Patrick Causey, on Twitter @PhillySportsJD
Last Thursday, Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly boasted about the Eagles secondary, claiming it was the best and deepest unit he has had since coaching the Eagles.
One thing is for certain: the Eagles have made considerable changes to their secondary. But is it better? Let's try to figure that out.
Tracking the changes
The Eagles let go three starters in the secondary from last year: Bradley Fletcher, Carey Williams, and Nate Allen.
The Eagles signed or draft a number of secondary players as replacements, including:
- Byron Maxwell, who was given a huge free agent contract to come away from the Seattle Seahawks;
- Eric Rowe, who the team drafted in the second round of the draft;
- Walter Thurmond, the former Oregon product that played under Chip Kelly and was Maxwell's former teammate in Seattle;
- Jerome Couplin, a raw but extremely athletic safety who the Eagles plucked away from the Lions practice squad;
- E.J. Biggers, a journeyman cornerback that played with division rival Washington and has the size the Eagles covet for the position; and
- JaCorey Shepherd and Randall Evans, two players drafted in the 6th round by the Eagles.
They join a group that includes, among others, starter Malcolm Jenkins, perennial underachiever Earl Wolff, slot corner Brandon Boykin, Nolan Carroll, special teams aces Chris Prosinski and Chris Maragos, and Jaylen Watkins.
Byron Maxwell and Malcolm Jenkins are locks to be starters. That means they have 14 other players in their secondary right now to compete for the final two starting spots. In other words, the Eagles have taken the "throw everything but the kitchen sink against the wall and hope something sticks" approach to fixing their secondary.
The locks
Malcolm Jenkins was a good addition last year. He is a cerebral player that served as the quarterback of the defense for the Eagles. Jenkins should improve with another year in Billy Davis' defense. He played well for the most part last season, but he also struggled at times. His subpar play escaped the ire of fans because of how God-awful the rest of the secondary was.
Jenkins likely will never be a Pro Bowl caliber safety, but he is an above average league starter that provides the Eagles the needed flexibility to line up in the nickle or play in single high coverage. For better or worse, Billy Davis requires that flexibility from his safeties, departing from the traditional strong safety / free safety split. And given the Eagles awful run of luck with finding a replacement for Brian Dawkins, Jenkins has proven to be a shrewd signing for the Birds that should only improve given his added familiarity with the defense
Byron Maxwell is pencilled in as the other starter. The Eagles gave him a massive free agent contract: six years, $63 million with $25 million guaranteed. While the guaranteed dollars give the Eagles some protection (Richard Sherman received $40 million guaranteed), the Eagles made Maxwell the fifth highest paid cornerback in the NFL. So they clearly expect him to come in and produce at an elite level.
But the question remains whether Maxwell justifies such a high contract given his limited, and somewhat inconsistent, production. Part of the uncertainty surrounding Maxwell's talent results from the surrounding cast that he played with during his time in Seattle. Because Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas, and Kam Chancellor are considered three of the best secondary members in the league, it was reasonable to wonder whether Maxwell's shortcomings were masked by their presence, or if he was actually one of their peers.
He is a clear upgrade over Bradley Fletcher. Then again, I am pretty sure my 94-year old grandmother would have been an upgrade over Fletcher, and she's in a wheelchair. But is he an upgrade over Cary Williams? That's where things become less certain.
When Maxwell broke into Seattle's starting lineup in Week 13 of the 2013 season (thanks to suspensions to Brandon Browner and new Eagle, Walter Thurmond), he helped catapult the Seahawks to their first ever Super Bowl.
Per Profootballfocus.com, Maxwell was the top rated cornerback in all of football from Week 13 until the Super Bowl. Receivers caught just 40% of passes thrown their way while being covered by Maxwell, while quarterbacks had a pedestrian 38.1 quarterback rating throwing to his side of the field. And to be clear, Maxwell was tested early and often since teams did everything they could to avoid throwing at Richard Sherman.
But 2014 was a different story. Maxwell was the 45th ranked cornerback per PFF.com, with receivers catching 63.4% of the passes and quarterbacks having an 81.1 quarterback rating. For comparisons sake, Cary Williams was ranked 49th.
Profootballfocus.com is not the end all, be all of player ratings, of course. But it is a useful tool to develop at least somewhat of a baseline understanding of how a player performed. So while I am not as concerned with Maxwell being ranked so closely to Williams, I am concerned about the catch percentage and quarterback rating.
The Eagles obviously feel that Maxwell is a very good corner with the potential to be a true number one. While it is fair to question whether that assessment is valid, the Eagles should be given credit on two fronts. One, they made the bold move to get their guy. And two, they left themselves an out if Maxwell does not live up to his contract. Only $25 million is guaranteed, so the Eagles have not completely hamstrung themselves with this deal.
Other Starters?
