Schwartz Brings New Scheme, Lots Of Experience To Philly
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Watching the Philadelphia Eagles' defense at times last season was stressful (Buccaneers game).
At other times, it was simply laughable (Lions game).
But after getting rid of Chip Kelly and his staff, there's a new regime, lead by head coach Doug Pederson.
Pederson brought in Jim Schwartz to be the team's defensive coordinator, and Schwartz was a guest on Sportsradio 94WIP Friday morning.
He discussed his love for football with Angelo Cataldi, then joked about his Tastykake addiction, but then got down to business, giving fans an idea of what a prototypical Jim Schwartz defense looks like:
"The common denominators you'll see, traditionally we're going to be tough, we're going to be physical, we're going to attack, we're going to put pressure on the quarterback. I think those are the things that carry over from year to year. This is sort of our starting points."
LISTEN to Jim Schwartz's full interview here...
Schwartz believes he will be a great fit for the Birds, and says there are many attractive parts of the job:
"Doug Peterson being an offensive coach, I felt I could really contribute and help him defensively, being able to rely on some of my experiences. I'm going to be honest, I looked at the players, I looked at just about every game Philadelphia played last year, and I remember playing these guys a bunch of times and looked at a lot of these players coming out of college. That was part of the attraction here, I think we have some really good defensive players."
When hearing Schwartz will be taking over as defensive coordinator, many assumed (and hoped) he would give the defensive scheme a makeover. He says that is a safe assumption:
"We're not going to be a 2-gap 3-4. I want those defensive lineman to be attacking, I want those guys to be wreaking some havoc, putting pressure on the quarterback. they're not going to be playing at the line of scrimmage, grabbing guys, trying to keep the linebackers clean."
Schwartz says he learned a lot from Bill Belichick when he was first getting started in the league and admits it is always tough the first year coaching a new team.
But nonetheless, "I'm excited about the pieces we have and what we can accomplish next year," he says.
