Matt Patricia has evolved, now hugs Darius Slay. How can de facto D-coordinator make Eagles' defense grow?

Before Matt Patricia walked into the Eagles’ auditorium on Thursday afternoon, he hugged Darius Slay. This might seem like convenient information to share during the Eagles’ de facto defensive coordinator’s de facto introduction to Philadelphia, but it’s nonetheless fitting on a day when Patricia could either craft his own narrative or confirm preconceptions.

“Everybody tries to grow as people and sit down and come together and go forward,” Patricia said. “That’s what’s been really, really awesome and cool about it. I love that. I don’t think all of us are ever our most perfect selves our entire lives.”

If you expected a Foxborough invasion and thought Patricia would stand in front of the cameras with the pencil in his right ear and give his best Bill Belichick impression, you would have been disappointed Thursday. 

The pencil was there; the Patriots were not.

Patricia came off like a fitting description of his official title — “senior defensive assistant” — speaking about wisdom gained and gleaned, becoming the old guy, and adapting to his players and fellow coaches.

It was Patricia’s first time meeting with reporters since the Eagles clumsily demoted Sean Desai and assigned Patricia — the former Detroit Lions head coach and long-time New England Patriots assistant — to lead the unit. A press conference by nature is performative, and it would be foolish to form an evaluation based on 15 minutes in front of cameras. Just look at Nick Sirianni’s introduction. 

But Patricia was not exactly an anonymous hire. He had more name recognition in Philadelphia than Sean Desai and Jonathan Gannon, the Eagles’ last two defensive coordinators. That came from two decades in New England, including six years as defensive coordinator. He won three Super Bowls with the Patriots. He also watched the Eagles win their own Super Bowl against him. Patricia didn’t last three full seasons as Detroit’s head coach, and his time included contentiousness with Slay, now an Eagles captain. (They’ve since resolved their differences.) Patricia undoubtedly brings credentials to the Eagles’ signal-calling — January won’t be his first time calling a defense in a meaningful postseason game — but this is not his defense and it didn’t happen the way anyone would have expected it. He went from aiding Desai to now overseeing a defense purportedly with Desai’s input.

“It’s really our imprint,” Patricia said. “I don’t think through the course of my years in defense, offense, whatever it is, that I’ve ever really felt like it’s mine. I think it’s the players. I think the beauty of it and the way the NFL works through the years that I’ve been in it, is it changes every year.

“I think you have to be able to identify what you do well and then try to emphasize that and then what are areas that I think we can get better at and then try to emphasize those. Sometimes it takes a little while; sometimes you build on it. But I don’t think there is any one great playbook that just comes in and is like, ‘here you go. This is the one that’s going to do it all, all the time,’ because I think everyone would do that. The art of it is trying to adapt what you think helps your players the best to give them a chance to go play fast and aggressive and give them a chance to win. I think that’s just what we’re trying to do as a collective group is decide, ‘Hey, where are we really good or what do we need to add or what are we missing and grow that through the weeks as we go?’”

Patricia’s entire time as an assistant coach has come under Bill Belichick, making Sirianni only the second head coach for whom he’s worked. Desai is a disciple of the Vic Fangio tree. “So as far as the schemes being similar, there’s definitely differences,” Sirianni said. The head coach admitted there won’t be “complete wholesale changes at this point of the year.” One noticeable difference on Sunday was the amount of three-safety formations the Eagles played; Sydney Brown was on the field for 79 percent of defensive snaps even though both Eagles starters were healthy. There were also subtle personnel adjustments, such as playing Patrick Johnson. But this is still the defense that Desai installed during the spring and summer — with Patricia in the building, so he’s been involved all the way through.

Patricia compared NFL defenses to the NBA — who are the matchups and what’s the personnel? It changes every game, so the plan must evolve accordingly. Belichick is famous for his week-to-week alterations.

“I think you do have to evolve and do things that fit the players that you have that particular week, but certainly you want to keep the foundation of what you spend a lot of time on,” Patricia said. “A lot of times, try to just let the talent shine that we have on the field, which is great. We have great players; we have great coaches.”

