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Philadelphia Eagles: Breaking Down The Defensive Position Battles

By Jonathan Page

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The Philadelphia Eagles OTAs have begun and training camp is not far away now! It will not be long until Chip Kelly has to decide who will be starting on defense and there are a number of positions up for grabs.

Last week I broke down all the positional battles on offense. This week I will be breaking down the defensive positional battles. Below I have broken down each position battle on defense in order of my favorite and also attempted to predict what Chip Kelly will do. It is very difficult to predict who will be starting where as there are a number of new players who will be fighting for starting jobs. There are a number positions that will be decided throughout the offseason and I have discussed them below:

Safety

The starting safety position opposite Malcolm Jenkins is available. If you want my detailed opinion on who will be starting at safety, I wrote about it here a few weeks ago. When I wrote that piece, I realistically thought the Eagles only had three options – Jaylen Watkins, Earl Wolff and Eric Rowe. However, after yesterdays OTAs, we have to talk about Walter Thurmond where Chip said that he is playing some safety.

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However, I think Eric Rowe will start at cornerback and will only be moved to safety if he struggles at cornerback or Watkins and Wolff prove to be absolutely useless. This is very possible of course. Maybe the swap from cornerback to safety is good for Watkins, I personally preferred him as a safety when watching his college tape before the draft. Although his tackling isn’t great. Hopefully can Wolff can show some of the potential he showed before his knee injuries.

Prediction: I think Jaylen Watkins will be better than Wolff at covering the slot which gives him the edge to start. However, I think Walter Thurmond will steal the job from Watkins if Kelly seriously sees Thurmond as a safety.

Cornerback

As I said previously, I expect Eric Rowe to start out at outside cornerback. However, if he plays safety, will that mean Walter Thurmond will play outside or even Nolan Carroll? Carroll had a very good offseason last year and if he does the same again he could force himself into the starting line-up. It looks unlikely Rowe will play safety with Thurmond practicing there currently.

If Eric Rowe does play outside cornerback opposite Byron Maxwell like I’m expecting, there could be a very interesting battle between Brandon Boykin and Carroll for the slot cornerback position. Boykin has been very good the last couple of years but Chip complimented Carroll a lot yesterday. Assuming Boykin will not re-sign next year, Chip may prefer to play Carroll over him.

Prediction: Eric Rowe starts at outside cornerback. Chip wants to give Carroll the slot cornerback role but Boykin just proves to be too good in training camp and wins it off him. If Thurmond doesn’t work as a safety, he could easily start over Boykin in the slot.

Inside Linebacker

Who really knows what’s happening here? All reports say Chip wanted to trade Mychal Kendricks but he didn’t and he is currently still here. Regardless of what Kendricks is like off the field, he’s the Eagles best linebacker on it. Chip is obviously still a huge fan of the teams leader, DeMeco Ryans, but were the team noticeably worse when he got hurt last year? I don’t think so. He isn’t the same player he once was.

Everything rests on Kiko Alonso staying healthy, if he gets hurt again the linebackers will just stay the same as last year. I personally find Kendricks is a better player than Alonso but I don’t think Chip traded LeSean McCoy for a backup. Maybe Chip does just leave Kendricks on the bench for most of the year if he plans on getting rid of him next year. Worth remembering though, Chip used DeSean Jackson and LeSean McCoy a lot the years before he got rid of them.

Prediction: I can’t get a feel for this position. I think Ryans and Kiko may start but I find that weird because Kendricks is so much better than Ryans. Ryans may end up only playing on early downs because he is a liability in coverage at this point in his career. Kendricks could then replace him on third downs and play alongside Kiko. I would like to see all three rotate with Kendricks playing the most snaps but I think this is unlikely, sadly.

Outside Linebacker

The Eagles starting outside linebackers are clearly Brandon Graham and Connor Barwin. However, the depth behind them is poor. Marcus Smith showed nothing as a rookie and Travis Long was injured all of last year. Maybe the team believes Brad Jones can play there if necessary and in a worst case scenario, Kiko can move outside.

Prediction: Marcus Smith may be terrible all year, but I still expect him to be the main backup this year if either Graham or Barwin go down. Chip will still want to get something out of last years first round pick and I think he could rotate with Brandon Graham as he’s better in coverage. Travis Long will probably be behind Marcus Smith in the depth chart.

Next: Eagles: Breaking Down The Offensive Position Battles

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