Are Eagles mulling kickoff change after debacle vs. Commanders?

Michael Clay didn’t even wait until anybody asked a question about kickoffs and kickoff coverage.

At his weekly media chat Tuesday, the Eagles' special teams coach addressed it before he even took any questions.

And he hinted that the Eagles may be considering a change to try and prevent what happened Sunday in the loss to the Commanders.

“We didn't play well enough, special-teams wise, especially in the coverage phase, primarily on kickoff coverage,” he said. “We put our defense in terrible situations. One, starting off the game with a penalty. Not what our standard is and then coming back and letting them have a big return. … Overall, wasn't up to our standard. We put our defense in a bad spot. 

“Kudos to Vic (Fangio) and (the defense) for getting some turnovers right after those bad spots. But we’ve got to be better, especially as we're ending this regular season and getting into playoff football-time mode, especially going against Dallas. We all know KaVontae Turpin is a dangerous returner. But not up to our standards when we played against Washington."

It was a bad day all around on kickoffs. 

Braden Mann’s eight kicks averaged just 55 yards, so they went on average to the Washington 10-yard-line on average. And the Commanders’ returners averaged 29.4 yards on the seven kicks they returned, which means those seven Washington drives began on the average just inside the 40-yard-line. 

One of Washington’s three 4th-quarter touchdown drives began at their own 13 but the two others started at the 39 and 43.

The Commanders’ Luke McCaffrey had 184 kick return yards on six returns, the most return yards against the Eagles in 12 years - since David Wilson of the Giants had 217 back in 2012. And his 30.7 yards per return is 2nd-highest in a game this year.

Was it the kickoffs that bothered Clay the most? Or the coverage?

“It was a mixture of both,” he said. “Obviously, we like a little bit more distance on our kickoffs. We can’t have a ball land at the 16, 15-yard line. But it's never always on one person. There are 11 guys out there. 

“And first of all, it starts with me at the top. I have to get these guys far more prepared in terms of getting off blocks. Again, kickoff coverage is very similar to defense. You can make up for a mistake by hustling to the ball and just playing with some fundamentals of block destruction. 

"I don't think we did a good enough job of getting off blocks. So again, it all encompasses the entirety of the kickoff coverage unit.”

The game began with a Mann kickoff short of the landing zone, which places the ball at the Washington 40. The defense stopped Commanders on downs, but it was still a terrible way to start the game.

“Yeah, that one, tried to drive it, tried to drive it too much and got a little bit fat, so just dumbed down,” Mann said. “ So can't have that happen to start the game off.”

Clay does have the option of turning to Jake Elliott to kick off. Elliott has had his own issues this year, but Clay said the Eagles also want to make sure they’re not over-using Elliott.

“Yeah, a lot of that has to do with can we preserve Jake going forward? And Braden does have a very strong leg,” Clay said. “But it's always a topic discussion week by week. So again we may switch it up. 

“(Mann’s) just done a great job all year. I think you could say the last game against Washington probably was his worst one of the year. But Braden's done an unbelievable job for us, both on punts and kickoffs, to give us a chance to cover. We don't want to make a rash decision because he has done a really good job for us going forward.”

Elliott kicked off once this year - to open the  Giants game - and it was a touchback. Mann has 56 touchbacks on 84 kickoffs but just five on 18 kickoff the last three games.

The Eagles need to get this sorted out quickly because Turpin is as dangerous as any returner in the league.

He leads the NFL with 34.4 yards per kick return and is 6th with 10.9 yards per punt return. And his 29.9 career kick return average - and granted kick returns have changed dramatically - is 2nd-highest in NFL history behind only Hall of Famer Gale Sayers.

“Yeah, just trying to either keep it out of his hands or throw him off rhythm however we can,” Mann said. “The guys have been covering well so far this year. Last game, I think it starts with me. 

“With any returner that's going to be a threat like that, definitely got to be good with the placement.” 

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