McDermott still shuffling Eagles' D
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McDermott still shuffling Eagles' D
Sheil Kapadia, Philly.com
All season, Sean McDermott has said every defensive player that dresses for him should expect to play on game day.
And all season, his actions have backed up those words.
Nine-men rotations along the defensive line. Six different linebacker combinations in a single game. Shuffling three different guys in and out at free safety.
But is McDermott shrinking his rotation and settling in on certain combinations now that we're approaching the "win or go home" portion of the schedule?
In certain cases, yes.
But for the most part, no.
I took a detailed look at the Eagles' defensive snaps against the Broncos, charting the personnel, and here's a breakdown on each positional group.
Defensive line
Nine different players saw time here for the Eagles. We all know the base front four: Juqua Parker, Mike Patterson, Brodrick Bunkley and Trent Cole.
But Darren Howard, Chris Clemons, Victor Abiamiri, Jason Babin and Antonio Dixon were also rotated in.
How much? Here's the number of plays:
Howard - 23
Abiamiri - 16
Dixon - 9
Babin - 9
Clemons - 8
It should be noted that several of Dixon's snaps came when Bunkley left the game with an injury. It looks like Dixon will rotate in less than he had previously. Patterson and Bunkley playing at a high level might have more to do with that than anything else. Dixon may give Patterson or Bunkley an occasional breather, but look for him more when the Eagles go with an extra lineman in goal line or short yardage.
Howard was used all over the line. At times, he would replace Cole at RDE, and Cole would move inside. Other times, Howard would play inside, which is more typical, and I believe he saw time at LDE also.
Abiamiri was more active than we had seen in recent weeks. A good sign going into this weekend and the playoffs.
Linebackers
This was an interesting one. Did anyone notice that Jeremiah Trotter did not see the field at all in the second half? Instead, it was Akeem Jordan in the middle in the base defense. This is an interesting nugget because while Jordan saw some time in the middle when he returned against the Giants a couple weeks ago, he did not play there at all last week against the 49ers. And it's not as if the Eagles' defense was getting gashed in the first half against Denver with Trotter in the middle.
Here's the number of total plays:
Will Witherspoon - 62
Akeem Jordan - 39
Moise Fokou - 26
Jeremiah Trotter - 12
Tracy White - 10
As I mentioned, all 12 of Trotter's snaps came in the first half. Jordan saw his most action since returning from injury. Against the Giants, he played 16 snaps. And against the 49ers, 26.
Fokou was the only strong-side linebacker in the base defense, with Chris Gocong not getting on the field at all for the second straight game.
And White's contributions are pretty remarkable when you consider he was only on the field for 10 plays.
The Eagles used six different combinations at linebacker. Here they are, with the number of plays for each:
Witherspoon and Jordan - 23
Witherspoon, Fokou and Jordan - 15
Witherspoon, Fokou and Trotter - 11
Witherspoon and White - 10
Witherspoon - 3
Trotter and Jordan - 1
When the Eagles go with one linebacker, it's to get Dimitri Patterson on the field as a fourth cornerback.
Secondary
At cornerback, the roles are defined. It seems like years ago when Ellis Hobbs was rotating with Sheldon Brown opposite Asante Samuel, doesn't it?
Brown and Samuel are on the field pretty much at all times, although there was a stretch of about five plays in the third quarter when Samuel was on the sidelines. Not sure if that was an injury issue or what.
Hanson is the nickel back. He played 38 snaps Sunday, and we all know that McDermott likes to blitz him from the slot at least a couple times each game.
Patterson gets on the field as the sixth DB, although it will be interesting to see how they use him against Jason Witten this week. Patterson did a good job covering Vernon Davis a couple weeks ago.
Which brings us to the safety position.
To call last week's shuffling at free safety a "rotation" would probably be overstating it. It was mostly Macho Harris' job. He played 53 snaps, compared to 10 for Jones.
Jones' role was primarily run support. Seven of his 10 snaps were on 1st-and-10. Two of the others were on 3rd-and-1 and 4th-and-1. This is interesting because the previous week against the 49ers, Jones saw most of the snaps at free safety and Quintin Demps (who was inactive with an injury against Denver) rotated in, mostly on third downs.
