinators have Eagles roots, as well, with Shurmur having been Donovan McNabb's QB coach.
For now I will trust Chip's methods of madness, but obviously he was not going out of his way to try and impress skeptical Eagles fans with his choices for a coaching staff. On the surface his picks look pretty dismal. Hopefully under Chip's magic spell such pedestrian appearing coaches will work wonders. One suspects that Dick Vermeil had some significant influence, so that might not be so bad. However, it's sure going to cause a stern grilling from the local press hounds.— Cactusjim- The funny thing about statistics upon which defensive rankings are based - they are most affected by the offensive proficiency in ball control. If the offense cannot keep the defense off the field for meaningful stretches, the defensive numbers are necessarily going to increase due to higher number of plays and defensive fatigue. If the offense grinds it out with 8 minute drives and makes it so the defense only has to stop the other team maybe 4-5 times a half, that defense will be top 3. For the sake of discussion, had NE Patriot defense ever been top 10 with their speed up quick strike offense?— jersey mark
- I am willing to start with the thought that Kelly was a good choice. Maybe he's even the best choice. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he's hired the best guys who were willing to come here. Now he's left with changing out the entire team (save 5-6 guys). It's a daunting task!!!!!!— 4thand10
- Didn't take long for everyone to start complaining. Kelly has been here a few weeks and it has started already. Let him do his thing. Give this some time you dopes. Complain if it doesn't work long AFTER the season starts.— mcnamarakr
- Great. Rejects for both OC and DC. Better(?) yet, Cleveland Browns rejects. Best yet, Joe Banner rejects. Ugh....— joeprof
- Gold Standard , garbage coaches to go along with garbage players . I hope these damn fans will wise up and stop buying season tickets, stop going to these losers games and stop buying the damn eagle merchandise !!!
— zogger - Seems fine to me.— gho_matt
- So we are snatching two major contributors to that perrenial NFL Dynasty Juggernaught.....the much lauded and envied CLEVELAND BROWNS !!
HOORAY FOR US !! If we're lucky we can import the Browns brand of football to Philly.....Or was it already here the last few years ??— mike garman - Great hire. This guy will get the defense ready for us to challenge once again.— oakmontleo
- It sounds like Jeffrey and Howie were thinking they could convince another wishy washy coach to come aboard, even after rejecting them. This time it didnt work (grantham) or they wanted Donatell and the Niners blocked it. Monachino would have been the best guy of that group and of course they got Billy Davis instead. Billy Davis probably being the only guy dumb and desperate enough to want to be DC for an up-tempo college experiment that will get almost any DC fired within 1 year. Hes already been fired after a year or two a few times now so its nothing new to him. GOLD STANDARD.— CharlieGarner25
- So this guy WAS a DC but could only land a LB coaching job...with the Brownies? If this tells us how well Kelly can 'choose', then I'm not feeling hopeful about the players he's going to bring in. What a let down...— greenflyer
- "ugh" is right--ugh to all you whining complainers!— birdsfansince56
I'm familiar with the 3-4 as well but somehow my name wasn't pulled from the hat.
Seriously, how did they hire this guy - they sat a bunch of second rate assistants in a room to play BINGO and the first guy that hit it got the job? WTF?- Definitely not impressed with this hire. I expected something a little better. I'm guessing their first (and probably second and third) choice turned them down.— Penfold18
- HaHa Cleveland in the east.
The leprechaun is gathering his pot of gold.?— lazybone
