From the “If you can’t beat them...join them” book, apparently the Eagles have hired former Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Brian Stewart.  The addition of Stewart will add experience to a defensive coaching staff that is working through Jim Johnson’s cancer treatment.

I don’t think Stewart’s hiring will have any bearing on interim defensive coordinator and secondary coach Sean McDermott’s current role of subbing for Johnson.  Stewart, who has ties to Eagles head coach Andy Reid going back to their Northern Arizona days, will probably work together McDermott and assistant coach Otis Smith with the secondary. 

You know the Birds are hoping that Stewart has a better season in 2009 than last year with the Cowboys. 

I don’t know if it was Stewart or head coach Wade Phillips—Stewart was stripped of play-calling duties about halfway through the 2008 season—but the Cowboys defense was very lackadaisical at the end of the ’08 season including a 44-6 shellacking by the Eagles in Week 17.

Eventually after the Cowboys defense allowed a whopping 365 points for the season (20th ranked in the NFL), Phillips fired Stewart on January 19 after the season.