The Eagles this season had the No. 1 defense in the NFL despite their reliance on young players.
In fact, their ability to develop those young players has been one of the more impressive feats of the 2024 Eagles season.
What has gone into the development process?
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“Obviously great effort and energy by those players themselves to get themselves ready to go,” head coach Nick Sirianni said this week. “A lot of work from the coaches, the extra meetings with the coaches to make sure that you put them in positions that they are going to be in in the game, and sometimes you can't put them in every position they are going to be in the game out at practice.
“That's what walk-through is for. That's what meetings are for. That's what the extra meetings are for. A lot of work by the coaches and the players to get themselves in that. Obviously, a phenomenal job by Howie (Roseman) and his staff to get the guys in here that are talented like [the guys] we have.
“But yeah, again, all these things. I feel like I said that a bunch today. It took this group of people to do that and this group of people to do that. That's what's awesome about an organization. That's what's awesome about football. It's every player working together, every coach working together, every department working together, and we've got a special organization.”
Former Eagles Pro Bowler Connor Barwin is the team’s head of football development and strategy and the Eagles also employ Matt Leo and Patrick McDowell as player development assistants. Their work along with Vic Fangio and his position coaches has helped these young players get better.
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The Eagles this season have seven players with a salary cap hit over $10 million and just two of them are on defense. It was imperative that the Eagles supplement those big contracts on offense with a talented defense built through the draft and development.
That’s exactly what they’ve done.
And when you start looking at all the names of young players on this team, something starts to stand out: They’re all getting better.
Rookies: Cooper DeJean, Jalyx Hunt, Quinyon Mitchell, Jeremiah Trotter Jr.
The Eagles this season have gotten way more out of their rookies than they have in any other season with Sirianni as the head coach. Mitchell was a starter from Day 1 and has been on a shortlist of Defensive Rookie of the Year candidates. DeJean didn’t get to play a full-time role until Week 6 but he’s helped transform this defense. Hunt was thought to be a raw third-round pick but injuries thrust him into the lineup and now he’s getting more playing time than the Eagles’ biggest free agent pickup. And Trotter hasn’t gotten his chance yet but it seems like it’s coming in the NFC divisional round.
1st year: Tristin McCollum, Thomas Booker IV
Coming into this season, McCollum had played just 29 career defensive snaps but he ended up playing 250 for the Eagles this year. While he struggled some on defense, McCollum gave the Eagles something on defense and on special teams as a backup safety. All of Booker’s defensive snaps came as a rookie with the Texans in 2022 and he didn’t play at all in 2023. But this year, he’s given the Eagles 166 defensive snaps and has 18 tackles, 2 TFL, 2 QB hits and a sack.
2nd year: Sydney Brown, Jalen Carter, Moro Ojomo, Eli Ricks, Kelee Ringo, Nolan Smith Jr.
The biggest jumps among this group have come from the two second-year first-round picks from Georgia. Smith might be the most improved player on the team. The No. 30 overall pick had a disappointing rookie season but has really saved the Eagles in Year 2. After failing to pick up a sack, TFL or QB hit in his first four games this year, Smith had 6 1/2 sacks, 11 QB hits and 8 TFLs in the rest of the regular season and had a 2-sack game against the Packers in the wild-card round. Carter went from a promising rookie season to being a Pro Bowler in Year 2, helping to fill the void left by the retirement of Eagles legend Fletcher Cox.
While Brown, Ringo and Ricks haven’t gotten many chances this year, Ojomo might be one of the best examples of development on the Eagles’ roster. The Eagles used a seventh-round pick on Ojomo last season and he showed some promise in his 68 defensive snaps. But in 2024, Ojomo has been a big part of the rotation, playing 388 snaps. His performance against the Packers in the wild-card round was worthy of a shoutout at Fangio’s last press conference.
3rd year: Reed Blankenship, Lewis Cine, Jordan Davis, Nakobe Dean
While Davis doesn’t play a ton of snaps, he’s been solid this year in his role; he eats double teams and helps stuff the run. You can certainly say that Davis might not have been worth the No. 13 overall pick but he’s been a contributing piece of this team. Meanwhile, Dean and Blankenship became two of the most important players on the roster this season. Dean, a former third-round pick, is out for the rest of the playoffs with a torn patellar tendon but before that was playing at a really high level as the Eagles’ green-dot middle linebacker. And Blankenship has gone from undrafted afterthought to a mainstay in the best secondary in the NFL.
Cine just got here, so we’re not really counting him. But the reason the Eagles brought in the former first-round safety is because they believe he still has the kinds of tools that are worth developing. Given their success this season, it’s definitely worth a shot.
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