McDermott has large shoes to fill, but should be just fine.


Andy Reid will be holding a press conference at 1PM on Saturday over at philadelphiaeagles.com in which he will officially name Sean McDermott the defensive coordinator of the Philadelphia Eagles.

This isn't exactly a surprise move by any means, but it certainly is a disappointing one.

The obvious secondary story to this is that Jim Johnson is not feeling well enough to come back and coach this season.

The Eagles had already announced that Johnson would not be taking part in training camp, but had not officially ruled him out for the season. This move effectively does just that.

On a purely football level, this move may not be as detrimental to the defense as everyone seems to think, but in fact could be a good thing.

While we all love J.J., it seemed as though his blitzes were becoming just a bit predictable. The Cardinals were able to pick up all of his blitzes in last year's championship game, which led to Kurt Warner being able to pick the secondary apart.

With Johnson, other teams knew what to expect. With McDermott, no one will have any idea how to gameplan for him.

In situations where Johnson might have run the zone, McDermott may run man. In situations where Johnson might have only rushed four, McDermott might bring the house. The point is that we don't know, and other teams especially have no idea.

Questions about Johnson are sure to be asked and answered at the press conference, so make sure to check back after 1PM tomorrow.