Sliding to Safety

Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio, Special Teams Coordinator Michael Clay, and Offensive Coordinator Sean Mannion faced the media for the first time this offseason.

On the latest episode of “Inside The Birds,” Adam Caplan and Geoff Mosher gave their takeaways from the coordinators’ first press conference of the year. 

GETTY IMAGES: Cooper DeJean will move to safety in the Philadelphia Eagles’ base defense.

Vic Fangio

Adam Caplan: “He said he wasn’t close [to retiring]. The way I understand it from agents who have some defensive players, he has let the players know over the years when he’s thinking about it…he loves football, feels great, said at least two more years.”

Cooper DeJean

Caplan: “We know that there are certain people in the league who think Vic sees him as a safety. He’s going to be playing safety in base. It won’t be DeJean anymore.”

Geoff Mosher: “I interpreted that as they did just not feel that A. there was anybody on the market that was going to come in and be better than Cooper as a starting safety, and B. Howie (Roseman) and the team don’t think that there’s a safety worth trading for to give up compensation for.”

Riq Woolen

Mosher: “He was asked about Riq Woolen. They actually said they studied him during the season because they knew Seattle had him on the trading block so he watched tape on him and then he said when the season was over, they watched him a little bit more.”

Caplan: “He was pretty strong on Woolen. He did also throw in that terrible play in the playoffs and said if you don’t learn from that you never learn.”

Jake Elliott

Mosher: “Listening to Michael Clay, the Eagles haven’t done anything to make you think that they are at least going to challenge Jake Elliott who’s coming off a struggling year.”

Caplan: “If they haven’t signed [a kicker] at the start of training camp, they’re telling you that they’re not going to dress it.”

Sean Mannion

Caplan: “It’s West Coast language. He’ll bring in some stuff that Jalen (Hurts) likes, but it’s called something in West Coast, so they have to marry it to help the transition for Jalen and the players. But they have to get on the same page on certain changes. It’s a zone blocking scheme mostly.”

– Benjamin Paul is a staff writer for InsideTheBirds.com.