Sean Desai’s background in education was obvious on Thursday afternoon during his introductory press conference at the NovaCare Complex.
The Eagles’ new defensive coordinator held a pop quiz when asked about his defensive philosophy.
“One thing I told the team, was it maybe at the end of meetings on Thursday, was I asked them if they knew with the word ‘palpable’ meant,” Desai said before aiming the question at the crowd.
“You guys know?”
The reporters in front of Desai were not expecting such a quiz so just a few mumbled back the answer to him: You feel it.
“Yeah, right?” Desai answered. “It's a feeling in you. That's what we want. We want to be able to be felt, whether you're watching us on TV, whether you're in the stadium, and obviously on the field. We want to make sure people feel this Philadelphia Eagles defense.”
OK. That sounds good, but what does it really mean?
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Desai was asked if he has a specific vision of what that defense looks like and if it’s schematic or play style
“I think it's a combination of both,” he answered. “I know you guys are going to hold me to it, but I hope you do because this one you can hold me to. We want to be felt, and hopefully you're sitting at home or in the stadium and you say, ‘Whew, that was a good play.’ You might not know the scheme, you might not know anything, but that's how you get felt on defense.”
On paper, the Eagles’ defense was excellent in 2022. That unit under Jonathan Gannon was ranked No. 2 in the NFL last year and produced an incredible 70 sacks.
But there was an obvious disconnect between Gannon and Eagles fans for the two years he spent in Philly before bolting for the Cardinals’ head coaching job.
If Desai’s defense plays the way he talked on Thursday, that gap might close a bit.
“The one thing that we've agreed on and we've talked about as a staff and a group is there's a certain mentality that we want to reflect,” Desai said. “I really believe the city's teams got to reflect the city, and we've got some grit, we've got some toughness, we want to be able to impose our will. We're not going to take really anything from anybody.
“We want to make sure that people feel us. We want to be able to run. We want to be able to hit, and we want to play smart. I think that's a reflection of who we are obviously as an obviously Philadelphia Eagles defense, a reflection of really the history of the Philadelphia Eagles defense, and a reflection of this city, and that's what we want to be. We want to be an encompassing part of that.”
In terms of scheme, Desai has been influenced by several coaches throughout the years but it’s not misguided to label him as a Vic Fangio disciple. We saw many of those schematic staples under Gannon in 2022, but Desai pointed out that he’s actually worked closely with Fangio. A lot of the NFL mimics that defense but not a lot of people have the intimate knowledge of the scheme like Desai.
If there was one area where head coach Nick Sirianni seemed to push Gannon — he mentioned it publicly in 2021 — it was about being more aggressive and challenging more. For most of the 2022 season, it was hard to argue with the results of the Eagles’ defense. And it’s hard to say that you couldn’t “feel” a defense with 70 sacks. But Desai spoke on Thursday like a coach who wants to ramp up that aggressiveness.
You don’t win games from a microphone. And you can’t even completely win over a fanbase from that mic either.
But Desai is off to a pretty good start.
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