Philadelphia Eagles: Don’t discount a Rasul Douglas reunion
When the Philadelphia Eagles decided to waive Sidney Jones and Rasul Douglas going into the 2020 NFL season, it felt like a mistake.
Sure, neither player was expected to start and were at best depth pieces behind Darius Slay and Avonte Maddox, but surely at least one of the fourth-year cornerbacks – selected 56 picks apart in the 2017 NFL Draft – was worthy of a spot on the initial 53 man depth chart, right? I mean, Craig James not only made the roster but actually earned a contract extension to stick around through 2021.
Welp, as it turns out, that wasn’t the case, and in hindsight, those “huge mistake” concerns were dead on.
Discounting Maddox’s issues playing on the outside, the Eagles were forced to rely on a motley crew of not quite starting-caliber outside cornerbacks like James, Nickell Robey-Coleman, Michael Jacquet, Kevon Seymour, Trevor Williams, and even Rudy Ford for meaningful snaps during games of very real consequence.
Rudy Ford doesn’t even get snaps at his given position (safety) but was forced to play cornerback during a must-win game at the end of the season. If that doesn’t pretty much personify the Eagles’ season in 2020, I truly don’t know what does.
But hey, fear not. While the Philadelphia Eagles can’t right their wrongs and have a complete redo on the 2020 NFL season, the head coaching tenure of Doug Pederson or Carson Wentz’s tenure as the team’s franchise quarterback (probably), that doesn’t mean they can’t potentially right one of their wrongs and reunite with a former fan favorite hailing from East Orange, NJ.
If Douglas hits the open market, the Philadelphia Eagles should be interested.
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Through the first month or so of the 2020 NFL season, there wasn’t a better feel-good story on the margins than the sudden emergence of Rasul Douglas.
Despite being waived outright by the Philadelphia Eagles and being claimed by the Carolina Panthers without so much as a preseason or training camp to learn the scheme of new head coach – and forever Temple fan-favorite – Matt Rhule, Douglas was thrust into action on the outside in Week 1 and performed better than even the most ardent West Virginia supporter could have hoped for.
After losing Donte Jackson a dozen or so snaps into the team’s opening day contest against the Las Vegas Raiders, Douglas’ new number (24) was called and he answered it with 51 pretty darn good snaps against an offense powered by a strong, three-touchdown Josh Jacobs performance.
From there, Douglas continued to play a ton of snaps in Rhule’s off-ball Cover 2 scheme, starting 11 of the next 13 games while playing 77.53 percent of the team’s total defensive snaps – the fourth-highest mark of any Panthers defensive player behind only Tre Boston, Shaq Thompson, and Jersey Chinn. Though Douglas wasn’t able to maintain his initial fire from the first month of the season over a full 16 game campaign, getting pulled from the team’s starting lineup in Week 14 and 15 before returning to the spot for the team’s final two games of the regular season, there was enough good from the weird, COVID-altered season to make a strong case that the 26-year-old deserves a longer look as a starter moving forward.
Could that come in Carolina? Most definitely. But if the team opts instead to lock up fellow soon-to-be free agent Corn Elder with the intentions of upgrading their CB2 across from Donte Jackson either in the draft or free agency, there will surely be a number of teams interested in locking up Douglas’ services moving forward.
One of those teams should unquestionably be the Philadelphia Eagles.
While Douglas was always an unusual fit in Jim Schwartz’s defensive scheme, as he lacked the deep speed needed to play outside in a single-high press-heavy scheme, that isn’t the scheme the Birds will be running in 2021 under Jonathan Gannon.
No, if Gannon brings over the defense he helped to cultivate over from Indianapolis with some additional wrinkles for good measure, fans will likely be greeted to a Cover 2-heavy scheme that utilizes bigger cornerbacks who press at the line before dropping into either man or zone coverage (more on that here). Sure, they’ll sprinkle in some Cover 3 looks, which fans in Philly will surely remember from Schwartz’s tenure, but over his three-year tenure learning under Matt Eberflus, the Colts’ primary defensive looks were some form of defensive look with a pair of safeties dropped deep to prevent deep throws down the sidelines.
Why is this relevant? Well, because Douglas is a really good playmaker, especially when he doesn’t have to worry about losing his spot due to one missed assignment.
Over his first two seasons in a midnight green uniform, Douglas was a ball-hawking machine. In 30 games of action – each with an average of 32.2 defensive snaps – Douglas picked off five passes and recorded 15 passes defensed, which is pretty darn good. How good? Well, no other cornerback during the Doug Pederson-era ever recorded interceptions or passes defensed at that proficient a clip, and the next best cornerback, Ronald Darby, had a much bigger sample size in which to do so.
Place Douglas in a system that allows him to empose his size by pressing at the line of scrimmage before dropping back into man coverage with the knowledge that there’s a safety behind him dropped into deep zone if things go bad and it’s very likely the Eagles could finally get the player they initially envisioned when they utilized the 99th overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft on a local JuCo prospect who made good as a member of the West Virginia Mountaineers.
Heck, one could make the argument that Douglas is a better scheme fit in Gannon/Eberflus’ system than that of Rhule and Phil Snow, as he has the exact measurables the Colts have targeted in free agency/draft outside cornerback additions like Rock Ya-Sin, Xavier Rhodes, and Nate Hairston. Assuming Douglas and his agents don’t hold ill-will towards his former team, which doesn’t appear to be the case based on his Super Bowl Sunday tweets, there’s very little reason that a reunion couldn’t be fruitful for both parties, especially with Maddox all but certainly destined to migrate to the slot in a Kenny Moore-esque role.
Douglas and Slay sure seemed to have clicked during their shared time together and have even remained video game buddies despite no longer being teammates; I’m sure they wouldn’t be too opposed to a reunion either.
Next. Have the Philadelphia Eagles lost their “big market team” status?. dark
In the NFL, unlike the NBA, free agency comes before the draft. That means fans, teams, and their front offices will have no way of knowing if the player(s) they cover in the draft will be available when they take the clock or if they’ll have to scramble for a lesser option to avoid heading into the regular season with a gaping hole on their depth chart. While we don’t know whether the Philadelphia Eagles covet Patrick Surtain II as highly as some other fans in the City of Brotherly Love, they’d be wise to add at least one veteran outside cornerback option before heading into the draft just in case. Assuming he’s willing to take a one-year, prove-it deal in the $1.5-3 million range, Rasul Douglas should be one of the more prominent names on the team’s cornerback wish list, as he’s a far better scheme fit under Jonathan Gannon than Jim Schwartz before him.