Old friends Gannon and Ragone square off in Sunday’s opener
PHILADELPHIA >> Before the Eagles hired Nick Sirianni as head coach, they interviewed Arthur Smith, who wound up taking the top job with the Atlanta Falcons.
Before Smith could complete his staff with defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, Sirianni made Gannon his prized get with the Eagles.
Had Smith landed Gannon, who he shared an office with for two years at Tennessee, the Falcons coordinators would be Gannon and Dave Ragone. Both are graduates, three years apart, at St. Ignatius High in Ohio and the University of Louisville.
None of them will have to be reminded what a small world the coaching fraternity is when they get together pre-game for their season opener Sunday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“Jon is a good friend of mine,” Smith said on a conference call Thursday. “We haven’t coached together in eight years. We did share an office so it was kind of like living with somebody in the dorm. So, I feel like I know Jon really well. Obviously, he’s grown as a coach. … Jonathan is going to have his own stamp. He’s also tight with Mike Zimmer, and so
Jon’s his own guy. I know they’ll be really sound in the secondary. They’ll be hunting down the football. He’ll have them ready to go. I’ll be happy as hell for Jon except when we play them.”
Gannon and the Eagles have a battle on their hands with Smith, who passed on a couple of highly rated quarterbacks to win now with 36-year-old Matt Ryan of Exton. The Falcons grabbed tight end Kyle Pitts of Archbishop Wood, who many considered the top prospect in the draft, with their first pick.
Smith used his offensive prowess to help Mike Vrabel turn the Titans into an AFC power. Ryan Tannehill, a stiff with the Miami Dolphins, emerged as a top quarterback for the Titans largely because of Smith. Tannehill made the Pro Bowl, was voted comeback Player of the Year and among pundits is known as the Second Music City Miracle.
If the Eagles want to avoid an awful start, Gannon better have an answer for Smith, who at age 39 is a year younger than Sirianni and Ragone.
“They are smart,” Gannon said. “They do a lot of good things and they play to their players strengths and Arthur does a good job of keeping the quarterback out of trouble. He’s not going to ask his players to do something that is putting them in bad spots. That presents a challenge because it makes you hard to defend when you do that.”
It’s going to take a group effort by the Eagles to prevent the explosive Pitts (66, 240) from dominating the highlights. That could take attention away from Calvin Ridley, the heir apparent to Julio Jones, who was shipped to the Titans.
Smith’s ability to fast track his system through veteran quarterbacks is only one of the reasons the Falcons rolled with Pitts, the product of Abington and Archbishop Wood.
“It won’t be his first rodeo going out there on Sunday,” Smith said. “When you’re installing certain schemes and you’re trying to tweak certain things, he’s got a wealth of knowledge that he can go back on. Those are conversations that we have. He’s just at a different level than most players because of all the reps he’s had in the NFL, and he’s had a ton of success. Matt’s a very coachable player. I really enjoy working with him. I know he’s a local guy and I joked with him yesterday, he’s more Philly than Pitts. But he’s got to be one of the better high school players coming back out of that area. Is that accurate?”
Even in a crappy 4-12 season Ryan threw 26 touchdowns and just 11 interceptions.
Hard as it is to believe Smith is just three years older than Ryan and is the childhood story of the Falcons’ head coach. Smith’s father is Fred Smith, the founder and CEO of FedEx, an $84 billion corporation. Fred’s net worth is $5.7 billion, according to Forbes, which is slightly less than Falcons owner Arthur Blank ($7.2 billion) and slightly more than Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie ($3.5 billion).
Smith and his father, who won a Silver Star, a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts serving two tours with the Marines in Vietnam, talk often during the week, just not about football.
“There were a lot of good lessons,” Smith said. “If you ever got to talking to my dad, he was probably one of the humblest people you’d ever meet. As a kid it’s ironic, I got to meet a lot of really cool people. I got to go to a lot of really nice events. I guess when I got to second or third grade kids started saying stuff like my dad said your dad was this, and you know, I just knew him as my dad. He means so much to me. It’s nice, I talk to him multiple times a week when I’m driving home. I talk about life. He doesn’t try to give me football advice. We talk about leadership and management. I don’t try to give him logistics advice, try to change his flights.
“I’m definitely very fortunate to have him as a father.”
Whatever happens Sunday, if you stick around for the post-game handshakes you’ll see Smith, Gannon, Ragone and Sirianni filling it up.
The NFL coaching carousel can seem like a small world.
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No change on the Eagles injury report.
Limited at the Thursday practice, just as they were Wednesday were offensive linemen Brandon Brooks (knee) and Landon Dickerson (knee), linebacker Davion Taylor (calf) and safety Rodney McLeod (knee).
Offensive tackle Lane Johnson said Brooks took a few plays off at the Wednesday practice but got in some work.
With Taylor effectively out, the Eagles signed linebacker Christian Elliss, a tackling machine at Idaho, to their practice squad.
Elliss is the son of former Lions first-round pick Luther Elliss, a two-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle.
To make room on the practice squad, the Birds released center Ross Pierschbacher.