Philadelphia Eagles will Miss Jim Johnson

Eagles-name-McDermott-defensive-coordinator.html" target="_blank">The news that Jim Johnson is not returning as the Philadelphia Eagles’ defensive coordinator really dampens the start to their season. This is not a knock on Sean McDermott, who will now have the interim tag removed from his title, but rather a salute to Johnson.

I know, I know, the Eagles already had a plan in place in case this happened; but now that it’s official, it doesn’t make it any easier.

Jim Johnson has been with head coach Andy Reid since the day Reid came to Philadelphia. He’s been the quiet rock during Reid’s tenure and his 107 total wins. Reid has done many things well in Philly, but his best move was hiring Johnson, a career assistant who loved his job and did not want to ever be a head coach.

The first six years of the Reid regime was a great time in Eagles football history and featured a return to the Super Bowl in 2004. But since their Super Bowl appearance, the Birds have gone 33-30-1 and failed to make the playoffs twice in the past four years.

With a great off-season, many felt the Eagles were primed to return to their dominant ways. then this news hits.

In his book "Outliers", Malcolm Gladwell wrote that there’s a 10,000-hour rule involving preparation that comes with any successful person or group. No matter how talented a person may be, they must work with extreme dedication to best perform their job.

This is where McDermott is going to face his stiffest challenge as a coach—not in knowing the system, not in understanding the system, but in reacting to what’s needed from the system in the heat of the battle. Football is a game of adjustments; winning football is a game of making the right adjustments.

And for McDermott, that’s the one phase of his preparation as a coach he can not simulate. It’s an on-the-job training course. Some might say, “Well, if McDermott went to another team, he would be faced with a similar challenge.”

That’s correct, but having to follow in a great coach’s footsteps and run his defense makes it a very unique setting. Every call and every move he makes will be instantly compared to his old boss, which wouldn’t happen in another city.

This will be a great challenge for McDermott, one that will require a ton of teamwork on the part of players, coaches, and staff.

Make no mistake about it, Jim Johnson will be missed. He will be missed on Tuesday nights during game-plan meetings, and he will be missed on game days making the right calls at the right time. His sense of timing will be missed as a play-caller.

Can the Eagles overcome his loss? Only time—or maybe only the 10,000-hour rule—will tell. Coaches like Johnson are difficult to replace.

We at the National Football Post continue to extend our prayers to Jim as he fights his battle with cancer. And we hope for an eventual recovery.