Philadelphia Eagles: Where in the world is Ryan Kerrigan?

After years of running a 4-3, wide-9 attacking scheme predicated on relentlessly pressuring opposing quarterbacks with an eight-man rotation upfront, the Philadelphia Eagles have officially transitioned to a new defensive scheme under brand new head coach Jonathan Gannon.

While the front may still look relatively similar, only with the defensive ends lined up a bit closer to the offensive tackles’ outside shoulders, this new scheme is far more predicated on dropping into zone coverage, playing with a lighter box sans additional safety support, and, supposedly, more blitzing from all over the defense.

And yet, so far, that hasn’t really been the case.

Through the first four games of the 2021 NFL season, 6.5 of the team’s eight sacks were recorded by a defensive lineman, with a single sack coming on a flukey rush by T.J. Edwards and another half-sack coming on a slot cornerback blitz from Avonte Maddox. No sacks for Genard Avery despite earning starts in the first two games of the season, no sacks for Eric Wilson, the team’s most utilized linebacker, no full sacks for Brandon Graham, Derek Barnett, or even Fletcher Cox, who admits to having trouble adapting to the team’s new scheme.

To make matters all the more maddening, the Eagles don’t have a single linebacker who has more than eight blitzes through four games, which feels incredibly low for a defensive coordinator who lauded former Los Angeles Chargers defensive coordinator Brandon Staley for his schematic versatility.

But do you want to know the weirdest development of the 2021 NFL season, at least for the Philadelphia Eagles? The absolute disappearance of Ryan Kerrigan.

Ryan Kerrigan doesn’t have a single statistic with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Ryan Kerrigan has played 116 snaps for the Philadelphia Eagles in 2021.

He’s appeared in all four games thus far this season, played at least 22 snaps in each, and has been afforded plenty of opportunities to contribute against both the run and the pass.

And yet, through the first four games of the year, a quarter of the season under the old 16 game format, Kerrigan doesn’t have a single defensive stat to his name.

Not one. Zip, nada, zero.

Outside of physically checking into games, which technically shows up on the team’s play-by-play ledger, you wouldn’t know Kerrigan was on the Eagles roster unless you carefully watched the screen and recognized his number 91 jersey on the screen.

… except that isn’t even the case. As you surely already know, Fletcher Cox holds Kerrigan’s long-time Washington number here in Philly, and he had to switch to number 90 after a decade wearing 91. That fact would probably be more well known if Kerrigan’s name was called more often on gamedays, but thus far, that hasn’t been the case.

But how? 26 players on the Eagles roster have at least one tackle through the first four games of the season. Boston Scott has one, as does Jack Stoll. JJ Arcega-Whiteside, who hasn’t recorded a single catch, touchdown, or even target in 39 offensive snaps, and even he has two more tackles on his resume than Kerrigan, who has 457 to his name over the last decade.

If this trend continues through the month of October, is there any chance Kerrigan is still on the roster come November, let alone in the running for a second contract next March? I sort of doubt it.

When the Philadelphia Eagles signed Ryan Kerrigan, he was supposed to be a swiss army knife. He was supposed to split time between strongside linebacker and defensive end, rush the passer from everywhere, and set a strong edge versus both the run and running quarterbacks. Instead, he’s been more like a butter knife, which can still be helpful, unless, of course, you’re trying to eat soup. Like Andrew Sendejo and Jamon Brown before him, Kerrigan looks destined to go down as yet another free agent flop on Howie Roseman’s resume.