Eagles legend Brian Dawkins shares searing Jonathan Gannon assessment

It’s been more than a week. We’ve come to the conclusion that it was probably best that Jonathan Gannon move on despite the Philadelphia Eagles‘ apparent attempts to give him a pay raise to keep him in the nest. There are only 32 NFL head-coaching jobs on Planet Earth, and in many ways, most of the City of Brotherly Love had already divorced him. He’s probably the man that Birds fans most blame for the Super Bowl LVII loss. It also appears that a handful of franchise legends aren’t fans. Include Brian Dawkins in that theory.

Some opinions are different. Some guys talk and we listen to everything they say, and when we’re talking about one of the most beloved and revered legends in franchise history, the man with a million nicknames (B-Dawk, Weapon X, Wolverine) definitely qualifies.

Don’t look now. Dawk has a few theories he’d like to share about Philly’s now-former defensive coordinator.

Brian Dawkins would have “hated” playing for Jonathan Gannon.

94 WIP-FM in Philadelphia delivers the goods daily, and we expect that trend to continue, especially now that long-time Bird Hugh Douglas has left his nest in Atlanta sports talk radio to return to the City of Brotherly Love where he belongs.

Brian Dawkins hung out with Joe Giglio and Hugh Douglas Monday on the new 94WIP Midday Show. Here’s some of what he had to say:

"As for me, playing under this defensive coordinator—me personally? I would’ve hated it. because none of the things that I was blessed to do blitzing would have been added to this defense under Gannon… He took advantage of the personnel that the front office gave him. Got a lot of dudes that can win one on one battles and so he put those guys in position to have that success through the year. The only thing that I kept saying all year is that when your fastball is not working, you have to have a changeup and you have to be used to throwing that changeup."

Dawk is referencing what most Eagles fans have discussed since the close of the most recent Super Bowl. Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs made halftime adjustments during Super Bowl LVII and played lights out during the last 30 minutes. Gannon’s defensive unit failed to do the same thing.

Here’s more from the legend.

"You know for us [when we were playing] we’re going to blitz, we’re going to disguise, we’re going to move around…For a team that does not blitz and when you ask them to blitz, it’s a foreign subject for them. People were getting on me, ‘Well they’re getting sacks.’ Well, I love the sacks. Continue to get the sacks, but also mix in the blitz so that those guys know what to do when plan A is not working and you have to go to plan B. Plan B happens this past Sunday [in the Super Bowl] because you weren’t winning your one on one battles. Why? Because the field was jacked up. That was a sloppy field so you have to do other things. And [Gannon] did not do a good job of adjusting to that, to getting away from his fastball, going to changeups or different blitz packages."

Enough said. Place a period at the end of the sentence. For more than a decade, Brian Dawkins represented every Eagles fan proudly and played the game how we love to see our favorite players perform.

Behind the microphone (or from his cellular device), the man who made the Number 20 jersey legendary still has his fingers on the most loyal fan base’s pulse. We’d be fine if Giglio and Douglas had him on as often as possible.