Jim Schwartz Looking At Linebacker Play As A Key To Eagles' Defense
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Jim Schwartz isn't a word mincer. Whatever is on the Eagles' defensive coordinator's mind usually comes spilling out without a funnel to extract certain pieces.
So on Tuesday, when addressing the media about a critical level of his 4-3 scheme, Schwartz emphasized linebacker play as a key component to the Eagles success on defense this season.
Right now, as the Eagles' depth chart reads, strong-side linebacker Nigel Bradham, middle linebacker Jordan Hicks and weak-side linebacker Mychal Kendricks. Bradham knows Schwartz's system, from working with him in Buffalo. Hicks looked like a budding star before suffering a season-ending injury when he ruptured his left pectoral major in the final minutes of a November game against Dallas. In eight games, five in which he started, Hicks had two interceptions and three fumble recoveries. He also had 50 tackles, a sack, a forced fumble, three pass deflections and a pick six.
Kendricks, 25, is coming off a bad season where he recorded just 86 combined tackles, three sacks, and one forced fumbled in 13 games. Kendricks hopes to bounce back under Schwartz.
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What can the linebackers expect to face in Schwartz's scheme? How different will it be from the 3-4 scheme Billy Davis ran under Chip Kelly? Will the linebackers face more second-level blocking, or will it be much different than the two-gap system the Eagles previously ran?
"No, it's a lot different than two-gap because when you're playing two-gap – I don't want to get too technical with you guys – you're generally building a wall along the front and guys are sort of falling back and linebackers are generally shuffling laterally more because your defensive linemen are going laterally," Schwartz explained. "When you play an attack front up front, your linebackers have to come down hill. They have to plug those holes. We're probably more … We attack in levels, and I don't want to bore you guys, but back when I was playing high school football, the coach would always say, "Hey, everybody stay in your lane, everybody stay in your lane.
"Nobody covers a kick that way in the NFL anymore, or college football. Because [if] one guy is out of his lane, it's gone for a touchdown. You attack in levels. You have guys that are disruptors, guys that attack the blocks and other guys that play leverage off of them. If we are going to play attack up front – and we are, because we want to put those guys in position to be able to rush their passer and play the run on the way to the quarterback – the linebackers have to be tied and the safeties have to be tied in.
"There's techniques within that that they need to be able to play off the guys in front and they need to -- when they see a hole, they have to step up and fill, because like you said, if you don't, if you're lateral, you can create some gaps in there. So if our linebackers are playing well, if our safeties are filling well, you're going to see those guys attacking downhill rather than waiting and catching blocks."
