Any idiot can say “Hey let’s sign every high-priced Free Agent on the market”. The 12 focuses on what we can do with what we already have, to fix or improve our team.
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DEFENSIVE Coordinator Jim Schwartz’s has already been an NFL head coach. It wasn’t a good showing, but it was only Detroit, so folks will be willing to grant him a pass. With that in mind, you can expect that any time his unit finishes in the top 12 in points allowed, some team or another will to try and steal him at the end of the year. Get comfy with that reality.
So it would be nice to have a successor, right? That way we don’t end up in the situation we ended up in, when DC Jim Johnson* passed (from melanoma) in 2009. At that point we got stuck with his assistant, Sean McDermott, who tried to run a version of Johnson’s blitz-heavy system. Johnson’s real expertise lay in being able to make tiny adjustments to his scheme.
McDermott lacked that touch. He lasted one season and was fired. A mess ensued after that, Jim Washburn, Juan Castillo… (be nice if we could forget about that one, right?)
SO! We need to be ready for the day that Schwartz goes all Frank Reich on us. I personally like LB’s Coach Ken Flajole. He was a DC under Steve Spagnulo for three years, and that unit performed solidly, given that they were saddled with (just about) the NFL’s worst offense.
This is provided we want to promote from within, and hit the ground running with a DC who already knows the players.
*Jim Johnson’s name appears in green, bold, italics like current Eagles, because he was an Eagle when he passed. This is also why Jerome Brown’s name is bolded, but Reggie White’s and Andre Waters names, usually are not.
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