Sean Desai’s demotion shouldn’t be that surprising. But will the move work out for the Eagles?

18/12/2023

Matt Patricia before the start of a preseason game against the Cleveland Browns at Lincoln Financial Field in August.

So Sean Desai is now the Eagles’ defensive coordinator in name only and Matt Patricia will be calling the signals and running the show from the sideline. And from the hollow defense of his coaching staff that Nick Sirianni offered earlier this week to the hushed-up way that the franchise made this change, the whole situation is enough to make you want to stick a No. 2 pencil in your ear.

In a sense, the decision to demote Desai and elevate Patricia, who until a couple of days ago had been merely a “senior defensive assistant,” shouldn’t be surprising. The Eagles can hardly play worse defense under Patricia than they have lately under Desai. They’re last in the NFL in third-down effectiveness. Their linebackers and secondary have often appeared either out of position, tentative to tackle, or both. They have a pass rush that hasn’t lived up to the resources allocated to it.

Sean Desai stripped of Eagles defensive coordinator duties for Matt Patricia

When you think about the problems that have plagued this defense, one play and two quotes stand out for being particularly telling. First, the play: a 32-yard catch-and-rumble by the 49ers’ George Kittle in that 42-19 rout earlier this month. It would have been one thing if Kittle had gained so much yardage through a superhuman effort, if Eagles were bouncing off him as he carried the ball. It was another thing that, on a basic swing pass, the Eagles left the best tight end in the league pretty much uncovered; Kittle had a 10-yard halo of empty air around him.

Now, the quotes: After the Dallas loss, defensive end Josh Sweat called out the entire defense. “We’re not where we’re supposed to be,” he told The Inquirer’s Jeff McLane. Then, a couple of days later, cornerback Darius Slay took to his podcast to point a finger at the other 10 players on the field: “I had damn near a perfect game. Of course I could’ve made more plays. But overall, the game was great by me. But as a team, we ain’t played worth a [expletive].” In light of the lack of resistance that Desai’s defense put up against the 49ers and the Cowboys and the leakage out of the locker room these last two weeks, it’s difficult to call this a panic move.

Eagles defensive coordinator Sean Desai talks to the media on Sept. 12 at the NovaCare Complex.

Josh Sweat voices Eagles’ defensive frustration after another woeful effort from Sean Desai’s unit

More, the Eagles have a history, and if you are familiar with it, you could see this decision or something like it coming. Under Jeffrey Lurie’s ownership, they have never hesitated to shake up their coaching staff, or even their front office, for the sake of trying to extract better performances and production from their players. Once Howie Roseman builds a roster, Lurie expects it to meet every expectation for excellence, and if it doesn’t, he generally doesn’t presume that Roseman is the one who messed up.

Doug Pederson’s loyalty to and belief in Mike Groh and Carson Walch didn’t matter once Carson Wentz started to regress as a passer. Those two were gone, whether Pederson liked it or not, and soon enough Pederson was, too. Chip Kelly trusted Tom Gamble as much or more than anyone in the Eagles’ player-personnel department, and the only thing that trust earned them was their firings one year apart.

Lurie and Roseman have their methods, and given the Eagles’ success over the last 10 years — a Super Bowl victory, a Super Bowl berth, eight winning seasons, six playoff appearances — it’s hard to argue that those methods don’t usually work. Yes, they undercut their head coaches, and the only difference this time seems to be that they didn’t bother waiting until the offseason to do it. But they consider that fallout nothing more than the price of doing business in the NFL, and based on all public appearances, that’s what happened here.

Just Tuesday, when he was asked whether he was contemplating any changes to his coaching staff, Sirianni couldn’t have been clearer: “No. … I feel good with the people that we have in this building. We’re 10-3. We’re in control of our own destiny, and we’re going to keep rolling and finding answers with the people that we have.” Technically, Patricia was already in the building, but Sirianni’s initial denial was direct. So either Sirianni changed his mind sometime over the subsequent five days, or his mind was changed for him.

Eagles general manager Howie Roseman (left) and owner Jeffrey Lurie before the loss to the 49ers at Lincoln Financial Field on Dec. 3. Over the years, the two have not hesitated to shake up their coaching staff when necessary.

His reaction to and explanation for this move will be worth watching. Sirianni is naturally more assertive than Pederson. He wears his thoughts and emotions on his sleeve for all to see, and if there’s any indication that he wasn’t fully on board with handing so much power to Patricia — whose own track record as a coordinator and head coach leaves a lot to be desired — he’ll be hard-pressed to hide his true feelings.

First things first, though: The task of straightening out this defense now falls to the man who couldn’t stop Nick Foles in Super Bowl LII, who flamed out as a head coach after three seasons with the Lions, and who in the best years of his career had the benefit of working under Bill Belichick. Just because the Eagles had little to lose in making this move doesn’t mean it’s going to work. Has a 10-3 team ever felt as unsteady as this one does right now?

The Eagles will visit the Seattle Seahawks in a Monday Night Football showdown. Join Eagles beat reporters Olivia Reiner and EJ Smith as they dissect the hottest storylines surrounding the team on Gameday Central, live from Lumen Field in Seattle.

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