Last season, the Philadelphia Eagles ranked 25th in Defensive DVOA, Football Outsiders’ opponent-adjusted efficiency metrics. More than the travails of quarterback Jalen Hurts and anything that was happening with Philly’s offense, it was the defense, led by Jonathan Gannon, which tripped the Eagles up in 2021.
General manager Howie Roseman, who’s always been aggressive to a fault, did everything he could in the subsequent offseason to improve things. Roseman and his staff, including head coach Nick Sirianni, added edge-rusher Hasson Reddick, cornerback James Bradberry, linebacker Kyzir White among the pool of current NFL players, and took Georgia defensive tackle/small planet Jordan Davis and Davis’ college teammate, Nakobe Dean, early in the draft.
On Tuesday, Roseman continued to add to that haul with the trade for former New Orleans Saints defensive back Chauncey Gardner-Johnson.
So, if that defense doesn’t show a lot more force in 2022, Roseman certainly isn’t to blame.
Regarding Gardner-Johnson more specifically, we at Touchdown Wire ranked him as the NFL’s second-best slot defender for the 2022 season. Tyrann Mathieu, who was his Saints teammate for approximately five minutes, ranked first. While it would have been fun to see CGJ and the Honey Badger wreaking havoc in Dennis Allen’s awesome defense, Gardner-Johnson is set to be a massive factor in what Roseman and everybody else in the Eagles’ organization believes to be the kind of defensive overhaul that can pay immediate dividends at a championship level.
Let’s get into why that’s the case.