Philadelphia Eagles: Don’t expect any changes within the coaching staff
It’s a rough day for the “Fire Jim Schwartz, and Mike Groh” crowd. The Philadelphia Eagles will keep everything the way it is for now.
Patience tends to run thin within the Philadelphia sports fan bases more often than not. The term “What have you done for me lately?” is something that Philadelphia Eagles fans seem to live by on a daily basis. I mean, one bad quarter as a coach or a player can have the entire fan base turning their backs on you and asking for your release. And even after a Super Bowl victory less than a year ago, nothing has changed in this city. In fact, the patience for this team might’ve gotten even thinner.
You would think a Super Bowl would satisfy everybody, but that’s not the case. When Eagles head coach Doug Pederson stated that going deep into the postseason would be the ‘new norm,’ expectations have been set way too high for the 2018 season. The Eagles were off to a rough start that almost caused them to miss the playoffs entirely, and Philly already wanted tons of changes within the coaching staff.
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We know just how much the loss of Frank Reich and John DeFilippo meant to the Eagles early on. Reich was doing an excellent job of turning around the Indianapolis Colts, while the Eagles were struggling to put up points on offense. At that time, there was speculation that maybe Reich was the brains behind the dominant offense in 2017 and not Doug Pederson.
Well, it turns out that’s not entirely the case, as Pederson coached this team into playoffs for the second consecutive season, despite the ridiculous amounts of injuries suffered. However, his offensive coordinator Mike Groh seemed a bit clueless at times, as the Eagles offense never looked to hit their full stride this past season. Regardless of the struggles, Groh will get a second chance though.
What about the guy who runs the defense?
Jim Schwartz has taken a ton of heat over the last couple of seasons. Some days his defensive gameplan is excellent, and offenses can’t move the ball at all. Other days, well, we all saw the Super Bowl, right? Over 500 yards in the air? Yeah, well, that’s less than ideal. Schwartz is a solid coordinator, who has had to deal with a ridiculous amount of injuries over the last two seasons.
In 2018 alone, the Eagles were missing a starting safety, two cornerbacks on the outside, a starting nickel cornerback, starting middle linebacker, and a starting defensive end at some point.
Yet, the Eagles defense was clearly the better unit throughout the season. You can pinpoint two of the losses on blowing the late game lead, but aside from that, the Eagles would have far more losses than wins without Schwartz’s ability to adjust his gameplan.
Next. Carson Wentz is the quarterback moving forward. dark
Firing Jim Schwartz would be foolish at this point for the Eagles. However, there does need to be a bit of a discussion during the offseason about situational gameplans. The third and long sticks defense needs to go. And maybe a few extra blitzes can help the gameplan too. Other than that though, Schwartz is more than deserving of keeping his job as the defensive coordinator.
As for Groh and the offense goes, well, he’s definitely on his final chance. If the Eagles can’t turn their ability to move the ball and score points around in 2019, then we can definitely expect some changes on that side of the ball. For now, though, the Eagles are going to keep everything the same. Hopefully, we see a tremendous turnaround next season by the Eagles coaching staff.