‘His attitude is to be aggressive’: How Eagles players have responded to Matt Patricia’s role as de facto DC

It didn’t take long for Nicholas Morrow to notice a difference between Sean Desai and Matt Patricia’s play-calling approach.

As the green-dot player in the Eagles defense, the veteran linebacker has a one-way conversation with the coach making the calls nearly every play. The surprising shift away from Desai in favor of Patricia going into last Monday’s game against the Seattle Seahawks led to plenty of schematic changes, but there was a subtle philosophical difference Morrow picked up on.

Desai’s tendency was to point things out as he saw them, whereas Patricia takes a more proactive approach laying out the game within the game.

“Their communication style is a little different,” Morrow told The Inquirer. “With Desai, as the game goes on, if he sees something he’ll say it in the headset. Patricia’s communication style is before the call. ... The difference you’ll kind of see is one’s more reactionary and one is more like, ‘Hey, let’s try to dictate this. If we get this reaction, this is what we’ll do.’ [Patricia] is obviously more aggressive in certain things.”

With the dust settled around Eagles coach Nick Sirianni’s shakeup of the defensive staff, the picture of what to expect with Patricia running things is starting to come into focus. The 49-year-old has a spotty track record both in on-field production and off-field relationship building, but the early returns suggest players in the Eagles locker room have responded to the new voice and new personality at the forefront of their defensive meetings.

“I’m a firm believer that the players take on the personality of the coach,” Morrow said. “When I got in this building, it was very evident to me that Sirianni was a very aggressive, confident coach because the players kind of oozed that. The way they talked about certain competitions, it was very evident. I think Patricia is the same way. His attitude is to be aggressive and to dictate what the offense is doing.”

Patricia’s personality, or at least the reputation of it, precedes him.

It’s why the Eagles, while considering bringing him in as a senior defensive assistant last offseason, made a call to veteran cornerback Darius Slay before anything was official.

The two had a history. As the head coach of the Detroit Lions, Patricia traded Slay to the Eagles in 2020 after the relationship between the two had gotten so bad that Slay “lost all respect” for the longtime New England Patriots assistant.

Slay detailed the callous approach Patricia took during his three-year tenure in Detroit, which ended in his firing and return to the Patriots as an assistant head coach. As recently as February, Slay recounted times when Patricia would call him out in team meetings and give him blunt criticism behind closed doors.

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Despite the sour note in which things ended, though, Slay said he welcomed Patricia joining the Eagles staff and the two eventually set up a meeting to clear the air.

“I don’t take disrespect crazy,” Slay said. “Where I’m from, that doesn’t go. But for him to come to me as a man and apologize, I gave my piece to it as well. When two men do that, you put the differences aside and go to work.”

During his first news conference as a member of the Eagles coaching staff onThursday, Patricia made a point of mentioning he gave Slay “a big hug” just before entering the team’s auditorium to take questions.

Considering his previous stops and history as an understudy to Patriots coach Bill Belichick, Patricia struck a surprisingly forthcoming tone at the podium and said he has changed from the coach he was the last time he and Slay shared a building.

“As you go through life and you grow and learn and hopefully improve and get better as a person, from me personally, where I was whenever that was, I’m just trying to be a better person every day. I’m just really thankful to him for that.”

Slay added, “He for sure is a whole different dude than he was in Detroit. I must say, man. I told him I appreciate him for being a man about the situation and coming and trying to fix the situation. I was like, it’s only right for me as a man as well to give another man a fair shot, and it’s been very, very productive.”

Patricia’s reputation wasn’t just limited to Slay. Multiple Eagles players used the word “approachable” when describing Patricia, something that didn’t track with what they’d heard about him before he joined the coaching staff.

“I’ve heard stuff about him from when he was a head coach,” Eagles slot cornerback Bradley Roby said. “But the only experience I’ve had with him, he’s been about the game and about work. He’s been very positive and brought a lot of positive energy.”

