Philadelphia Eagles’ Defensive Front Allowing Time for Slot Tinkering

Opposing quarterbacks haven't had time to throw the football against the Philadelphia Eagles. However, defensive coordinator Sean Desai has been afforded that luxury while trying to replace the injured Avonte Maddox.

PHILADELPHIA - Former Philadelphia Eagles coach Doug Pederson once explained the quickest path to an underwhelming season.

“Multiple injuries at the same position,” said the Super Bowl-winning mentor, who has since relocated to Jacksonville and turned the Jaguars into a likely playoff team in the AFC for a second consecutive season.

There are exceptions to every rule, however, and the attrition at slot cornerback for Philadelphia has been historic. Yet, the Eagles are again off to a strong start at 6-1, tied for the NFL’s best record with the same team Philadelphia lost Super Bowl LVII to, the Kansas Coty Chiefs.

To be fair, not all of the issues in the slot are injury related but there’s where it started and it pre-dated the regular season when the projected backup to starter Avonte Maddox, third-year pro Zech McPhearson, went down with a torn Achilles at Baltimore in the preseason.

Maddox, meanwhile, suffered a likely season-ending pec injury in a Week 2 win over the Minnesota Vikings.

The Eagles are finding it difficult to replace slot star Avonte Maddox :: John McMullen/Eagles Today

It’s there where the musical chairs began as defensive coordinator Sean Desail tried to cobble together a path forward.

First up in-game against the Vikings was second-year hopeful Mario Goodrich, a surprise initial 53-man roster player after a strong summer. The Clemson product understandably struggled trying to handle Minnesota’s Justin Jefferson, perhaps the best receiver in football.

The Eagles weren’t about to grade on any curves, however, and with Tampa Bay looming with Chris Godwin and Mike Evans lining up more inside, Desai went unconventional and piecemealed things, divvying up the work between lengthy outside cornerback James Bradberry and rookie safety Sydney Brown.

The Bucs tried to exploit the issue for a few minutes at the start of what was an easy and often stifling 25-11 win for Philadelphia until Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield lost the plot while running for his football life against the best defensive front in the NFL.

Next up was Washington with unproven quarterback Sam Howell, along with a talented group of receivers but it had to be Bradberry alone this time because Brown tweaked his hamstring against the Bucs, an injury that cost him three games. Second-year cornerback Josh Jobe rotated in for Bradberry when the veteran kicked inside and was not terribly impressive.

The Eagles also realized that moving an All-Pro outside cornerback inside wasn’t the best allocation of Bradberry’s talents.

Next up was the Los Angeles Rams and if anyone could exploit the inside troubles, it was going to be Cooper Kupp, the best slot receiver in football. Even though Kupp was returning from his own hamstring injury the star derailed Goodrich’s second chance and also quickly revealed undrafted rookie Eli Ricks, a natural outside cornerback at 6-2, wasn’t up to the task as well.

Desai kept throwing the kitchen sink at Kupp and ultimately settled on veteran ring-chaser Bradley Roby, who arrived that week via the Howie Roseman-created mercenary market and was on a pitch count.

Roby did settle things down a bit but the real shift in the game was the pass rush speeding up Matthew Stafford as the Eagles went on to win 23-14.

Roby was again the guy in the lone loss to the New York Jets but injured his shoulder/pec and the law firm of Goodrich and Ricks had to finish things up as the Eagles offense imploded with a late Jalen Hurts pick-six ruining another strong defensive effort, albeit against Zach Wilson.

By Week 7 against the No. 1 offense of Miami and Tyreek Hill, the Eagles had brought back Josiah Scott from the Pittsburgh practice squad to take Goodrich’s role and used Scott and Ricks to get by.

It’s trending like Roby will miss at least one more game at Washington part II this week and Brown, who started at safety against the Dolphins, is back in the conversation for slot work after the Eagles acquired Kevin Byard from Tennessee to solidify the back end.

That means Curtis Samuel and Co. could see Scott, Ricks, Brown, or a combination of all three as the Eagles try to improve to 7-1.

The churn has been unprecedented.

“Never been a part of anything like that,” Bradberry, an eight-year veteran, told SI.com’s Eagles Today on Thursday after practice. “I mean this is the NFL and we got a mix of veteran guys and young guys. And in our secondary, a lot of first-string guys are the older guys. So of course when we have a guy like Avonte Maddox, you gotta try to find his replacement. (That churn) is gonna happen.”

The biggest issue is communication, according to Bradberry.

“Missing a guy like Avonte, an experienced guy and you get a younger guy in there he doesn’t have the experience,” said Bradberry. “So of course you have a lot of adrenaline rushing, you’re trying to learn the defense. You’re also trying to learn how offenses work in this league. How they are trying to attack you. So, it’s a lot going on mentally.”

The Eagles, though, keep winning through it all and lost amid all the moving parts is the league’s best defensive front that has made quarterbacks like Mayfield, Howell, Stafford, Wilson, and Tua Tagovailoa very uncomfortable, masking an obvious deficiency for all but a few moments in each game.