2 Reasons Philadelphia Eagles must move on from Jim Schwartz

2. Even the Philadelphia Eagles’ defensive stars have regressed under Schwartz’s watch.

In moments of crisis in any NFL game, there are times when winning and losing has nothing to do with the scheme. The play call won’t bail you out. Neither will anything the 11 men on the field learned in film study. Ladies and gentlemen, sometimes winning and losing just comes down to your best players making plays. That isn’t happening in Philly, and with each passing week, this defense seems to be less effective for one reason or another.

Each week, there are opportunities for the defense to do something, whether that be getting off of the field on third down or putting out a fire started by its own offense. More often than not, when they’ve absolutely had to do so, the ‘Birds’ haven’t gotten the job done in a crisis. The stars aren’t stepping up, just look at Fetcher Cox. He’s a team captain, and every week somebody has to peel this man off of the turf because he just doesn’t feel like doing it himself. That ‘get up and go’ isn’t there. You can call it fatigue. Some of us will call it what it is, laziness.

Just about everyone that is under Schwartz’s direction is regressing or has regressed. That has happened much too often under Schwartz’s watch.

Maybe everything wrong with Sidney Jones wasn’t on Sindney Jones. Maybe Nickell Robey-Coleman being unable to do what fans thought he might isn’t totally on him. Who knows why this team can’t get a linebacker they took in the third round of the most recent draft on the field or why Jalen Mills has moved back to cornerback and looks worse than he did when he played there the first time. We won’t even get into the failures of Javon Hargrave.

What has to be said is this though. These Eagles coaches have seen their voices get stale. Schwartz is good enough to win in the NFL, but every coach needs a change of scenery sometimes.

It worked for several former Eagles defensive assistants and a former head coach. (Todd Bowles, Sean McDermott, Andy Reid). Heck, Schwartz’s voice has gotten stale at his press conferences. He’s clearly lost this unit, and as wise as he may be, once that happens, there’s nothing any organization can do except make a switch. It isn’t personal. It’s about business, and right now, the Eagles need to get back to the business of winning games consistently.