2023 NFL/CFB Season - Page 68

Jared Goff 8.4
Kirk Cousins -17.9
Carson Wentz -10.9
Trevor Lawrence -2.9
Kyler Murray -3
Cooper Rush -9.8
Kenny Pickett -5.1
Davis Mills 0
Taylor Heinicke 14.1
Matt Ryan -1
Aaron Rodgers 11.2
Ryan Tannehill -7.5
Daniel Jones 0.8
Justin Fields 0.8
Dak Prescott 13.2
Andy Dalton 0.6
Daniel Jones -5.2

The total difference is -14.2, or -0.84 per game, which makes them less than one point per game better than average.
(Sorry if I made a mistake with my stats somewhere.)

So among Eagles fans there was a lot of disappointment in our defense last year (2021 season) because Gannon's preferred scheme is to rely on the 4 man rush to get home and play a lot of 2 safety high zone (lots of cover 4). This works very often because the Eagles front 4 is really good, but it was evident throughout 2021 that good QBs or OCs could play around it and completely shred the eagles defense. (Dak, Brady, Herbert etc...

At the start of the 2022 the system changed and the first 6-8 games the defensive scheme was noticeably more aggressive. The Minnesota game was a good example of a lot of press/man coverage working out well with the two good corners. When our corners played man we tended to do pretty well.

But towards the end of the season and the superbowl we noticeably went back to this very passive zone coverage scheme that didn't look good vs the eye test. When we had Schwartz his philosophy was to basically sell out to stop the run and then force teams to pass over the top. Gannon has basically been the opposite, refusing to let anything go over the top and giving up tons of easy stuff.

Unfortunately when we went up against Reid and Mahomes they were just too happy to take the little plays and march down the field. Watching the superbowl Chiefs would have like 2 or 3 passing options vs 7 defenders dropped into coverage and they would be disturbingly open. Reid is an amazing gameplanner and designer so it's not like it would have been easy or anything, but look at how the eagles cornerbacks reacted to jet motions, it's horrific and looks really undisciplined. They got 2 completely free Touchdowns by just motioning the receiver to behind the Quarterback and back again. Reid consistently got Kelce on our worst coverage backs (Epps), even when they were only using 2 or 3 passing options total, that feels indefensible.

I think Gannon is competent but I'm okay with him leaving because I think it's time for a change, I really think it was talent carrying the scheme, rather than scheme allowing the talent to flourish. I think Steichen will be a much bigger loss.
(plus we're going to lose a bunch of defensive players to FA this year so maybe it's a good time to make a DC change).
I know that statistically the Eagles D was very good, but I think a lot of that was the D's ability to punch downwards and an unsustainable turnover differential early on.