For much of the Eagles’ loss to Seattle, Patricia’s defense looked like a clear improvement. Of course, an inferior opponent to San Francisco and Dallas might have had something to do with it. Then came a 92-yard, game-winning drive when the Eagles could neither sack Drew Lock nor get off the field on third-and-long. Asked specifically about the coverage on the game-winning touchdown, Patricia said he doesn’t like much of that drive in hindsight. At the time, Patricia saw something on the second down that made him change his call for third down.

“Went to another call to try to give help other places,” Patricia said. “Obviously wish I hadn’t. Wish I had another call in that situation to be able to help in those areas and really in the situation on the field where we were. A lot of it too, trying to gauge the clock and see where were at from the time and how much time was going by. That changes some things as you go and what they can do. It limits as the time goes down and have to start elongating. They still had some time. They had the right play on for that situation.”

He has a full week to put a gameplan together for the Giants, where Giants coach Brian Daboll is a former colleague. It’s not hard to find Patricia connections on most staffs. Patricia, who left a high-paying engineering job to go into coaching, has a longstanding relationship with Jeff Stoutland from Stoutland’s time as a Syracuse assistant coach in the 1990s. He’s tried to be a sounding board to other assistants  — especially the young coaches on Sirianni’s staff — and he spoke with particular appreciation of Desai. On a personal level, Patricia is in Philadelphia without his family and was grateful for Desai’s friendship during that transition.

“Defensively it’s been great for me just to listen, listen and watch coaches, Patricia said. “I would say probably in more of my more recent years been around and watched a lot of great young coaches come through and tried to help them and do whatever I can to maybe guide or give them any sort of advice that I may have. That’s been really cool for me. And even with coach Sirianni and things that he’s dealing with. I’ll let him know, ‘Hey, I’m here if you need me as a sounding board.’ I really enjoy those roles. I enjoy that part of it now in my career. Kind of just, hey, I have a bunch of knowledge. I have a bunch of experience; I have a bunch of wisdom. If you want any of it, it’s here before I’m not doing this anymore.”

There are connections with players, too. In Philadelphia, Slay is the most notable. Slay, a captain with sway in the locker room, has not been shy about how he felt about Patricia when he departed Detroit, suggesting that Patricia was disrespectful toward him. Before the Eagles hired Patricia, they spoke to Slay. Patricia and Slay had a conversation in the spring when Patricia joined the staff, and the veteran cornerback said they came to a “great understanding.” To hear Patricia describe it, the two have reconciled and become resources for each other.

“It’s been awesome for me to be back around Slay and really have an unbelievable relationship,” Patricia said. “He’s a great guy. He’s super kind, super funny, very determined. He’s everything that he is. Obviously, just so appreciative of him and our conversation that we had in the spring and just helping me. Honestly, he’s helped me a lot. In the spring, just getting acclimated and just talking through, and honestly, he’s one of the guys I knew coming in the building.

“You know how it is when you go to a new place, and you are trying to learn people, you gravitate towards the ones you know. He’s out there with arms open and helped me fit in and feel comfortable. I’m really very grateful to him for that. As you go through life and you grow and learn and hopefully improve and get better as a person, from me personally, where I was whenever that was, I’m just trying to be a better person every day. I’m just really thankful to him for that.”

Maybe there’s a lesson there. People evolve. They grow. Patricia is six years past coaching against the Eagles in the Super Bowl. He’s three years past coaching Slay in Detroit. Those years were filled with more experiences and exposure, and Sirianni wants to tap into that experience in trying to see his defense grow and evolve during the final stretch of the season. Whether it works remains to be seen. And it doesn’t change the manner in which the Eagles handled the Desai demotion. But if the Eagles are going to win, Patricia must play a big part in it. And there might be more to Patricia than the caricature that’s been created.

“The NFL is about production, and we have to produce. We understand that,” Patricia said. “When you’re in it for a long time, which somehow, I’m now the old guy. I don’t know how that happened, but it happened quick. You get caught up in the rest of it. You’re trying to produce and win. We’re all trying to do that. To me, it’s the relationships. Whether it’s the relationships with the players or coaches, I hold a lot of value in that. When the game is done and we’re all not with the game anymore, it’s the relationships that will stay.”