Eagles' new QB coach knows Philly, and QBs
IT IS ONE of the mandatory questions for any coach, player or sports executive returning to this place, like "Geno's or Pat's?" or even where they were for those rarest of events, a victory parade.
IT IS ONE of the mandatory questions for any coach, player or sports executive returning to this place, like "Geno's or Pat's?" or even where they were for those rarest of events, a victory parade.
"Did you ever boo?" I asked John DeFilippo at the end of an interview the other day, forgetting for a second who he was, and more important, who his father was.
"Never," he said, the smile disappearing from his face. "Never. Ever. Here's why: My dad was in it. My dad was even a coach when I was younger. So I knew the hours involved."
Gene DeFilippo was, of course, Villanova's athletic director in the mid-1990s, stewarding the Wildcats through the Kerry Kittles phone-card mess before leaving in 1997 to take on an even bigger mess at Boston College, where the school was reeling from a betting scandal involving 13 football players.
A Massachusetts native, Gene retired from BC in 2012. He's made some hard and controversial calls over the years, including moving the school from the Big East to the ACC, but under his stewardship the school quadrupled annual donations to its athletic programs, from $5 million to $20 million.
He still lives not far from the school, working as a consultant for schools seeking to hire athletic directors. But his son has returned here, where he played quarterback for Radnor High School before continuing on as a quarterback for James Madison University.
Now 37, John DeFilippo is the new Eagles quarterbacks coach. It is the latest job in a nearly 20-year coaching career that began with an internship with the Carolina Panthers in 1997.
His first summer was spent as an intern with the Panthers, watching Kerry Collins. His second was in Indianapolis watching Peyton Manning. "I found out real fast that 6-2, 215-pound guys who run a 4.9 are a dime a dozen," he said. "Plus, I knew I really wanted to coach."
That career became official when Fordham hired him to coach its quarterbacks in 2000. He moved on to Notre Dame as a grad assistant for the two years that followed, then to Columbia to coach quarterbacks for two seasons before Tom Coughlin hired him to be the Giants' offensive quality control coach.
In 2007 he was hired to be the Oakland Raiders' quarterbacks coach, and for the next eight seasons, for the Jets, San Jose State and back to Oakland, "quarterbacks" was either all or part of his job description.
There were hits. Carson Palmer threw for more than 4,000 yards in 2012. With Carson gone, Terrelle Pryor and Matt McGloin combined for 3,345 passing yards in 2013, and Pryor's 576 rushing yards are a record for Raiders quarterbacks. The following season, Derek Carr led all rookies in completions, passing yards and passing touchdowns, and his 348 completions were six short of the NFL rookie record set by Sam Bradford in 2010.
Oh yes, lest we forget: Rookie Mark Sanchez big-played the Jets to the AFC Championship Game in DeFilippo's one season as their quarterbacks coach.
"There are really very few quarterbacks who don't make it in this league because they bring it on themselves," said DeFilippo. "The majority of guys who don't make it in this league are really a product of the system they are in. Are there a bunch of coaching changes? How many offenses do they have to learn within the first five or six years in the league?
"How good are they up front? Do they have anybody who can get open?"
Those last two sentences could be working titles to the failures of the last Eagles season, and two good reasons to believe a quick turnaround of fortunes is not impossible. As DeFilippo pointed out, Carr excelled this season with the additions of receivers Michael Crabtree and Amari Cooper to Oakland's offense.
But there are those quarterbacks who do bring it on themselves, as his most recent stint as the Browns' offensive coodinator indicates. Johnny Manziel was a one-man team killer and coach killer.
"It wasn't always easy, to be honest with you," DeFilippo said. "There were times we would find out who our quarterback would be on a Tuesday night. As coaches, our main game-planning day was Tuesday. If it's Johnny Manziel, you've got certain plays. If it's Josh McCown, you're changing formations. But that's what coaching is. You make the best of it. You play who you can play."
I asked him if he was surprised by the recent report that the Browns would release Manziel in March.
"You know, this is my 10th year in the NFL," he said. "I've seen a lot. Probably more than the majority of guys with 10 years of NFL experience have seen . . .
"So nothing shocks me anymore. I'll just leave it at that."
Well, this would: A lack of success in his latest gig, in the town were he formed his football acumen. He is working for a head coach who is a former quarterbacks coach, under an offensive coordinator who also once held his title. Both have played the position at this level, too, and if Bradford does come back, John DeFilippo will have a quarterback who has probably also seen more than the majority of guys with his experience level.
"I'm looking forward to learning from all of them," he said. "I can't wait to get started."
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