It doesn't always have everything to do with the quality level of the DC. Jim Johnson was the man, but his last great Defense was probably in 2002. That unit was filled with players drafted or acquired by Ray Rhodes and Tom Modrak after Rhodes got fired. Hugh Douglas, Dawkins, Bobby Taylor, Troy Vincent, Al Harris, Carlos Emmons, Jeremiah Trotter, Corey Simon etc.
Maybe those 2 got lucky, but they seemed to pick up the right players to put out some outstanding shut down defenses.
Once Reid took over all FO duties, you could tell the quality of defensive players drafted was going down. That's when Jim Johnson genius and Dawkins' overall ability helped cover a lot of mistakes on the field. Aside Sheldon Brown and Trent Cole I can't think of one player drafted by Reid for the defense has been better than the players mentioned 2 paragraphs before.
The guy thinks that he can draft defense in the bottom 3 rounds and come up with a shut down unit. Even the FA signees outside of Samuel are severely flawed and one dimensional players.
Then JJ passes away, RIP. Andy Reid gets rid of all the veterans on defense in one season, and hands the keys to McDermott at the same time. Pretty much hanging him to dry. Now McDermott had to build a defense that is not only a shut down unit, but also could stay on the field all day because our offensive philosophy is pass pass pass and go for the big play.
He actually had a unit that was rolling this year right up till late Nov and Dec when injuries hit the unit like the plague. Stew Bradley, Samuel, Nate Allen and Brandon Graham go down almost with 2 weeks of each other. Nate Allen was like a young Dawk, doesn't hit as hard, but covers a lot of mistakes in the secondary. Graham was actually doing a decent job, opposite Cole and looked like he was getting better. Yea Bradley can't cover the TE, but damn is the unit strong when he's out there, seems like he knows what the offense is about to do. Samuel needs to have legs, so he can jump passes and if he screws up recover his position.
To top all this, we never have quality backups to recover on defense, out side of Chaney none of our backups have done shit on defense this year and previous years. That all comes down to draft and free agency.
Saying McDermott was a bad coach is just plain neglecting the fact that The Eagles have quite possibly the most overrated defensive unit in the NFL.
