Philadelphia Eagles Will go as Far as the Defense Does

The most important member of the Philadelphia Eagles in 2016 is defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz.

This may come as a surprise for people who believe that if Sam Bradford doesn’t bounce back that the Philadelphia Eagles won’t have a successful season but they don’t need Bradford to win games. What they need is for Bradford to not lose games. Last year he accounted for 17 turnovers (14 interceptions 3 fumbles) in 14 games played. That’s not going to cut it for the Eagles this year. If he comes close to that performance again he might as well kiss his job goodbye to Carson Wentz / Chase Daniel.

The good news for Bradford is that the Philadelphia Eagles only need a game manager at quarterback with their defensive improvements heading into this year. Jim Schwartz is an excellent defensive coordinator and as they say, defense wins championships. The Eagles are heading into 2016 with their only true question mark on the defensive side being the quality of their cornerbacks and depth among their linebackers.

The cornerback quality should be fine because Leodis McKelvin (who’s slated to be the number one cornerback) played some of his best football in Schwartz’s schemes. Nolan Carroll and Eric Rowe should also make strides this year under Schwartz. The big factor to help the corners will be that the Philadelphia Eagles will have excellent safety play with the combination of Malcolm Jenkins and Rodney McLeod. Those two will allow the corners to be more aggressive on coverages because they will have help over the top.

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The Eagles should also have an improved pass rush in 2016 which will lead to more turnovers as quarterbacks are attempting to avoid the pressure and throw the ball away. Jim Schwartz defenses are characterized by their aggressiveness and blitzes which will suit the Eagles personell well. Jim Schwartz coming in is another good reason that the Fletcher Cox extension was done now rather than later because Schwartz’s defensive linemen get paid after working with him (just look at the deals that Marcell Dareus and Ndamukong Suh signed post Schwartz).

The linebacker depth is a concern and a reason why signing Stephen Tulloch has been pondered by fans as an option if the lions release him. Tulloch has been the leading tackler for the Lions in each of his years there and his experience both in the league and with Schwartz could be invaluable to the Philadelphia Eagles. He would round out the linebacker core for the Eagles and lead them to a much improved defensive ranking this year. But even without Tulloch, this defense is set up pretty well.

The offense wasn’t the issue for the Philadelphia Eagles last year even with Sam Bradford‘s struggles. Last season, the offense averaged 23.6 points per game which is a middle of the pack ranking. They did this with an unhappy ineffective running back in DeMarco Murray and all of Bradford’s issues. It’s not outside of the realm of possibility for the offense to equal, or even improve upon those numbers from last season.

The defense, however, was a dumpster fire and that’s putting it lightly. The Philadelphia Eagles were the 28th ranked scoring defense allowing 26.9 points per game. That was because the run defense was abysmal allowing 134.4 yards per game. That should be remedied with the formation switch as well as the additions that have been made to the linebacking core.

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If the defense was able to be average the Philadelphia Eagles would have been at least .500 last season. It’s safe to expect improvement from the defense this year and they have the ability to be a top ten defense by the years end. If they do that, the Philadelphia Eagles may emulate the Flyers in making a surprise playoff run in a rebuilding year. And that’s why Jim Schwartz is one of the most important men in Philadelphia currently.

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