Eagles Will Retain Special Team Coordinator Michael Clay
PHILADELPHIA - The Eagles will keep one of their coordinators.
Head coach Nick Sirianni announced that the organization will be bringing back special teams coordinator Michael Clay for the 2023 season.
That was no foregone conclusion because the third phase is where NFC champions struggled the most this past season. While both the offense and defense finished in the top five of the league, most of the special teams rankings were less kind to the Eagles with Rick Gosselin’s annual rankings putting Clay's units at No. 31 and Pro Football Focus grading things only slightly better at No. 29.
“Yes he will (return),” Sirianni said of Clay. “I thought we did a nice job as far as just improving. We had some rocky beginnings in special teams and I thought we did a nice job improving those special teams as the year went along.
"A lot of credit to Coach Clay, obviously a lot of credit to the players that stepped up and made plays to do so."
Sunday's 38-35 Super Bowl loss to Kansas City was marred by a poor fourth-quarter punt from Arryn Siposs and a subsequent 65-yard return by Kadarius Toney that set up the Chiefs on the Eagles' five-yard line, resulting in a quick K.C. touchdown.
“Again, we talked about the punt and the punt return by Kansas City. Hat is off to them. We didn’t do a good enough job on that play and nothing is ever decided on one play,” said Sirianni.
When explaining why Clay was being retained pointed to the improvement on special teams in teh second half of the season.
Clay also spoke about that back in January.
“There may be some stuff where I had to do a better job of explaining to them in their own terms where they get it and then it clicks for them, where I've had to grow as a coach, as a coordinator for these guys to get going,” Clay said then.
The Eagles received solid work from two of their three specialists: kicker Jake Elliott and long snapper Rick Lovato but Siposs generally struggled and when the punter was out with a torn ankle ligament veteran Brett Kern was even worse.
The top punt returner was undrafted rookie Britain Covey, who was more of a safety valve than return threat until the Super Bowl when the Utah product had a career-long 27-yard punt return.
On kick returns Quez Watkins and Covey were both benched before Boston Scott settled things down by averaging 27.1 yards per return.
The core special teams coverage players were Zech McPhearson, Josh Jobe, and Christian Elliss, the latter of which sparked a second-half resurgence.
“I have a great deal of confidence in Coach Clay and the job he did these last two years and how we’ve improved, how he’s improved,” Sirianni said. “He’s improved greatly, our special teams has improved greatly and, yeah, he’ll be back.”
-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Football 24/7 and a daily contributor to ESPN South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
