2 Interesting facts on Philadelphia Eagles DC Jonathan Gannon

Okay, are you one of those Philadelphia Eagles fans who are starting to feel some small traces of optimism? No? Any reason why not? No, hold on a second. You’re one of those Birds fans that can’t wrap your head around just how young this coaching staff is right?

Don’t lose a ton of sleep on that one. You’re not alone if you are. Let’s do some inventory.

Thankfully, if you’re a fan, Philly’s offensive line coach, Jeff Stoutland, is still hanging in there. Duce Staley is gone, and yes, you can take that for what you will. Still, there’s something to be said about a work environment at a billion-dollar company and the morale of the employees that work there (even if those guys play football and wear helmets when it’s showtime). It’s hard to imagine that this team will be pumped when they get out of bed to go back to the NovaCare Complex.

Not only is one of their favorite coaches gone, one that kept things professional. They’ve traded a Super Bowl-winning head coach (one who turns 53 years old on January 31st) and one of the games more knowledgable defensive coordinators (even if the results on the field didn’t always demonstrate that), a 53-year-old Jim Schwartz for Nick Sirianni, Shane Steichen, and Jonathan Gannon.

None of those guys have ever had as much responsibility as they’ll have now. None of those guys are over 40; however, Sirianni has a 40th birthday coming up on June 15th. There are both pros and cons that can be taken from his hire, but in all honesty, we all have to wait and see what happens.

Here are two thoughts on the Philadelphia Eagles’ new defensive coordinator.

By now, most of us could probably lay out all of the questions that we have about the new guys. Heck, we’ve been talking about them all week. Here are two of the highlights though if you’re a Philadelphia Eagles fan.

1. No one knows what this Eagles defense will look like.

Jonathan Gannon has never been a defensive coordinator before and has never had to call the defensive plays in a real NFL game that counts against the team’s win-loss total. No one knows what his defense will look like. There isn’t much to go off of to get an understanding of what he will want to do schematically.

If we’re being frank, we don’t even know if he runs a 3-4 defensive scheme or one of the 4-3’s variety.

2. His eye for talent might actually be better than his G.M.’s

Here’s one thing Gannon can say that his executive vice president and general manager can’t. He knows how to scout talent. He served as both a college scout with what was then the Saint Louis Rams in 2009 and as their pro scout from 2010-2011.

Saint Louis posted a 10-38 record over that time. Now, that isn’t all Gannon’s fault, but it’s definitely interesting and representative of the team the Rams had put together over that three-year span. There definitely wasn’t a ton of elite-level talent walking around, especially once you got past Steven Jackson, Donnie Jones, and Robert Quinn, who was a rookie in 2011.