Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz and Frank Schwab discuss how Philadelphia’s defense will dictate the Eagles’ success this season. Listen and subscribe to the “Zero Blitz” podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video transcript
The Eagles are next.
A big thing for me is: can their defense return to form?
I mean, two years ago, this defense was absolutely dominant.
They did a draft where everyone was like, man, this is going to be perfect.
And then we went into last season and the pass rush was invisible.
Right?
And the interesting thing is that we spent, we almost forgot about it a year ago.
At the time, there were questions about, you know, coaching and what are we going to do?
Right.
Just like the new defensive coordinator, the new offensive coordinator, I’ve been saying it out loud, I think that’s made a big difference and I know that now they bring in people that have familiarity, but there’s still a revolving door with some of the coaches, I’m not sure if is stable.
It’s as stable as you want on the outside, considering the end of last season, it was, Ceriani is going to stick around like the defense has to be better and has to be a lot better.
I think there are questions on that side of the ball that need to be answered before anything else in Philadelphia.
And if they aren’t, the roar around Ceriani will get louder and louder all year long if the defense can’t shut down defenders.
No.
Yeah, I mean, the Eagles as a whole were probably one of the bottom five teams in the NFL last season after a 10th and a start, which is crazy to say out loud, but it’s true.
They were terrible and the reason was the defense and you just go back to that Seattle game, you know, they’re playing, I think, I believe it was on Monday night.
I know it was prime time.
Andrew Locke has to drive his team 85 yards or whatever and he does it with ease and, and the, and the Seahawks beat the Eagles and that was the moment you said this defense just got broken.
They are possibly broken.
Now, they took steps, they went and added quarterbacks, they had a really, really good draft that way.
Vio is one of the most respected defensive coordinators in the NFL, you bring him on board, I think he will help a lot.
So you’re a little faster in the secondary.
And so I think really, when I think about the Eagles, the key for me is Bryce Huff.
They signed this guy, he’s 26 years old, he’s from the Jets, who just had a monster season and all the advanced metrics support that Bryce Huff was legit last year, but he still came out of nowhere and had a great year.
He’s that guy, he kind of replaces Hasan Reddick and is huffing and puffing a good thing?
And side evidence, obviously, and, and, and Fangio and all that kind of stuff, it could all click again.
This Eagles team isn’t that far away from being 10 and one, it’s not that far away from being in the Super Bowl, but I agree with you, the defense has to not just improve, but improve by leaps and bounds, because they were terrible in end of last year.