Morrow added, “He’s a lot more humble than I thought he was going to be. I think what you see with him is he gives a lot of trust to the players. I think that’s something that, I think in general, you see with a lot of older coaches. They trust what you see and they let you play. They kind of give players a little bit more freedom.”

Roby and safety Kevin Byard, both of whom joined the team mid-season, have experience playing for coaches from the Belichick tree. Byard played for former Patriots player and assistant coach Mike Vrabel during his seven years with the Tennessee Titans while Byard played for a staff of former Patriots assistants as a member of the Houston Texans earlier in his career.

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Both players said a common thread they’ve noticed from their former coaches and Patricia is a pedantic approach to film study.

“They don’t really let the little things slide,” Byard told The Inquirer. “Because if you let the little things slide, they become the big things. I think that’s the Belichick tree, being super critical on the little [stuff.]”

Roby added, “I wouldn’t say more details, but we’ve just hammered out the details more. Making sure there’s no confusion in the details, really harping on that. I think that’s the biggest difference.”

That approach isn’t for everyone, especially for defensive backs who are deployed in man coverage frequently in defensive systems former Belichick assistants tend to author. The Eagles played a noticeably higher amount of man coverage against the Seahawks, something that eventually caught up to them on the final drive when veteran cornerback James Bradberry gave up four catches for 87 yards on Seattle’s game-winning drive.

The Eagles used a good amount of zone coverages under Desai, something that Slay and Bradberry excelled in last season. The change to a man-to-man scheme under a Belichick disciple often requires a certain level of mental toughness, Roby said.

“You’ve got to be thick-skinned,” Roby said. “You can’t be sensitive, you have to have a lot of confidence in yourself. Especially as a defensive back, they put a lot of pressure on those boys. They play a lot of man coverage. Playing so much man throughout my career in certain systems, it’s a lot of pressure on your body and your mind. If you give up one catch, you’re the worst DB ever.”

While Patricia is reshaping the Eagles defense, it may not be solely in his image.

Both Sirianni and Patricia said earlier this week that the scheme the defense will settle into while closing out the season is expected to maintain the foundation that Desai built rather than what Patricia has a track record of running.

“It’s the Eagles’ defense. It’s the 2023 Eagles,” Patricia said. “That’s what we’re trying to develop. I think every year in football things change a little bit and schemes change based on people and the personnel you have. Certainly, I think that’s what we’ve been trying to do through the course of the year.”

Considering the past production of defenses Patricia has called before, a departure from his previous philosophy may be a good thing. In the nine seasons he’s handled defensive play-calling between New England and Detroit, the 2016 Patriots are the only one of his defenses to finish top-10 in DVOA for a season. The Eagles finished third in defensive DVOA last year under former coordinator Jonathan Gannon and rank 23rd this season.

The first glimpse of the new-look defense suggest the Eagles will use a heavy dose of man coverage with match zones as a change-up. Rookie safety Sydney Brown played a significantly higher percentage of the team’s defensive snaps as a third safety against the Seahawks as well and Haason Reddick was moved around the formation rather than staying static on one edge.

At least from a schematic standpoint, the shift to man coverage simplifies things for a secondary that features both young players like Brown, Kelee Ringo, and Eli Ricks and mid-season additions like Roby and Byard.

The shift has also led to plays like Josh Sweat’s tackle for loss against the Seahawks, something Morrow said was thanks to a well-timed call from Patricia.

“Guys are able to make more anticipatory plays,” Morrow said. “Especially like Sweaty’s TFL, those are some of the things that you see because he’s saying, ‘This is what we’re expecting because we’re in this front and this what they’re going to do.’ That’s something you see, I think the players take on the attitude of their coaches.”

The Eagles will host the New York Giants on Christmas Day. Join Eagles beat reporters Olivia Reiner and Jeff McLane as they dissect the hottest storylines surrounding the team on Gameday Central, live from Lincoln Financial Field.