Eagles Want Versatile Defenders To Have A ‘Home’

The Eagles want versatile players in the back seven. They also want defenders comfortable.

Eagles rookie defensive back Cooper DeJean / John McMullen/Eagles SI

PHILADELPHIA - Cornerback to slot, slot to safety, dime packages. One thing is certain with Vic Fangio’s defensive scheme: the Eagles will value smart, versatile football players.

The versatility of some of the Eagles’ defensive backs in spring work was a theme when Philadelphia’s new secondary coach and defensive passing game coordinator Christian Parker met with reporters earlier this week.

The two most notable pieces moving this spring have been veteran Avonte Maddox, who has gotten first-team work in the slot and second-team action at safety, as well as second-round rookie Cooper DeJean, predominately a cornerback at Iowa who has already lined up there, in the slot, and in big-nickel packages as essentially as extra linebacker.

Maddox has had years to learn his craft and has been a starter at cornerback, the slot, and safety at times in his seven-year career.

DeJean, though, is just getting his feet wet, with a rookie camp, six OTA practices, and his first minicamp practice on Tuesday.

“We’ve moved him around a little bit,” Parker said of DeJean. “He can handle it mentally. And I think as we move on through this phase right now when going into training camp, then he’ll have a home. 

“But he’s playing corner, he’s playing nickel, he’s handling those things well. We’ll continue to put more on his plate and see how he handles it.”

Parker was emphatic about a “home” being needed for every player no matter how versatile the coaching staff believes they might be.

"I think that's the main thing, you don't want to take advantage of an intelligent football player because you do want him to play fast,” Parker explained. “So we're never going to put [DeJean] in a situation where he has to learn a million jobs and he can't be really good at one.”

A positionless secondary has been a talking point in the modern NFL over recent years and many organizations are starting to move in that direction. 

“So really, like it's you playing multiple positions quote, unquote, but really the job descriptions are very similar down in and down out depending on what we're doing,” Parker said. “So it was really simple for [DeJean] and he has a really good football mind, some of the concepts that we run a similar to what he did at Iowa. 

“So in terms of being new learning is really just learning the new terminology more so than a lot of the technical development we have to do."

Then you have to integrate the technique, something that Fangio has set up with three secondary coaches: Parker who oversees cornerbacks coach Roy Anderson, and safeties coach Joe Kasper.

"We meet together and we start individual together before we kind of disperse in different technical development,” Parker said. “I think it's important that guys understand. [Cornerback] Darius Slay is hearing what [safety] Reed Blankenship is getting coached on.

“[Cornerback] Isaiah Rodgers is hearing what we're telling Tyler Hall at nickel, what have you so those guys understand the difference in the job descriptions and where their help is and where it isn't.”

If all goes as planned the finished product maintains the “illusion of being complex” per Parker to the rest of the world but one that’s second nature to the players tasked with executing it on game days.

“First and foremost is the primary job like what do you do best?” said Parker. “So getting that straight first and then kind of getting the versatility off of that when you have a room that's together like that guys understand the big picture and that's something we're big on is the why behind each call and how we want it to express itself. 

“So when you all are together like that and you're able to kind of touch and go in different assets, it helps with the development of the defense overall."

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