Sean Desai stripped of Eagles defensive play-calling duties for Matt Patricia

Eagles defensive coordinator Sean Desai has been stripped of his play-calling duties and replaced by senior defensive assistant Matt Patricia, NFL sources confirmed to The Inquirer on Sunday.

Fox Sports was first to report the change.

The Eagles later confirmed the coaching change with the following statement: “Coaching update for Monday night’s game versus the Seattle Seahawks: Senior defensive assistant Matt Patricia will serve as the defensive play caller and will be located on the field.”

While Desai remains defensive coordinator in name, Patricia will essentially head the unit, team sources said. Desai will now work from the coaches box in a lesser role as Patricia, the former Detroit Lions coach and New England Patriots defensive coordinator, takes his spot on the sideline.

The Eagles recently suffered the worst back-to-back losses of the Nick Sirianni era — a 42-19 loss to the San Francisco 49ers followed by a 33-13 defeat at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys — as Desai’s unit often failed to get off the field.

As poorly as the defense has performed, especially on third downs, Desai’s demotion comes as a surprise for a team that has a 10-3 record. Sirianni was asked on Tuesday if he had planned to make any changes to his coaching staff in terms of responsibilities.

“I feel good with the people that we have in this building,” he said. “We’re 10-3. We’re in control of our own destiny, and we’re going to keep rolling and finding answers with the people that we have.”

Sirianni was asked specifically about taking over play-calling duties from offensive coordinator Brian Johnson, but it ended up being Desai who was demoted from his role as leader of the defense. It remains unclear when exactly the move was made and when the parties were told.

Desai held his normal weekly news conference late Wednesday morning, seemingly still in charge.

The Eagles defense rank last in the NFL in third-down stops and 30th in red-zone defense. During an 11-drive stretch from the end of the 49ers game into the Cowboys game — taking out the victory formation kneels that ended the former — they allowed nine touchdowns and two field goals.

“We have not been able to get off the field when we need to get off the field,” Desai said Wednesday. “Yeah, in third down and situational football we’ve got to be better. … Those have been our bugaboos. Not going to lie to you. That’s been our Achilles’ heel right now.”

Patricia’s last job was actually on the offensive side of the ball. Listed as senior football adviser and offensive line coach with the Patriots, he called plays for an offense that was among the worst in the league in 2022.

The 49-year-old was fired by coach Bill Belichick, his mentor, who oversaw Patricia’s rise through the ranks to become defensive coordinator in New England from 2012-17. The Patriots, led by quarterback Tom Brady, reached at least the AFC championship in each of those seasons and won two Super Bowls.

Patricia’s last season in charge of the Patriots defense culminated in an appearance in Super Bowl LII. The Eagles moved the ball at will on Patricia’s unit and won, 41-33.

He left to take the Lions’ head-coaching position the next season. His three-year tenure in Detroit was marked mostly by losing and turmoil. He had an overall 13-29-1 record and was criticized by players, such as former Lions and current Eagles cornerback Darius Slay, for his “disrespectful” coaching style.

“It was weird how he came in like he was just bigger and better than all of us,” Slay said at Super Bowl LVII in February. “He acted like we asked to be here.”

» READ MORE: ‘Cool with me’: Darius Slay and Matt Patricia clashed in Detroit. On the Eagles, have they squashed their beef?

Patricia traded Slay to the Eagles in March 2020. After the Eagles officially brought Patricia on staff during the offseason, Slay said he had patched up his relationship with his former coach. The veteran cornerback is out for Monday night’s game at the Seattle Seahawks after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery last week.

Desai was hired after Jonathan Gannon left to become the Arizona Cardinals’ head coach following the Eagles’ 38-35 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl. Sirianni interviewed a number of candidates, including defensive backs coach Dennard Wilson. He ultimately settled on Desai, who had one previous season as defensive coordinator with the Bears in 2021.

He was fired along with head coach Matt Nagy after that season and took a senior advisory job with the Seahawks. Desai took an untraditional path to coaching. While studying for his teaching doctorate at Temple, he took a non-paying position with the Owls, beginning his climb through the coaching ranks in college and the pros.

Desai adopted much of his defensive philosophy from Vic Fangio while in Chicago. It made him a natural successor to Gannon, who had run a similar scheme. There was some player support for Wilson, however. When he didn’t get the job, he left to take the Baltimore Ravens’ defensive backs position.

The Eagles defense under Desai got off to a solid start and ranked first against the run through the first nine weeks of the season. There were bright moments — like limiting the explosive Miami Dolphins and shutting out the Chiefs in the second half — as the Eagles jumped out to a 10-1 start.

But it became increasingly clear that Desai’s game plans — which strayed from some of Fangio’s core structures — contributed to the Eagles’ slow starts and that he struggled to marry his pass rush with his coverages.

“Sean’s smart and the guys like him, but he doesn’t carry himself with confidence,” a team source said. “And some players started to feel that.”

Despite the internal concerns about Desai, a sudden switch when Sirianni spent all week saying he wasn’t making drastic changes suggests panic at the NovaCare Complex. While the Eagles downplayed the notion that Patricia was brought on as a contingency plan, he cast an obvious shadow over the young coordinator, another team source said.

Patricia’s path to the Eagles was seemingly an awkward one. It was originally reported in March that he could land in Philly as the linebackers coach. A month later, the Eagles’ website announced his hiring, only for the story to be taken down moments later.

Sirianni and general manager Howie Roseman were scheduled to meet with reporters just after the premature announcement.

“It’s trending in that direction,” Sirianni said when asked why the post was removed from philadelphiaeagles.com.

The move was eventually made official. Sirianni was asked about adding Patricia before the start of training camp in July.

“He’s been an excellent resource for me,” he said. “You bring guys like that in to do just that, be resources for you, be resources for the defensive coordinator. He has a ton of experience. It’s nice to have a former head coach on the staff that I’m able to bounce some different things off of.”

Desai was similarly complimentary of Patricia the one time the subject was brought up during a camp news conference. However, when asked about the knowledge he could provide about his former team, the Patriots, before the season opener, the defensive coordinator said, “I think you guys ask me this every other press conference.”

As for who will be answering questions after the Seahawks game — the de facto defensive coordinator or the guy actually performing the job — that remains unknown. But two things are certain: Desai has been benched and Patricia is running the Eagles’ show on defense.

The Eagles will visit the Seattle Seahawks in a Monday Night Football showdown. Join Eagles beat reporters Olivia Reiner and EJ Smith as they dissect the hottest storylines surrounding the team on Gameday Central, live from Lumen Field in Seattle.