Trotter: McDermott wasn't ready
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Trotter: McDermott wasn't ready
Sheil Kapadia, Philly.com
As the Eagles continue to search for their next defensive coordinator, reaction to Sean McDermott's firing continues to trickle in.
McDermott's already landed a new job in Carolina and turned down an offer to become defensive coordinator of the Broncos, according to the Daily News' Les Bowen.
But for whatever reason (here's a look at the numbers), McDermott didn't work out here.
And one former player says he's not surprised.
Jeremiah Trotter, who played 13 games (starting seven) in 2009 for McDermott, doesn't think McDermott was ready for the job.
"I may be the only guy in the city that wasn't surprised," Trotter said during an interview with Derrick Gunn of Comcast Sportsnet. "The writing was on the wall, and especially a lot of things that happened last year during the course of the year and then going into this year, Sean digressed as a coordinator. The defense went backwards. It was worse in the red zone. And we had a better year last year on defense. So any time you see a young coach that in my opinion really wasn't quite ready to step into that defensive coordinator role just yet, and have two bad seasons, sometimes you just gotta cut your losses."
I mentioned this in a weekend post, but in case you miseed it, Trotter also said on WIP that he spoke to an Eagles defensive player this year who called McDermott the worst defensive coordinator he had ever played for.
Trotter was asked during the CSN interview if he thought McDermott tried too hard to put his own stamp on the defensive system that Johnson ran.
"Oh yeah, without a doubt," he said. "Any time you got a legend like Jim Johnson... I said before that if Jim Johnson had gotten fired because he didn't get the job done, then you come in and change things up. But Jim Johnson's a legend around here. I think he's a Hall of Famer. And when you do something that works for 10 years and you were really great at it, you want to try to duplicate those things when you come in as a young coordinator. You don't come in and try to put your own stamp on things. Hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it."
To be fair, Johnson was McDermott's mentor. He talked constantly about what he learned from Johnson and how he was trying to use those things. McDermott's job was to carry out Johnson's system, but to also add his own wrinkles.
Those wrinkles obviously did not always work, and now McDermott will get a chance to try again with the Panthers.
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Trotter is right that McDermott would often digress. He would often start calling the came, but then digressed about other topics like the Golden Globes while he was calling the plays. As for Trotter, don't even ask how he can cash a paycheck for broadcasting.— tgray83- I believe he meant regressed lol oh well he's a football player not the secretary of state— Iggles21
- you mean Vice President. — JACK V
- i would bet that trent cole made that "unnamed" statement.— Onlineps2beast
- It is a very easy for players that can't play to shift the blame to their coach than it is to accept the fact that they aren't good enough to play at a high level in the NFL.— chops10
- Blaming the guy that just got canned seems pretty easy and obvious. — FairmountFrank
Comment removed.- Don't know why, but your nickels post always make me laugh. No comment just the Joe Nickels, or maybe that is the statement in itself...either way hilarious, and consistent. — Gene London
- Wonder who made the decisions to let Jason Babin and Chris Clemons walk, two 2010 Pro Bowlers? Sure would have looked nice in Eagles green this year with their sacks counts....— sunnynsj
- You have just named the real reason McDermott got fired. — JACK V
- You got it sunny — Gene London
- This comment has been deleted. — AlexSp
- True, but you still can debate, whether it were the players (who obviously CAN play) or the coaching (which obviously was not up to the task). Easy choice, right? — AachenEagle
sean had his shot, stepped in last year and this season had a full year to work with these guys. He didn't do great, and a lot of that was cause the players are 5th-7th round players, undrafted even. all that aside, he wasnt good, and needed to be shown out. Problem is this season, who do you get? I'd like to see Singaltary in here. the other names floating around are terrible.— azguz- I think the larger problem is that, with all due respect to Coach Johnson, the defensive system we've been running for the last 10 years is fundamentally flawed. The NFL is a league where the separation between good QBs and great QBs basically comes down to how a player can handle the blitz, so if you base your entire defensive scheme around the blitz, odds are that a great QB will almost ALWAYS beat you. We had a great package of personnel here running JJ's defense here for a while, but in the biggest situations, the defense came up short. It's time for some new ideas.— JLB
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