Philadelphia Eagles

Eagles Great Brian Dawkins Saw Growth From Defensive Coordinator in Year 1

Dawkins saw growth from Gannon in Year 1 originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

It had to drive Brian Dawkins nuts.

The Eagles great had a Hall of Fame career playing for the late Jim Johnson, one of the most aggressive defensive coordinators in the league. But early in the 2021 season, Dawkins had to sit back in his gold jacket and watch the Eagles’ passive defense get torched weekly by top-tier quarterbacks.

Whether it was a result of the schedule lightning up or a real change in philosophy, the Eagles’ defense was much better in the second half of the season.

And in a conversation with NBC Sports Philadelphia’s John Clark, Dawkins seemed impressed by what first-year defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon showed him later in the season.

“He grew a whole lot,” Dawkins said. “Was not a fan at all of the first part of the season because it was too vanilla. And it’s a not a knock on him. It’s just that you can’t give NFL quarterbacks what they’re going to see at the snap. You have to be able to move around, you have to put some confusion in their head — just a little bit — you can’t give them exactly what they’re going to see snap after snap after snap after snap. They’re going to eat you up.”

After the Eagles faced Justin Herbert and the Chargers on Nov. 7, the Eagles had allowed five of their previous seven opposing quarterbacks to complete at least 80% of his passes and the Eagles had a 3-6 record to show for it.

In the final eight games of the season, they didn’t allow another quarterback complete 80% of his passes. And in the next seven games — before Week 18 vs. Dallas, a game that didn’t matter — the Eagles allowed their opponents to complete just 61.2%; they went 6-1 in those games.

“And so I was happy that he changed, he began to do some thing, moving them around, showing blitzing off the other side,” Dawkins said. “That was something that was very pleasing for my eye, to see him make that transition towards the end of the season. Now, we’ll see with this next year, was that who he is? Or will he go back to being the conservative defensive coordinator?”

Ultimately, the Eagles somehow technically finished with a Top 10 defense. They were ranked No. 10 in yards allowed in 2021.

Of course, we should point out that the defense’s improvement coincided with the drop-off in quality of opponent, specifically quality of opposing quarterbacks. The Eagles were sliced and diced by guys like Patrick Mahomes, Dak Prescott and Tom Brady and then held Daniel Jones, Zach Wilson and Jake Fromm in check. So, sure, take that improvement with a grain of salt. In the playoff game, Brady threw for 271 yards with 2 touchdowns and the Bucs put up 31 points in an easy win.

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Still, there was some clear improvement, which was enough to impress Dawkins. Gannon interviewed for several head coaching jobs this offseason but is set to return to Philly for another year. So we'll find out if those changes were permanent or not pretty soon.

In addition to talking about Gannon, Clark also asked Dawkins for his thoughts on mental health, Jalen Hurts’ future and the upcoming draft.

Speaking of the draft, Dawk wouldn’t mind seeing the Eagles go after some defensive studs with their three first-round picks.

“For me, I’m used to playmakers being on defense,” Dawkins said. “I’m not saying we don’t have them but I’m used to at every level, you have playmakers. That’s what i would look for. What are we going to do at the linebacker position? What are we going to do at the safety position? There are some playmakers in the draft that I believe will help this team go to another level.”

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