Eagles new defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon spoke to the media today.

Good session, and one we were looking forward to, since we don’t really know anything about him. He came over from Indy, where he was the defensive backs coach after serving as an assistant with the Vikings from 2014 to 2017.

The 38 year old spoke for just under 30 minutes and here’s what he had to say:

  • He was excited about the talent in place and thinks there are good pieces to work with on the defensive side.
  • Gannon says he’s learned a lot from Nick Sirianni and always thought he would be a good head coach.
  • RE: man and zone, he says it will be predicated by who they have and who they are playing. He believes in playing different styles of defense and doesn’t seem married to one particular scheme.
  • He prefers to go by “Jonathan” but says we can call him “J.G.” His wife may not be happy with people calling him “Jon.”
  • Way back in 2006 is when he started thinking about what a defense might look like, if he ever got a defensive coordinator job. He said he’s worked under a lot of different people, which helped him piece together what a good defense would consist of.

On that, Gannon said he does not have a scheme, adding this:

“I believe you have to be adaptable. The first thing is you have to figure out what our players can do, then put them in those situations as much as possible to utilize their strengths. The main thing is not what we play, but how we play. And if you ask our players that, I think they know that from the jump, as far as we’re gonna run to the ball, we’re gonna out-hit people, we’re gonna take (the ball) away, and we’re gonna be smart. Those four things – hustle, intensity, takeaway, smart – the acronym is for that is the ‘HITS’ principle, and that’s what we’re gonna hang our hat on. Everyone runs the same stuff for the most part. It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it. The players have done a good job of absorbing that and seeing the standard we want from them.”

More Gannon:

  • Mike Zimmer was a huge influence on him. A DB guy by trade, before he got to Minnesota. He also says Matt Eberflus helped him “fill in some gaps” as to how he wants a defense to look like.
  • He says they’ll probably use some Mike Zimmer principles but it’s not going to be a carbon copy of what was done in Minnesota.
  • He didn’t want to say that he prioritizes one position over the other. Thinks all 11 spots are necessary.
  • On defensive line rotation, it’s something he thinks is important. He wants to get a lot of different guys on the line to keep up the level of intensity and effort.
  • They really liked Ryan Kerrigan the person in addition to his skill on the field.

Good session.

Here’s the full video: