The Birds traded for Chauncey Gardner-Johnson on Tuesday, a guy who played most of his 2021 snaps at slot corner for the Saints. That was same the year prior, though in 2019, his rookie year, he played 69 snaps at safety, which was the most single-season safety snaps of his three-year NFL career.

If there were any concerns about him displacing Avonte Maddox, who is excellent in the slot, said concerns were assuaged when he was listed by the Eagles as a safety on the initial 53-man roster. Howie Roseman then said this:

As you guys know, this guy played safety. We evaluated him as a safety in college, too, so this isn’t like it’s totally fresh for him. This is something that you see more and more in this league. You see it with the two guys playing in Buffalo, obviously; you saw it when we had Malcolm [Jenkins] here in Philly.

You see a couple of our guys, not just the guy we got today, but a couple of our guys doing it because the league is about coverage, the league is about speed, it is about athleticism and instincts, so a lot of those guys when you’re playing the nickel position that translates to what they’re trying to do also at the safety position.

It’s true, and also somewhat of an underrated topic and trend in the NFL. We always talked about Malcolm Jenkins being versatile, a guy who could get down in the box, cover receivers and tight ends, stuff gaps, and do a variety of things for Jim Schwartz while Rodney McLeod patrolled like a classic free safety. There’s more bleed through these days, and so you see overlap in the requirements for a slot corner and box/strong safety in the modern day game.

Nick Sirianni touched on that a bit:

There are some different things that we’re able to do where they are interchangeable, obviously, of when you ask them to play the deep half and when you ask them to play in the box and when you ask them to play the deep third. So, there are some interchangeable parts and some looks that we show that for us as a defense that make us multiple.

When you give the offense an answer now, like if the offense knows what you’re in and what you’re doing, it’s easier for them to pick you apart when they know exactly what coverage there is to do. A lot of it comes from the disguise, as well, is what I’m getting at, the disguise of how you’re trying to show one picture to the offense and play another thing. That’s where a lot of those pieces are interchangeable.

As it looks right now, the Eagles starting defense will be something like this:

  • EDGE: Brandon Graham / Josh Sweat
  • DT: Javon Hargrave / Jordan Davis
  • DT: Fletcher Cox / Davis
  • EDGE: Haason Reddick
  • LB: Kyzir White
  • LB: TJ Edwards
  • CB1: Darius Slay
  • CB2: James Bradberry
  • slot corner: Avonte Maddox
  • safety: Chauncey Gardner-Johnson
  • safety: Marcus Epps

They’ll sit in some version of nickel for the largest portion of the game. You can call it a 4-3 or a 3-4 or whatever you want, but the buzz word under Jonathan Gannon is “multiple,” i.e. they will show multiple fronts, giving you something resembling 2-3 interior guys and then different looks on the edge with two linebackers on the field. That’s probably the biggest storyline on the defensive side of the ball, their deployment and usage of Jordan Davis and craftiness with Haason Reddick. Throw in CGJ as a safety now for another intriguing thing to keep an eye on.