Jim Schwartz Opens Up on Eagles’ Defensive Back Strategy

There's always been a school of thought that it makes sense to go into a game focused on cornerback-receiver matchups.

For example, if the Eagles are playing the Buccaneers, match up Ronald Darby, the Eagles' fastest cornerback, on DeSean Jackson, the Bucs' fastest receiver, and leave Jalen Mills, who is slower but more physical, on Mike Evans, who doesn't have Jackson's speed but is bigger and more physical.

It might seem logical, but Jim Schwartz rarely does it. He likes leaving corners where they are - Mills on the left, Darby on the right - regardless of matchups.

On Tuesday, Schwartz went into unusual detail to explain his philosophy of keeping corners in the same spot regardless of the receivers on the other team:

"Well, I think there is a consistency with technique. If you're trying to match guys up, there are a lot of ways offenses can combat that with motions, with lining guys up inside, that make you declare anyway.
"There are a lot of layers to trying to match certain players on certain players all the time. If you just knew one guy was always lining up here and one guy is always lining up there, a lot easier to do.
"But with the multitude of formations we're getting with them moving guys? Just to give you an example, [the Colts] moved T.Y. Hilton all over the place [Sunday]. Unless you have three different guys that can play nickel and three different guys that can play left corner and three different guys that can play right corner, and you can build all your zones around those, it's just difficult to do.
"There have been games where we've matched. There was a situation in this game when Jalen Mills went out that we were getting ready to have Darby travel.
"Just because he's traveling doesn't mean he's going to get that matchup. They can switch guys and release, and all of a sudden now you're back where you started.
"Sometimes that can just set you off your game. When we played well, we've played within us, we've played with good technique, and we've sort of been us better than the other team has been them.
"Sometimes I think you can get away from your game by doing that."

This is tremendous insight by a guy who is always affable but rarely goes this deep into his thought process on defensive strategy.

The bottom line is the Eagles believe in Mills and Darby enough that they don't feel like they need to hide either one against a team's lesser wide receiver.