Duke Riley Makes Case at LB
PHILADELPHIA - A week into Phase Three of the Eagles training camp, fourth-year linebacker Duke Riley is making a strong case to be one of Philadelphia's two starters at the position.
In the modern NFL, the nickel defense is the base defense and Nate Gerry is stamped as one of the two linebackers that will be on the field as a full-time player.
Presumably, second-year man T.J. Edwards was the leader in the clubhouse for the second spot as one of the two somewhat traditional LBs on the Eagles roster at 242 pounds.
And that might still be the case, but Riley seems to be forging ahead after a somewhat dominant practice on Monday that included a sack of Carson Wentz and a brilliant leaping interception of a Nate Sudfeld seam pass.
At 6-foot-1 and 224 pounds, athleticism has always been the calling card of Riley, a third-round pick of Atlanta out of LSU back in 2017.
Riley started 16 games with the Falcons before falling out of favor and being swapped in Week Five last year, along with a 2020 sixth-round pick, for safety Johnathan Cyprien and a 2020 seventh-rounder.
As an in-season pickup on a team that still had veterans Nigel Bradham and Kamu Grugier-Hill, Riley forged his path in Philadelphia through special teams.
Despite arriving a month into the campaign, by the playoffs, Riley was named a special teams captain, a testament to just how well the Louisiana native fit into the locker room.
“Duke is a great guy, he’s just got a lot of energy,” said special teams coordinator Dave Fipp earlier this month. “He plays the game with a lot of passion and you can tell it’s really important to him. He really embraces every play, doesn’t matter if it’s an offensive or defensive play. He plays them all the same way.”
Despite spending a quarter of the season in Atlanta, Riley finished third on the Eagles with 10 specials teams tackles.
“You can tell he’s a true competitor,” said Fipp. “He has a burning passion to succeed and become a complete player in this league.”
That burning passion is now translating to the defense with Bradham and KGH gone and a young group fighting for playing time.
To date, Riley has been splitting reps with Edwards in the nickel but now it appears Riley is the one inching ahead.
"He helped last year," defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz said when discussing Riley before his big practice on Monday morning. "He was out there in a bunch of our short-yardage situations and our four-linebacker situations and did a good job every time he was on the field."
Schwartz has a number of options, including a platoon situation of sorts where the bigger Edwards plays in run-heavy situations and the athletic Riley handles likely-passing situations with Gerry, the former college safety from Nebraska turned Ken Flajole favorite.
Or perhaps, it's more game-plan specific with a heavy-run team seeing more Edwards and a pass-happy bunch getting Riley.
Flajole, the linebackers coach, expects both Riley and Edwards to be involved with Gerry on the defense.
"People can say 'Hey listen, you maybe lack that veteran presence right now.' But again I offset it by saying 'we've got great enthusiasm, great athleticism now in our room.'" Flajole said. "And these guys will have a role for us on defense they're going to help us."
Schwartz also feels Riley is ready for more on his plate.
"He was ready to play a more expanded role if we had had injuries and he had been forced to, but I would sort of put Duke in the same category as T.J. Edwards," said Schwartz. "... Both guys provided quality snaps for us, and their knowledge of our scheme and everything sort of increased throughout the season."
Early in practice Monday, Riley showed off his speed on a blitz that navigated left tackle Jordan Mailata before engulfing Wentz, and later it was an NBA-like vertical when Sudfeld was trying to find the seam behind the LBs and defensive backs.
"Duke has great speed," said Schwartz. "He's not the biggest linebacker in the world but he does have good movement skills and good speed."
Now that Schwartz has time to evaluate Riley, the DC is enjoying what he's seeing.
"He's not in a situation where he's trying to learn the defense during training camp," said Schwartz. "He was learning sort of in the middle of last season. But you can see him sort of present his skillset a little bit more clearly when it's not the middle of the season and you're just preparing for a specific opponent and you're also trying to prepare guys that you're expecting to play in the game.
"He's had a good training camp so far."
John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John every Monday and Friday on SIRIUSXM’s Tony Bruno Show with Harry Mayes, and every Tuesday and Thursday with Eytan Shander on SportsMap Radio. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
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