The Eagles blitzed early and often during their second exhibition game against the Bills last week, and unlike much of what we see in preseason, it actually could be a sign of what's to come.
No NFL defense used a standard four-man pass rush with greater frequency than the Eagles in 2016 at 79.3 percent of the time, according to Football Outsiders Almanac. (Conversely, the team that rushed four the fewest was the Jets at 49.2 percent.) This has long been the philosophy of defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, who prefers to generate pressure from the front four without drawing on help from linebackers and defensive backs.
Schwartz also may have been more hesitant to blitz than usual last season out of fear a weak secondary would not be able to hold up in coverage. Now that the Eagles acquired cornerback Ronald Darby in a trade, the defense may have the freedom to send additional pressure.
"A lot of times, your blitz really depends on how well your corners are going," Schwartz said Monday after practice (see 10 observations). "The more help you're getting in the corners, obviously, the less guys that you can use to blitz, so they certainly both go hand in hand."
The Bills game almost certainly does not represent a fundamental shift in Schwartz's strategy. The Eagles are not expected to go from blitzing the least in the league to sending extra rushers on every other play.
It's only preseason - a time when coaches are evaluating everything.
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"We didn't scheme up, we used more of our scheme," Schwartz said. "Everything that we ran in that game, we had run 50 times in training camp. It was all sort of base stuff, but there were some different things we were looking at."
So nothing to see here, right? Maybe, but if nothing else, this goes to show Schwartz is working from a larger playbook than it might have seemed in '16, when the Eagles rigidly sent four rushers down after down.
Having a potential shutdown cornerback in Darby, or at least a competent tandem along with Jalen Mills, could provide the Eagles' defense with the flexibility it sorely lacked last season. It may merely be a matter of getting Darby up to speed in the system, considering his arrival was less than two weeks ago.
"He's pretty close," Schwartz said. "There are some situations that don't come up very often where he's still maybe a step slow when a safety makes a call, but everything is installed.
"He has it. It's just a matter of repping it enough times that he feels comfortable with it, and we're still a work in progress there."
Darby impressed in his Eagles debut last Thursday, recording one interception and letting another go through his fingertips (see story). However, the third-year defensive back is coming off of a down season in Buffalo, so it's not necessarily a given he'll continue producing at a high level.
In order for Schwartz to feel comfortable with getting creative, Darby must continue to demonstrate not only his individual ability, but that he's also able to work in concert with the rest of the secondary.
"There is something with a corner and safety communication," Schwartz said. "The safety is making calls, there's a lot of moving parts - motion can change a technique the corner makes, and anticipating that motion, and sort of being one step ahead - so it certainly would help a corner to have that."
Since his arrival, Darby has already changed the complexion of the defense, putting another playmaker in the secondary. The Eagles are making some tweaks to his technique - he's working with legendary safety Brian Dawkins, and catching balls from the JUGS machine in the hopes of converting more pass breakups into picks.
And if Darby turns out to be everything the Eagles hope, he may even allow the Eagles' defense to get after the quarterback a bit more.
