Schwartz defends Slay’s play

Eagles DC says numbers don’t show CB’s impact this season

Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz dismissed questions Tuesday about how his defense fared this season out of “respect for the game.”

Schwartz said during his weekly availability that his only focus was on the Washington Football Team, which the Eagles host Sunday night and would clinch the NFC East with a victory. A WFT loss and the New York Giants-Dallas Cowboys survivor wins the East.

Gallant as that maneuver was, Schwartz’s defense of cornerback Darius Slay and a pass rush, which ranks fourth in the league but hasn’t translated into turnovers, says plenty.

Slay got his first interception as an Eagle late in the third quarter of the 37-17 loss to the Cowboys. Was that worth a three-year, $50 million contract plus third and fifth-round draft picks sent to Detroit, for a team that finished with six picks, second-least in the league?

Schwartz’s answer sounded like a thesis.

“As far as Slay, it certainly didn’t show up in the stat sheet as far as like interceptions and things like that,” Schwartz said. “But there were a lot of games that quarterbacks didn’t throw very much at him, including this last game. First play there’s help that should be coming his way on that first play, and it wasn’t there, and it made it look bad for him giving up a long completion. But after that, man, I have a hard time remembering another completion that he gave up after that in this game. He shadowed the best receivers. He’s made some guys disappear. He’s had a couple games