Reasons Eagles fans must temper immediate expectations for Sean Desai

Something dawned on us when we woke up, went to work, and began working on this story. Typically, when there are coaching changes in the Philadelphia Eagles organization, they’re completed and announced well before the NFL Draft. At the time of this story being published, we’re a little over two weeks from the first night of the annual selection meeting and the announcement that the Carolina Panthers are on the clock. We still haven’t heard Sean Desai address the Philly media as the Birds’ defensive coordinator.

We haven’t heard from the newly promoted offensive coordinator Brian Johnson either, but if you place your mouse’s cursor on the URL line, type PhiladelphiaEagles.com, and click on the coach’s roster, you can at least access Coach Johnson’s bio. As of 3 p.m. EST on Monday, April 10th, you can’t do that for Coach Desai.

That isn’t a big deal, we are aware of what’s on his resume. We’re just saying. Do what you will with that information. Here’s something else that’s interesting though. You might also notice that there’s been no announcement of the hiring of a defensive backs coach (D.K. McDonald is the assistant DBs coach). This could be much ado about nothing. Maybe the Birds have their DBs coach and they just haven’t told us who he is. We’d still like to see a Desai press conference though.

We’re interested in who he is, what he’s thinking, and, of course, what we might be able to expect from him in terms of defensive philosophy (even though we’re certain he wouldn’t give us anything). Who holds their cards closer to the vest than Philly?

Fear not. We believe this is a good hire and that everything will be alright. This is a good hire, and he has good weapons to work with.

Here are three reasons to temper expectations for Sean Desai during his first season as Eagles defensive coordinator.

Sean Desai joins the Birds as the owner of an impressive resume. A career that began at Temple led him to Miami, Boston College, and eventually the NFL.

He served as the Chicago Bears’ defensive quality control coach from 2013 to 2018 before being promoted to safeties coach in 2019 and the defensive coordinator’s chair in 2021. Most recently, he was an associate head coach and defensive assistant for the Seattle Seahawks in 2022.

The 2023-2024 NFL season will be his first as Eagles defensive coordinator. Expect growing pains, but expect success as well. We also believe that it will be wise to temper expectations. Here are four of about ten reasons to do so.

1. Following two seasons in Jonathan Gannon’s scheme, the Eagles’ defense is being asked to learn another. 

One of the reasons that we were so confident that Jalen Hurts would take a step forward last season was because, as we have stated before, he finally had some consistency on his coaching staff. The most recent campaign was the first opportunity he had since high school to enjoy the benefit of not having to get to know a new offensive coordinator. As you can see the results were favorable.

Change is a part of the game. We won’t deny that, but though we live in a microwave society where people want to see immediate results, no one should be shocked in Sean Desai’s unit needs some time to work out a few kinks. Let’s just hope the transition goes as smoothly as possible.

2. The Eagles’ defense will take steps backward statistically during 2023’s regular season. It’s unavoidable. 

Statistical records can stand for decades. There’s a good reason for that. It’s hard to win in the NFL, individually and as a team.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that the Eagles are going to just rattle off 70 or more sacks and win 14 games or more this season because they made it look easy the last time we saw them. The Eagles finished first versus the pass last time around. We hope they can do that again, but we don’t know that they will.

They didn’t close the deal in the final game, but the 2022-2023 Eagles still rank among the best teams that we have ever seen in this franchise’s history. Now, this season’s Birds have to write their own story.

3. Most of Philadelphia’s best players on defense are all over 30 years of age.

There’s no sense in fibbing here. Losing a Pro Bowl running back (Miles Sanders), the team’s leader in tackles (T.J. Edwards), the NFL’s co-leader in interceptions (C.J. Gardner-Johnson), AND one of the game’s best defensive tackles (Javon Hargrave) are all huge losses. Those losses are also eye-catching for another reason. Those were some of Philly’s best young players.

Eagles Vice President/General Manager Howie Roseman did a phenomenal job of keeping many of this team’s leaders and core players in place. Jason Kelce, Brandon Graham, Fletcher Cox, James Bradberry, and Darius Slay all return. They all played well last season, but four of those guys are well past their 30th birthday, and Bradberry turns 30 on August 4th.

Howie filled in some of the roster’s holes with low-risk, high-reward signings, but one has to ask the question. Even though the veterans have continued to contribute mightily, are we wrong to worry that some regression might occur?

4. The schedule is tougher this season than it was last year. 

One of the most overstated arguments we heard last season was ‘The Eagles didn’t play anyone’. One can argue that, in some cases, that statement has some credence. It can also be stated that teams can only play the teams that are on their schedule and that the Birds were so talented that they simply made teams look inferior. Oh well, it’s water under the bridge now. It’s time to turn the page to the 2023-2024 campaign.

In terms of who they played last season (gosh, the AFC South is awful) and who they play this season, the talent on the other sideline week in and week out figures to be better than what Philly saw in 2022.

All of that and everything mentioned before now must be taken into consideration when evaluating the job that Sean Desai is doing. We don’t know if there are similarities between the scheme he wants to run and what we saw from Jonathan Gannon. We know it will be hard to equal the amazing statistical showing we saw from Philadelphia last season.

To make long stories shorter, the facts are as follows. Everyone must approach a learning curve here, even Sean Desai. Thankfully, some of the Eagles leaders, Darius Slay in particular have already expressed their support, but with so many moving parts, we would be wise to employ patience. This figures to be fun, but it could take some time to gel. We may also see a few more shootouts this season.