This is where things get dicey. Say what you will about the ceilings of Jenkins and Maxwell, but they have at least proven to be capable NFL starters. The same cannot be said for the other 14 members of the secondary the Eagles have on their roster.
As of right now, the favorites to fill out the starting lineup are Nolan Carroll at corner and Walter Thurmond at safety.
Carroll came to the Eagles last offseason from the Miami Dolphins and is a case study as to why you should take PFF numbers with a grain of salt. In 2013, he put up impressive numbers while starting 12 games, but was ranked as the 56th overall corner by PFF.com.
Consider, for example, that quarterbacks had a 65.0 quarterback rating throwing against him. Or that receivers had a 47.8 catch percentage when matched up against Carroll, which was 4th best in the NFL. He only gave up two touchdowns while having seven passes defended; solid numbers by league standards.
He was inconsistent in 2014, where he was used primarily as the team's fourth cornerback and a linebacker in dime situations.
However, Kelly singled out Carroll as a guy who put in extra work this offseason and is primed for a good season: “Nolan Carroll has done an unbelievable job in the offseason. He's a guy that stands out in terms of what he's done in the weight room and some of those other things. I just think Nolan is a guy, when you ask me about the defensive backs, that has really done a great job in the offseason.”
Malcolm Jenkins echoed those sentiment: “I think he’s having a phenomenal offseason. If there’s one guy who’s really been killing it from on the field to in the weight room to everything it’s probably been Nolan. His technique is drastically improved. I think he feels a lot better playing at corner. A lot more confident. Last year we had him kind of playing that dime linebacker all year and he still has that background, that ability to go in and play the dime, the nickel, but he’s really starting to feel comfortable in making a lot of plays on the outside too, and that’s been really encouraging to see.”
He looks like he is the front runner to start opposite of Byron Maxwell. If he can replicate the numbers he posted for the Dolphins in 2013, he should serve as an adequate second cornerback for the Eagles, which is better than what they've had the last two seasons with Bradley Fletcher.
Walter Thurmond was given the first crack at safety by the coaching staff. Kelly cited his experience playing nickle corner and his knack for always being around the ball as reasons why Thurmond could excel at the safety position.
But there are two primary concerns here. One, Thurmond has never played safety before – at any level. So it might be just a tad unreasonable for the Eagles to expect the transition to be seamless.
Thurmond acknowledged that the transition presents plenty of issues to overcome: "It's a different footwork motion than (I'm used to). It's kind of similar to nickel. It's a little bit different in that aspect as well, but more eyes. You're another quarterback on the field so, especially in our defense, you have to make a lot of coverage calls so you have to be a lot more vocal and verbal to the cornerbacks and to the linebackers as well. So that's probably one of the biggest differences from playing corner and safety."
For his part, Jenkins thinks Thurmond could excel at safety: "The thing about Walt is he has really good instincts. He's played the nickel position and once you've learned the nickel, you pretty much know everybody's position. He's very, very versatile. He's even jumped back out and played some corner. He's been very, very productive over the last three practices we've had and so I think he's really a natural fit. I think once he starts to learn a lot more of the scheme, he'll be a lot more comfortable."
If the transition wasn't a big enough issue, Thurmond has an extensive injury history. Consider this: Thurmond has been eligible for 80 NFL games since being selected by the Seattle Seahawks in the fourth round of the 2010 NFL Draft. However, he has only played in 36 games – less than half the games in his career. He has never played more than 14 games in a season. He played only two games in 2012 and 2014. He played only six games in 2011.
In other words, Thurmond makes Sam Bradford look like the model of health.
But what other options do they have?
Surprise! Earl Wolff is missing time with yet another injury despite being medically cleared by the doctors. Eric Rowe has a ton of upside, but he will likely need the first half of the season to adjust to the speed of the game before he can be expected to start for the Birds. Brandon Boykin has been one of the better corners for the Eagles the last three seasons, but cannot get an honest shot outside because he is only 5'8.
Jaylen Watkins? Jerome Coupline? E.J. Biggers? They might provide quality depth, but if they are required to meaningfully contribute this year, you might be longing for the days that Bradley Fletcher was in midnight green.
The verdict
Two of the Eagles positions in the secondary are solidified with Byron Maxwell and Malcolm Jenkins. Given how bad the secondary has performed the last two years, that, in and of itself, is an upgrade.
The other two spots are wide open, however. The best chance for the Eagles to field a league average secondary might be for Carroll to take the reigns at the corner spot opposite of Maxwell, forcing the Eagles to move Eric Rowe to safety, since there is a snow ball chance in h*ll that Walter Thurmond or Earl Wolff make it through an entire season healthy.
If Thurmond can hold down the fort long enough for Rowe to adjust to the NFL, the Eagles should have solidified the back end of their defense for the first time in a long time. If it does not? Well, it can't be any worse than it already was.
