Defensive Tackle is a big time weakness on this team.
At times the group we have has played very well, and it shows in our total defensive production. But at other times, our little guys in there have been mauled by guys that weigh 20-50 pounds more than them and they make Trotter, who then has no space to make plays, look bad.
In 2005 we drafted a DT Mike Patterson in the first round, mostly because we looked to have a near perfect roster and the largest possible problem at the time seemed to be Corey Simon.
In the the disastrous 2005 season, most everything went wrong. Offensively it was due to injuries, and most all the same guys came back in '06 to contribute to the best Eagles offense ever.
But defensively, the only injury losses were Lito Sheppard and N.D. Kalu. Yet this group still finished in the bottom third of the league. What stood out was a huge step down in the secondary and this was mostly blamed on the fact that we were not getting any pressure on the QB.
(Well that problem was solved. Even though we lost our best pass rusher, we registered near the top of the league in sacks and two of our defensive backs are pro bowlers, while ranking in the top 10 in pass defense.)
However after the 2005, it was the pass defense that had everyone concerned and our run defense, which ranked 21st (same as pass defense) was ignored.
I'm trying to think why this was, and I think it has to do with two things: We stuffed LT to his worst game as a pro against the Chargers, so people forgot when we allowed 255 yards on the ground against Denver. Also, Trotter had just gone to the Pro Bowl for some reason and was still widely overrated. Moreover, we had drafted Matt McCoy in the draft one round after Patterson and with an obvious void at WLB, we decided to hand him the job instead of giving him some competition.
Now the problem with the mindset going into the 2006 offseason is pretty obvious. The only reason our D struggled was that low QB sack number. So what do you do when you don't have any pressure? You get pass rushers! We signed Darren Howard to solve some of this problem, but it wasn't the pressure off the edge that was the problem. No suddenly the pressure up the middle wasn't good enough. So out with Hollis Thomas! We need pass rusher, not run stoppers! But the 2005 Free Agent class was very unimpressive at the DT position, so we turned to the draft for the second dtraight year. The Front Office was probably going nuts when Brodrick Bunkley was avalaible at pick #14. After all, he was a DT who could rush the passer! And that's what we need, a pass rusher!
So suddenly it looks like our biggest problem has been solved to the point that it should be a strength. Remember how people were salivating about our D-Line in preseason? I know I was! Well we solved that problem by applying relatively good pressure throughout the year. Plus, all but one of the guys (Juqua) on the Line are locked up for years!
So we're set right? Not exactly, a 26th ranked run defense was a main reason in most of the games we lost. In hindsight, Walker, Patterson, Rayburn and Bunkley now look way to small to be any kind of force against the run. So what do people say? Get a big run stuffing DT!!! But I ask you where on earth a player like that fits in? Patterson I believe IS a very good player and had a bit of a sophomore slump, but he'll be good for years. You can't just give up on Bunkley after one year, but having him in there next to PAtterson makes this line EVEN smaller! A solution to this problem would be releasing Darwin Walker and getting a run stuffer to rotate with Bunkley, but Darwin was actually a large reason why our pass defense was as good as it was. Plus, you know you have a decent player in Darwin Walker, where as you don't know that with Bunkley or any Free Agent you bring in.
I honestly think we need a guy at DT who is 320+ lbs, but it would be really tough to get him in there. What a lot of the problem was, was drafting DTs two straight years to solve an urgent need. By doing this, you feel obligated to play your two guys you drafted, no matter how good they do or small they are. Look at McDougle in '05 and how we ignored the DE spot after Burgess left. So now the way our situation is looking, we have two undersized, pass rushing DTs who were drafted to start on this team. But our problem isn't pressure anymore, but rather the run. So either way one of these two guys will falter if we decide to bring in a stuffer in the middle, or we don't bring anyone in and they will continue to get pushed around together and our run defense will see no improvement.
So really, this dilemma really can only be solved one way, and that is if Bunkley plays way above his size next year and is a force inside. The Front Office will not get a run stuffer because we are a bit restricted this year in terms of cap and because they don't want to pay big money to a guy who wants to knock off their former #1 pick.
That's why I think the only way our defense gets any better is with Linebackers. They have always been right next to the Fullback in terms of priority, but I think the Front Office needs to see this potentially strong Free Agent class of OLBs as a redemption from the DT problem. The only other need, disregarding DT, is at Safety, and the draft has plenty of those (LaRon Landry bandwagoner here). So really the Eagles don't have to spend their cash anywhere except Linebackers. Pull a Beckham! Give him whatever you have! Pay as much as you can to get one of those Linebackers here!
Obviously if none of those Linebackers become Free Agents, we'll have to go back to the draft, where we've already acquired three of our Linebackers in the past two years. I'm all up for giving McCoy another shot and seeing what Gocong can do if this were the situation, so I would oppose drafting a Linebacker, unless an exceptional talent fell to us (Poluzny for example).
So the bottom line is that the problems on this defense are obvious, but the solutions are tough. It's like a rubix cube. Looks easy, but really really isn't.
