The Eagles’ coordinators spoke on Tuesday, their first interaction with the media since Sunday night’s fusty debacle of a loss.
Jim Schwartz went first and spoke on Sidney Jones’ absence from the game, asked if he had “written off” the cornerback:
“No, he was in a backup role, he was backing up the nickel in that game. And we had an injury outside just for a couple of plays and Craig (James) was backing up the outside and he (Jones) was backing up the inside. So he still had a role out there.
Follow-up question:
Without Orlando Scandrick, who was released, does Jones’ role change?
Schwartz:
Well we’ll see where get to. You guys know I don’t like to be pigeonholed into things but he can play that position (slot) obviously, Malcolm can play that position. Malcolm layers a little bit different because of all the roles he plays. Sometime we’ll trend to get Avonte and Cre’Von back, too, so we got a lot of players that can play that position. But Sid started last year at the beginning in that position and was able to hold that position, so we have confidence that whoever we put in there will be able to accomplish that role.
Doesn’t sound like a ringing endorsement for Sidney Jones, does it?
Here’s what else Schwartz said:
Mike Groh went to the podium after Schwartz, and the first question to him was about the deep ball:
We were close again, and obviously we’ve gotta keep working on it. Again we had another shot at it and weren’t able to connect. So we’re gonna go back to practice this week and we’re going to keep designing the plays and keep working on it.
What did he see from Nelson Agholor on the deep pass that wound up incomplete?
I thought he gave tremendous effort, played with great speed down the field, I thought he located the ball maybe a little bit later in the down than we would like, and that made it difficult, because he located late he wasn’t able to catch up to it. Had he located it sooner, maybe he would have taken a bit of a different course and been there.
I do wanna say this though, in terms of Nelson’s efforts in our games, and the things he does for this team – I don’t think his effort should ever be questioned. He’s poured his heart and soul into this team over the last five years and done everything he’s ever been asked to do. Because we didn’t connect on that one, I don’t think is a reflection of what he’s done for our team.
Groh said he felt like Carson Wentz “made a good play” on the pass and that Agholor just picked it up late.
More Groh notes:
Yeah, uhhhh not sure about that last bullet point.
Here’s the video: