The Eagles defense has surrendered 75 points and 850 total yards of offense to the 49ers and the Cowboys during their recent two-game losing streak. Even in Philadelphia's most recent victory over the Bills, the defense yielded 34 points and 505 total yards. In other words, this level of defensive performance simply isn't sustainable if the Eagles want to reach their ultimate goal of winning a Super Bowl this season.
Philadelphia evidently realized that internally, as they have made a coaching change before their Week 15 matchup against the Seahawks. The Eagles “quietly” moved defensive coordinator Sean Desai to another position and promoted Matt Patricia to the defensive play-caller’s chair, per Jay Glazer of Fox Sports.
A little @Eagles scoopage today: Philly very quietly made a change at defensive coordinator this week moving out Sean Desai to another position and replacing him with Matt Patricia. Desai remains with the team in different capacity but Patricia now runs and calls the defense…
— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) December 17, 2023
It's not clear what position Desai will serve, but the Eagles clearly were not pleased with the defense's production under the former Seahawks defensive assistant, who was in his first year as Philadelphia's defensive play-caller after replacing current Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon.
Patricia, 49, has extensive experience as a coordinator and defensive play-caller, having served in that role for the Patriots from 2012-2017 before he was hired as the Lions' coach in 2018.
