Eagles Defensive Decisions: More Big Nickel a Solution?

The Philadelphia Eagles defense is lacking linebackers, and Sean Desai's history might offer a clue as to how he might handle the problem.

PHILADELPHIA - The easiest answer is that the Philadelphia Eagles aren’t done at the linebacker position.

A devalued group in Philadelphia as a whole, the Eagles let 2022 starting linebackers T.J. Edwards and Kyzir White walk in free agency. The lone additions to date have been veteran Nicholas Morrow, who didn’t get a penny of guaranteed money on a one-year, prove-it deal, and the wildly-athletic Ben VanSumeren as an undrafted free agent out of Michigan State.

The two-deep depth chart as the calendar turns to May are second-year foundational piece Nakobe Dean and Morrow backed up by special-teams stalwarts Christian Elliss and Shaun Bradley with perhaps Davion Taylor getting one more look now that his former position coach and defensive coordinator at Colorado, D.J. Eliot, is the Eagles’ new linebackers coach.

Eagles executive vice president and general manager Howie Roseman is quick to note that talent-gathering season extends far beyond the draft.

Now that free-agent signings no longer count against the 2024 compensatory draft-pick formula, it’s conceivable that Roseman could look at a more substantive signing. There are also potential post-June 1 cuts and the trade market.

Last year the Eagles didn't acquire NFL co-interception leader C.J. Gardner-Johnson until the eve of the regular season so avenues exist to improve what looks like the only glaring weakness on the roster.

Wanting to do something doesn't mean you can accomplish the goal, however, and a contingency is needed.

Judging by some of the personnel the Eagles have added, an unconventional path forward for new defensive coordinator Sean Desai could be a big-nickel mentality in which three safeties are on the field with one of them essentially playing the linebacker role opposite Dean.

Philadelphia last used this extensively when Malcolm Jenkins was around, the rare safety who had the physicality to handle the role in anything other than a curveball-like fashion.

The Eagles are expected to remain in the Vic Fangio-inspired defensive philosophy under Desai, a direct Fangio disciple. What the scheme demands are interchangeable post safeties who disguise things pre-snap before spinning off into the coverage, which is predominantly quarters but also includes a host of other zone coverage with man principles.

The outlier here is Terrell Edmunds, a traditional box safety in Pittsburgh, who lined up near the line of scrimmage (either in the box or in the slot) for 65.9% of his 886 defensive snaps for the Steelers last season.

Meanwhile, if you harken back to Desai’s days in Chicago he was the defensive quality control coach under Fangio before the latter got the head-coaching job in Denver.  Desai was first elevated to be the Bears' safeties coach before being their DC for the 2021 season.

Although a small sample size Desai often tried to combat bigger personnel groupings, particularly 12 and 21, with the big nickel when running the Chicago defense.

It might not be ideal to do so in Philadelphia and the goal is to still add something meaningful on the second level.

If the cavalry isn’t coming, though, expect Desai to lean a little heavier on big-nickel looks with Edmunds shifting toward an undersized linebacker role next to Dean with rookie Sydney Brown playing alongside Reed Blankenship on the back end.

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-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