Staley shrugs off talk of being overlooked by Eagles
Duce Staley played seven of his 10 NFL seasons with the Eagles, who took him off the board in the third round of the 1997 draft.
Pandemic willing, Staley will get on the field this fall for his 10th season as a coach with the Eagles.
If anybody had a right to stomp his feet and question why the Eagles didn’t make him the offensive coordinator after firing Mike Groh, it was Staley. The Eagles hired offensive assistant Rich Scangarello, who was canned by Denver and added passing game coordinator to the title of quarterbacks coach Press Taylor.
Staley had paid his dues. The assistant head coach/ running backs coach deserved better.
“I’m not disappointed at all,” Staley said Saturday on a Zoom session. “I don’t feel overlooked. I think it was about two years ago when I said it’s a little different here
with the Eagles. What I mean by that is we all get a chance to game-plan. So, that’s what’s unique about our staff. We all have input in the whole game plan together. We’re not about titles. We’re just about getting the job done.”
Roughly 70 percent of the players in the NFL are Black. Yet there are just four minority head coaches in the league: Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Anthony Lynn of the San Diego Chargers, Brian Flores of the Miami Dolphins and Ron Rivera of Washington. There are just two Black general managers, Andrew Barry of the Cleveland Browns and Chris Grier of the Dolphins.
Staley has interviewed for head coaching jobs, including the post the Eagles gave to Doug Pederson. For now he’s content to let the NFL and entities like the Fritz Pollard Alliance, which advocates for coaches of color, be the vehicles of change.
Offensive coordinator and head coach are titles that appeal to Staley.
“We all want to advance, that’s life,” Staley said. “But right now I’m super-happy in my role, proud of my role being assistant head coach, running backs coach, proud of that. Doug gives me things. He puts it on my plate. I’m thankful for him for having those opportunities. So, I’m excited about where I am and what I’m doing now.”
When Staley isn’t reminding himself or his colleagues to wear a mask or follow protocols, he’s scheming up ways to use running backs Miles Sanders, Boston Scott and Corey Clement.
Sanders had a stellar, if not spectacular rookie season, the second-round pick out of Penn State rushing for 818 yards and three touchdowns. He finished the season with 229 touches for 1,327 yards, an average of 5.8 yards per chance. Unless Sanders gets hurt, his workload will increase. No every-down Eagles player is more explosive.
“I think you put him in, and you let him go,” Staley said. “I don’t think you have to be careful with him because he’s one of the guys that it’s hard to get a hit on. I think you’ve got to be careful with the guys that can’t make people miss. If you put a big workload on those type of guys, this is a violent league and injuries can happen. But if you’ve got a guy that can make people miss and is kind of special like Miles, the percentage goes down.”
The 5-6, 203-pound Scott, who the Eagles call the “big, little back,” also makes opponents miss and is an excellent receiver. He has a burst and a knack for making big plays, having scored five touchdowns in just 11 games.
Clement is multi-talented as well, at least when healthy. He’s coming back from labrum surgery, his second procedure in two years.
What Scangarello does for the Eagles won’t be apparent until the games start. Basically he’s supposed to sync the run game with the pass game. Or if you prefer, make the play action pass look like a run.
“Rich has definitely been awesome being able to think different, make the room think different,” Staley said. “It’s been good.”
What the Eagles’ coaching staff is fighting through, much like their counterparts around the league, are myriad COVID-19 protocols.
Players Lane Johnson, Jordan Mailata and Nathan Gerry are on the reserve/COVID-19 list. Receiver Marquise Goodwin has opted out. Those lists are expanding around the league.
The COVID breakout in Major League Baseball has the attention of all professional athletes and coaches.
“We all know we have to be careful,” Staley said. “That’s something that all coaches are talking to our players (about), and among ourselves, just to remind ourselves. Sometimes you get up to go get a coffee and you may forget your mask. Sometimes you go to the bathroom and you may forget your mask. We’re all reminding each other of how serious this is.”
Staley, echoing Pederson and other coaches, thinks the Eagles have a solid plan to deal with the virus within the team complex. No one knows for sure what will happen when the team begins practicing regularly outdoors.
“This is a different time for us,” Staley said. “As a team we must make the adjustments so we can be successful down the road.”
••• Eagles coordinator Jim Schwartz thinks defense is measured in points allowed and getting off the field.
That’s why he’s been conflicted since getting torched by Tom Brady in Super Bowl LII.
The Eagles won the game, which obviously is the biggest stat. But except for a Brandon Graham strip sack in the fourth quarter, the Eagles couldn’t stop Brady and the Patriots since the halftime show with Justin Timberlake. Brady threw for a Super Bowl-record 505 yards and three touchdowns on a defense that allowed 248 yards per game through the air in the regular season.
Why did Brady make it look so easy, even after losing speed receiver Brandon Cooks? Looking at the forensic evidence, the officials weren’t calling illegal picks and offensive pass interference on the Patriots.
Schwartz echoed that on a video chat Saturday. The Eagles relied on a scheme that proved to be predictable and archaic.
“It really started like the week after the Super Bowl when we started meeting before the 2018 season,” Schwartz said. “We saw where people were going with man routes and pick routes and things like that and said ‘OK, we’re tired of complaining to the officials that we got picked or it was offensive pass interference so we need to mitigate it ourselves.’”
Since then the Eagles have allowed 300-plus passing games a dozen times, six in each season. They’re 4-8 in those games, including the playoff loss last year to the Seahawks.
Schwartz is optimistic that Darius Slay can be that shutdown corner he’s craved. Though Slay has played just one complete season in the last four, that’s more availability than the Eagles’ corners.
A great corner makes the pass rush look better. And the Eagles need another pass rusher. Then again, aren’t Schwartz’s defenses reliant on the pass rush, not the coverage?
Slay easily is the best Eagles’ defensive back. Maybe the top player on defense. The rest of the secondary is ordinary. Avonte Maddox and Nickell Robey-Coleman are the best of the lot, although safety Will Parks could be a find.
The toughest defensive back, Jalen Mills, was so prone to double moves at corner, Schwartz moved him to safety. Safety Rodney McLeod is the anchor.
Under Schwartz, the Eagles are 8-15 in games that they’ve allowed 300 or more passing yards. Perhaps Slay will mitigate that.