Birds take flight, part II

Today was the first full day of padded practice at Eagles' training camp up in Lehigh Valley. No more practicing in shorts. Hitting is upon us. And what better timing to continue my Eagles preview with those heavy hitters on the defensive side of the ball. The Eagles' defense is the key to this whole season. As described yesterday, the offense has an impressive array of weapons and a coaching staff that has turned the Birds into one of the top offensives in the league. The Eagles will score their points this year. But as steady as the offense's rise has been over the years, the same can be argued about the fall of the defense. The Eagles have always been known for their punishing defense. And defense has been the backbone of every deep playoff run during Andy Reid's tenure; except last year (if you call that a deep run). Last year, the Eagles got it done mostly by outscoring teams. The defense played better down the stretch, but they certainly need to play better if they hope to achieve their goal this year: winning a Super Bowl.
It all starts on the defensive line. A good defensive line can cover a lot of deficiencies in the linebacking corps and the secondary. And on the flip side, a poor defensive line can even make pro bowl caliber players look like they don't deserve starting. This year's defensive line unit has the capability to do both, and which way they go will have a huge impact on the outcome of the season. Last year they were closer to the second type of defensive line mentioned; they didn't do their part in stopping the run by keep interior lineman off of the linebackers, and they couldn't rush the passer on passing situations. They weren't as bad as the previous year, but they vastly underperformed expectations.
There is new hope this year that this unit can perform up to last preseason's expectations, and beyond. A big reason for that renewed hope is the return of the Freak, Jevon Kearse. Kearse got off to a great start last year, picking up 3 1/2 sacks in the season's first two games, before going down with a season ending knee injury. Shortly after his loss, the whole defensive line fell apart. If the defense is a skyscraper, and the defensive line is the foundation, then Kearse is the bedrock below. At age 30, that's how important he is. Almost as important is Broderick Bunkley. That's right, last year's 6'-2", 306 lb. first round draft pick, who could barely get on the field. With a full year of learning under his huge belt, Bunkley is in position to become the centerpiece of the D-line. If they are to make a turn-around at stopping the run, then Bunkley will need to be what the front office projected him to be. And there really is no reason why he can't be that guy; he has all the tools to be a dominant defensive tackle in this league. I expect (or maybe it's hope) that Bunkley will be the big body in the middle that shuts down opposing run games this season.
The thing that makes Jim Johnson's defensive scheme so good is his defensive line rotation. We got a glimpse of it last year to start the season. It was almost like hockey where they had two complete defensive line units. And after any play Johnson could call for a line change. It worked great, that is until Kearse went down, and the lines had to be shuffled and eventually scrapped. Going into camp, the Eagles are in even better shape to bring back that strategy. Aside from Kearse and Bunkley, they have a number of talented guys who aren't unnecessarily guys that will carry a defense. Juqua Thomas, Trent Cole, Darren Howard, and rookie Victor Abiamiri will all split time at the end posistion. And Thomas and Cole specifically showed a great ability to get to the passer when they went keyed on in a offensive blocking scheme. And with a healthy Kearse, that won't be possible. At tackle, Mike Patterson, Ian Scott, Montae Reagor, Jeremy Clark, and LaJaun Ramsey will all rotate with Bunkley. It'll be interesting to see who performs best out of all these guys heading into the season, because they can't keep all of them. Regardless, I have renewed faith, and hope, that this defensive line will terrorize offenses all season.
The next line of defense, the linebackers, have been criticized for years; and rightfully so. They simply haven't had much talent there outside of Jeremiah Trotter since Carlos Emmons left. But that comes down to an organizational philosophy. The Eagles just have never valued LBs that much. To them, the key to a successful defense is the defensive line and the secondary (and a great offense). And until this offseason, it showed. Going into training camp, there is a new confidence about this LB unit because they have been greatly upgraded. The biggest upgrade being Takeo Spikes. Spikes was brought over in a trade with Buffalo, and he will become an immediate starter. But it's not just Spikes who is an improvement. Gone is banjo playing, bowtie wearing Dhani Jones, and in comes a couple young guys that this organization really loves. Chris Gocong probably would have been starting strong side linebacker last season, his rookie season, had he not suffered head and neck injuries before the season started. Now after soaking up information for a year, he is penciled in as a starter. I say penciled because there is a lot of competition. Right now rookie Stewart Bradley is third on the depth chart behind Tank Daniels. But there are many who feel that Bradley could become the strong side starter by the midway point of the season. Spikes is pretty the man at weak side, but don't forget about Matt McCoy, who was the starter their last season. He struggled mightily (partly because of a shoulder injury he was nursing) and was eventually replaced by Omar Gaither, but the organization is still high on him He could be valuable in passing situations. Gaither's natural posistion is middle linebacker, which everyone, who knows anything about the Eagles, knows is occupied by Trotter. However, this posisiton is not free from competition either. Trotter took a lot of heat about being too heavy, too slow, and generally to old. And instead of getting defensive (no pun intended), he hit the weight room and lost nine pounds off his frame. He is more solid, quicker, and most importantly, he's got less weight bearing down on those knees of his. It probably won't be this year, but Gaither looks to be lined up as the Axe Man's eventual replacement. Overall, this should be the linebacking corps should be the most active unit in training camp, as far as competition goes. And no matter who wins, the Eagles will be taking a much improved, deeper LB squad into the season.
That brings us to the last line of defense, the secondary. The Eagles lost nickleback Rod Hood this offseason to free agency. They knew it was going to happen, but they were not going to pay him the starter's money he wanted, and quite frankly deserved. And they shouldn't have. He was a good player, but it was time for him to move on and try to become a starter. That leaves the Eagles with the incumbent starters in Sheldon Brown and Lito Sheppard. And add in William James, who feels he is starters material and you basically aren't going to miss a beat without Rod Hood. While none of these guys can be considered "shut-down" corners (that term is used way too loosely anyway), they can definitely hold their own against the best in the league; especially if the D-line can prevent the QB from having a cup of teas before he throws the ball Sheppard is a former Pro Bowler and Brown should have been. However the real story of this defense is at safety. Yes, Sean Considine didn't show much ability to stop the run last season after replacing the soon to be departing free agent Michael Lewis, but his coverage skills are not bad at all. And behind him is Quintin Mikell, who while a good special teams player and leader, isn't much of a replacement at safety. So let's hope the guy next to Considine can pick up the slack. Again. You may know him as Brian Dawkins. But I simply refer to him as beast. As a good friend of mine likes to say, "Three quarters of the world is covered by water....the rest is covered by Brian Dawkins." This guy is the heart and soul of this defense, and maybe the whole team, and maybe even the whole city during the fall. There is nothing he hasn't done, and there's less that he can't do. He took last season's defensive performance personally, and already he's giving speeches to his defense that it wasn't good enough. In his words, "we let the offense down last year." Harsh, but correct. And I expect Dawkins to have a historical year for safeties. He will put this entire defense on his back, if he has to, in order to win a Super Bowl. But if all goes to plan, he won't have to.