Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz and Frank Schwab discuss how Philadelphia’s defense will dictate how successful the Eagles will be this season. Listen and subscribe to the “Zero Blitz” podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
The Eagles next up.
One big thing for me is can their defense return to form?
I mean, two years ago, that defense was absolutely dominant.
They had a draft where everybody thought, man, it’s gonna be perfect.
And then we go into last season and the pass rush was invisible.
Right?
And the interesting thing is we spent, we almost forget that a year ago.
Right now, there were questions about, you know, coaching and what are we gonna do?
Right.
Like the new defensive coordinator, the new offensive coordinator, I’ve been sort of on record pretty loudly saying, I think that made a big difference and I know they bring in people now that have familiarity, but still there’s a revolving door with some of the coaches, I’m not sure stable.
It’s as stable as you want it to be from the outside looking in considering at the end of last season, it was, is Ceriani gonna stick around like that defense has got to be better and it’s got to be much better.
I think there’s, there’s questions about that side of the ball that have to be answered before anything else from Philadelphia.
And if they’re not the, the roar around Ceriani is just gonna get louder and louder and louder all year if that defense can’t take down quarterbacks.
No.
Yeah, I, I mean, the Eagles as a whole were probably a bottom five team in the NFL last season after the 10 and one 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 Monday night.
I know it was prime time.
Andrew Locke has to drive his team 85 yards or whatever it was and he just does it with ease and, and the, and the Seahawks beat the Eagles and that’s the moment where you said this defense is just broken.
They are absolutely possibly broken.
Now, they took steps, they, they went and they added quarterbacks, they had a really, really good draft that way.
Vio who is one of the most respected defense coordinators in the NFL, you bring him aboard, I think he’ll help a lot.
So you’re a little faster in the secondary.
And then I, I think that really, when I think about the Eagles, the, the key for me is Bryce Huff.
They, they signed this guy, he’s 26 from the Jets who just had this monster breakout season and all of the advanced metrics support that Bryce Huff was legit last year, but yet he still came out of nowhere and had one great year.
Is he that dude, he kind of replaces Hasan Reddick and if huff is that good?
And secondary proves o obviously and, and, and Fangio and all this kind of stuff, it could all click again.
This Eagles team is not far removed from being 10 and one, not that far removed from being in a Super Bowl, but I agree with you, the defense has to not only improve but improve by leaps and bounds because they were just awful at the end of last year.
