Why so unserious?: Philadelphia Eagles replace Sean Desai with Matt Patricia, sort of

Fletcher Cox has seen a lot in his 12 seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles. His introduction to life in the NFL was a rookie season in which his defensive coordinator, formerly the team’s offensive line coach, was fired and replaced in the middle of the season. Now a grizzled veteran, Cox has a dozen years’ worth of perspective that includes a Super Bowl championship, a Super Bowl loss, three head coach firings and all the drama in between.

“My biggest deal is, and I live by this so much,” Cox, in his sixth season as a team captain, told PHLY after the Eagles’ come-from-behind win over the Kansas City Chiefs less than a month ago. “I tell any coach, ‘The calmer you stay, the calmer we stay.'”

Contrast that with the hysteria which apparently consumed the NovaCare Complex this week. Two days after the team’s blowout loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night, the first question posed to Nick Sirianni in his Tuesday afternoon press conference was whether he was considering any changes to the coaching staff’s responsibilities.

“No,” he said abruptly, setting the tone for a week of public defiance before ESPN’s Tim McManus asked for further explanation. “I feel good with the people that we have in this building. We’re 10-3. We’re in control of our own destiny, and we’re going to keep rolling and finding answers with the people that we have.”

Fast forward to Sunday morning when NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported the team was opting to move defensive coordinator Sean Desai to the booth for a fresh perspective while Matt Patricia, heretofore a “senior defensive assistant” purposely hidden from the media since his offseason hiring, would “call in plays to the green dot.” If that sounded like a bizarre solution, Fox’s Jay Glazer ripped off the band-aid of team spin a few minutes later, reporting the team “very quietly made a change at defensive coordinator this week.”

And though the team insists Desai is still the defensive coordinator with Patricia merely assuming play-calling duties (what’s the difference?), the panic is palpable.

It’s hard to decide which part of the week was most childish, in retrospect. Desai having to farcically conduct his weekly press conference on Wednesday must have felt like a slap in the face, even if the team might offer the guise of “competitive advantage” in having kept things secret. Sirianni’s obstinance in the face of any pointed question about a team which had lost consecutive games against its primary conference contenders by a combined 43 points, knowing all along the change to his staff would be revealed eventually, reads now like a toddler insisting “No!” he didn’t break the lamp. The trickle-down defensiveness extended to A.J. Brown refuting the notion he was the source for Derrick Gunn’s report of an unnamed offensive player suggesting the offense lacked creativity and Kevin Byard tweeting to the effect of “nothing to see here” about the change in process for putting together the weekly scouting report.

To be sure, there is reason to be unhappy with the Eagles defense. It surrendered an unfathomable nine touchdowns and one field goal on 10 consecutive non-kneeldown drives spanning the two most important games of the season to date. The group ranks dead last in third-down defense, allowing a 48.1 percent conversion rate despite opposing offenses having the second-longest average distance to go (7.7) in the league. Aesthetically, the unit looks exhausted, which could be related to the top defensive linemen playing so many more snaps than has been customary for an organization that has prioritized heavy rotations at the position under Howie Roseman. With the same head coach and position coaches at defensive tackle and edge rusher, Desai is the only new variable in that equation.

Conveniently, the team had a ready-made replacement in Patricia. Evicted from New England after a disastrous one-year stint as the Patriots’ de facto offensive coordinator – how bizarrely full circle this all must be for Cox – Patricia landed softly with Sirianni’s staff in April. His specific role with the team has been clouded with uncertainty and, in part because they know he’s a lightning rod for criticism, the team opted to shield him from any media availability. It turns out he was living inside the team’s “break glass in case of emergency” box after they settled on hiring Desai. That, of course, only happened when their previous emergency-replacement-on-retainer Vic Fangio left for Miami when Jonathan Gannon and the Arizona Cardinals mischaracterized their mutual flirtation.

Despite apparently being in an emergency at 10-3, the Eagles surely know Patricia is not Fangio. In his seven seasons as Patriots defensive coordinator and three years as Detroit Lions head coach, Patricia’s defense never finished in the top 10 in defensive DVOA. Those three Lions defenses, when Patricia was away from Bill Belichick, from 2018-2020 finished, chronologically, 21st, 23rd and 32nd.

From a decision-making perspective, there are no comforting explanations. If this was Sirianni’s doing alone, it’s an uneasy reflection on the steadiness of his hand. As Cox intimated, it’s hard to stay calm when the boss is acting like the house is on fire. If this is a Howie Roseman push, it’s hard to read Desai as anything other than a scapegoat for what looks now like a poorly constructed defense. The pass rush, which entered the season with a top nine that included seven former first-round picks, a third-rounder on his rookie contract (Milton Williams) and a highly paid former fourth-rounder (Josh Sweat), entered Sunday ranked 21st in sack rate. The linebacker situation has been a predictable disaster while the secondary took an expected step back considering its collective age.

And if instead this is an ownership-driven change, well, this won’t be the last of the drama to befall the 2023 Eagles.

Oh yeah, the team also has a game to play Monday night. Believe it or not, a win could put them atop the division, or even the conference, depending on Sunday’s results. The bad news is Jalen Hurts is traveling separately from the rest of the team after he was downgraded to questionable this morning with an illness. The defense will be without Patricia’s old friend Darius Slay and top linebacker Zach Cunningham while the offense will be missing starting right guard Cam Jurgens.

If that all makes you feel like panicking, at least you’re not alone.