An unconventional option to fix Philadelphia Eagles pass rush

There’s more than one way to skin a cat. Here’s a less-than-conventional option for fixing the Philadelphia Eagles pass rush.

Well, at this point, despite all of our efforts and research, sometimes all you can do is slide your favorite desk chair away from the workstation and throw your hands behind your head. We might as well give up. We make these projections and all of these educated guesses, and the fact remains. When it comes to trying to guess what these Philadelphia Eagles will do, none of us have a clue. Heck, the Eagles don’t know what they’re going to do next.

Sure, they have a plan. Thinking that this entire offseason has been one long freestyle is ridiculous, but some of this feels more reactionary than proactive.

They had a plan to go out and get DeAndre Hopkins and Byron Jones. They wound up with neither one of them. They did score a couple of heavy hitters in Nickell Robey-Coleman and Darius Slay. They also got one of the best defensive tackles available (Javon Hargrave) and a couple of nice pieces for depth (Jatavis Brown and Will Parks).

There’s just one thing. What about the pass rush? Maybe they address that need in the draft. Maybe they’re satisfied with what they already have, but until we get a clear answer, we’ll have to rely on imagination. Here’s something that isn’t getting mentioned that often, but it could work. If the Eagles get desperate, they could simply kick Malik Jackson out to the defensive end position.

As of right now, it would appear that Fletcher Cox and Hargrave are at the top of the Eagles depth chart at defensive tackle. Cox tips the scales at 310 pounds. Javon Hargrave weighs 305 pounds. The Eagles also have Anthony Rush (350), Albert Huggins (305), Hassan Ridgeway (305), and Bruce Hector (296) on the current roster.

Now, one might imagine that Huggins, Rush, and Hector could get left off of the final active roster come September, but who knows? As of right now, that’s a lot of beef in the middle of Philly’s defensive line.

Of all of the defensive tackles Philly currently employs, Malik Jackson is the smallest. He weighs 290. If you’d actually call that small, that’s the lightest of all of the Eagles’ defensive ends, but who’s to say the Eagles can’t use Jackon on the outside? They’ve used Brandon Graham as a defensive tackle in pass-rushing situations. You remember a certain strip-sack in the Super Bowl, don’t you?

There’s also this to consider. Jackson has spent some time during his NFL career playing at the defensive end position, albeit in the 3-4 scheme. Call it a crazy theory, but there’s no reason to believe that he isn’t versatile enough to make this work if Philly does indeed look to this to satisfy what they want to do on defense.

Even if there’s an adjustment period, just imagine a defensive line that features, Cox, Hargrave, Graham, and Jackson eyeing down the opposing quarterback in pass-rushing situations. Not only that, but there’s also the option of rotating Derek Barnett, or Josh Sweat, or Genard Avery in and out of the lineup on the edge. If that happens, Jackson can play both inside and outside. Don’t forget the plan for bringing Avery in midseason also revolved around the idea that his addition was done with 2020’s season in mind.

Don’t look now, but it appears as though we’ve gone from feeling desperate to the possibility of seeing this team have some very unique options on Eagles defense during the coming season.