Philadelphia Eagles: Jonathan Gannon keeps setting himself up for failure

It must be nice to play quarterback against the Philadelphia Eagles.

You don’t have to worry about exotic blitz, can pick up easy yards on the ground between the tackles, and can pretty much read the defense pre-snap and know exactly how to attack the coverage.

It’s easy. Like a pre-game walkthrough, or a practice without pads.

Through the first nine games of the season, seemingly every quarterback afforded the privilege of facing off against Jonathan Gannon‘s defense has recorded a near-career game, with Derek Carr most notably completing 91.8 percent of his throws for 323 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

So what gives? It’s clear the Philadelphia Eagles will never be able to win games if they allow opposing teams to move the ball at will and score more often than not, and yet, outside of a few divergent blitzes against quarterbacks like Sam Darnold or Jared Goff, Jonathan Gannon has remained largely devoted to sinking or swimming based on the design of his desired defensive scheme.

The Philadelphia Eagles can’t win with their current defensive scheme.

The Philadelphia Eagles’ scheme isn’t designed around pressuring the quarterback. Sure, it’s nice when they can rack up sacks, like Josh Sweat did in Detroit, but for the most part, Jonathan Gannon isn’t looking to collapse the pocket like his predecessor, Jim Schwartz, or to show exotic looks like his good friend Brandon Staley.

The Eagles’ defensive scheme also isn’t designed to stop the rushing game, as they routinely drop their linebackers back into zone instead of having them attack downfield and play a two-high look where neither safety’s first responsibility is to drive into the box as run support.

No, the Eagles’ scheme is based on two simple tenets: take away the deep ball on the outside and force opponents to make mistakes.

On paper, these two ideas aren’t bad. The Eagles were routinely tormented by perimeter go-routes in Schwartz’s single high defensive scheme and that those sorts of plays have largely been eliminated under Gannon. Similarly, plenty of teams have a ton of success running exotic coverages that force opposing quarterbacks into bad decisions that can flip both momentum and the field.

The only problem with that philosophy? Gannon’s defense is vanilla.

Actually, strike that, vanilla is a flavor with merit. Gannon’s defense is plain without so much as some diner table salt, pepper, or sugar to spice things up.

You see, while the Eagles’ zone-heavy two-high look has largely made opposing quarterbacks think twice about throwing up the deep ball into double coverage, it routinely leaves the middle of the field incredibly attackable, especially when the cornerbacks aren’t deployed in press coverage. This has allowed quarterbacks like Justin Herbert to pick apart the secondary like he’s going through a workout and largely avoided the sort of game-changing interceptions, fumbles, and incompletions that are needed to run a bend-but-don’t-break defense.

The results? The Eagles’ defense bends like Gumby and breaks like a Gumby dunked in liquid nitrogen and then thrown off the Walt Whitman Bridge.

Is it a bit too early to the write the obituary of Jonathan Gannon’s defensive coordinatorship? Maybe so. Gannon could wake up tomorrow, go to the drawing board, and design a new-look scheme that keeps opposing quarterbacks guessing and offensive lines gasping for air between sacks. But this current scheme will never be a winner for the Philadelphia Eagles, as it’s just too predictable to be effective.