Jones had turned in two poor performances in a row before last week. It is pretty clear that McDermott is trying to patch something together here, but no option seems desirable.
focus for this upcoming draft needs to be defensive line with the end being the primary target and then a real free safety. We all want to think that when bradley comes back the LB core will be settled.— xlGmanlx- excellent analysis Sheil. Underscores the point that our LBs are the weak link on the team. Should be the #1 priority in the offseason.— dragoon6
- These breakdown posts are great. Thanks. Glad we traded out of the 1st round to select Trevor Laws. For how many snaps Witherspoon plays I don't really notice him doing anything special during the games. Did McDermott say why Macho all of the sudden played most of the game at safety when Jones seemed to be playing more the last few games? Was it because of Jones poor tackling? Only going with 2 LB's is a testament to the great play of Bunkley and Patterson— Lemur
Comment removed.- No - focus on upcoming draft needs to be the secondary. esp if we don't resign sheldon brown. and by what i've seen, i'm not sure he wants to be back here.— philly57
- The rotation must be all out because unlike the Denver 2nd Half, the Eagles better blitz the entire game or Romo will pick them apart as Orton did in that second half. I don't care who plays as long as they have fresh legs and can get Romo.— KGKoons
- Macho plays more when it's obvious passing scenarios, either 2nd or 3rd and longs, or with a lead, because he is more natural cover safety versus Jones knack of being a run stopper. Same with Witherspoon and Jordan, now that Akeem is back at full strength and playing on instinct, he is better in the middle since he fights through blocks and runs down TE's, RB's and WR's. I agree though that the first concern should be a dominant DE to play opposite Cole, Parker has had a few good games (which is contrary to his previous years where he had tailed off in the 2nd half of the season), which may help in the playoff push, but too many roster spots are being taken up by playing 9 players on the dline. All that being said, the defense is holding it's own admist the injuries, let's hope it is enough come the January games, and one very important February game!— Bleue
- For people that read eagles blogs I'm pretty surprised how clueless some of you are. We are in no danger of losing Brown in the immediate future, he signed an extension and has no recourse whatsoever. XGMAN - are you watching the same games that I am? Secondary and D-Line are our weakpoints? Complain abt FS all you want but the statistics show that our Secondary is one of the best in the league. Contrary to Sheil and others, I believe Sean McD does a good job of subbing in our FS' in down and distances in which they excel. DLine? Cole is one of the best. Bunkley and Patterson are so under the radar is unbelievable, they are VERY GOOD DTs. And we have a fine rotation at LDE - parker, abiamiri, babin are all fine complements. And at DT we have so many horses (incl abiamiri) that Trevor Laws, whos not a horrrrible player, can't even activate. As i see it, the areas u see as weaknesses I see as strengths. Area of weakness I believe are big run plugging LBs. Not to say we have to get a big name splash guy in FreeAgency but I think we need a guy or two (to replace Gocong, maybe insurance for bradley) that can excel on "run down and distances" kind of like how Tracy White has made a name for himself on pass situations while only getting ~10 snaps a game— bumbaca90
- also, our LBs will be fine when stu comes back next year. if stu didnt get hurt this year, we would be sailing on D.— ssmith0
- I think Bradley is a bit overrated - thanks to Ray Didinger. Rest of the corps are journeymen and practice squad guys. Since we have Mikel, Brown, Samuel and Hanson next year - I think the secondary is OK. Need to fix LB first, than safety— dragoon6
- Actually, Gocong made as many plays the past two weeks as he did in the first 13. He's been invisible all year. Put him back as a situational, pass-rushing DE. He could certainly make as much of an impact as Chris Clemons.— farside37
Just wanted to drop by and say I enjoyed all your great work this year Sheil. Your blogs really compliment what the beat writers do here at philly.com. For while I am an Eagletarian with a Birds Eye View of things, you can’t win the games without Moving The Chains…and Happy New Year to everybody at philly.com and to all of my Philly fan brethren…“Philadelphia fans, I Love You.” HK- Trotter was out in the 2nd half b/c we were up big and teams tend to pass when they are down. Glad Jordan is back. He's quietly our best LB... Macho should not be on K/O return. He has not burst. Am I wrong by saying he looks just a little faster than Mahe or Bloom when they were back there?. I say give Maclin a try.— Philly4Eternity.gov
- I like Jordan and Witherspoon out there full time...Trot on obvious running downs. I would rather see Jones out there then Harris...a vet with more experience and more of a playmaker. This is a game the Eagles will surely miss Dawkins. I always felt he understood the rilvary with the Cowboys (i.e. see his play for the Broncs against the 'boys earlier this year). If anyone was worth resigning for this one game - it was Dawkins!— Eagles33
- Colinshaw of the Dallas Morning News posted something very interesting for Birds' fans...he thought the Cowboys should lose because they will have a helluva time beaitng the Eagles 3 games in one season...sounds crazy, but I agree. While the Eagles may lose Sunday, there is no way they lose 3 to the Cowboys in one season...they are good, but aren't that good.— Eagles33
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