What to know about Matt Patricia, the Eagles’ new defensive play caller

SEATTLE — Eagles senior defensive assistant Matt Patricia has assumed play-calling duties, and coordinator Sean Desai has been delegated to a lesser role and will transition to the coaches’ booth.

The sudden change comes on the heels of the Eagles giving up nine touchdowns and four field goals during their two-game losing streak to the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys. With Patricia now calling the shots on defense, the Eagles will look to end their skid and improve their playoff positioning on Monday night, when they play the Seahawks at Lumen Field.

Patricia, 49, the longtime Patriots coordinator and Bill Belichick disciple, was hired by the Eagles in April. At the time, the Eagles listed him on their website as part of the coaching staff before making an official announcement about Patricia’s hiring. His listing was then awkwardly removed — and coach Nick Sirianni said the Eagles were “trending in that direction” with adding Patricia to his staff.

Since then, Patricia has not been made available to reporters. On game days, he has been seen with other assistants in the coaches’ booth, where Desai will shift to beginning Monday in Seattle.

Patricia spent 14 years with the Patriots between 2004 to 2017. His roles, in chronological order, included offensive assistant, assistant offensive line coach, linebackers coach, safeties coach, and defensive coordinator. He was then hired by the Lions to replace head coach Jim Caldwell, who posted a 9-7 record before he was fired in 2017.

Patricia didn’t have much success in Detroit, concluding his 2½-year tenure with a 13-29-1 record (.314). He was fired midway through the 2020 season.

» READ MORE: Murphy: The Eagles are flirting with dysfunction. Nick Sirianni needs to remind his team what makes it great.

Patricia returned to the Patriots as a senior football adviser, and in 2022 he served as the offensive play caller. That role was unnerving, though, as Patricia fielded a struggling offense that averaged just 18.1 points per game. He was fired by Belichick after last season.

Perhaps most notably from an Eagles’ lens, Patricia was the Patriots’ defensive coordinator in Super Bowl LII, in which the Eagles scored 41 points to win their only Super Bowl.

Upon Patricia’s hiring, many wondered if and how he would repair his fractured relationship with team captain and veteran cornerback Darius Slay. Patricia coached Slay with the Lions, although Slay did not appreciate some of Patricia’s tactics and he voiced his displeasure, saying he “had to get out” of Detroit, in “need of a fresh start.” At the conclusion of the 2019 season, Slay revealed that during a one-on-one meeting, Patricia told him he was not “an elite corner.” Patricia then traded Slay to the Eagles that offseason.

This past summer, Slay said the Eagles coaching staff met with him before the team hired Patricia.

Coincidentally, Slay underwent arthroscopic surgery on his knee this week, and he will be sidelined for the Seahawks game.

» READ MORE: Sielski: Sean Desai’s demotion shouldn’t be that surprising. But will the move work out for the Eagles?

“I was like, it’s cool with me, because I want to do what’s best for the organization,” Slay said in July. “… It took a lot for both of us to talk. So we did a great job. We communicate every day. We talk every day. So we’re just trying to build everything going forward. Because at the end of the day, we want to win.

“That’s his main goal and that’s my main goal.”

On Tuesday, Sirianni, coming off perhaps the worst two-game stretch of his tenure, reiterated his confidence in Desai and the rest of his coaching staff: “I feel good with the people that we have in this building. 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.”

But just a few days later, Desai’s demotion and the team’s turn to Patricia has contradicted Sirianni’s original message. And according to a league source, at least a couple of starting defensive players expressed excitement upon hearing about the change.

The Eagles rank 22nd in the NFL in total defense (353.9 yards per game), 28th in pass defense, 28th in points allowed (24.7), 30th in red zone defense (70.5%), and last in third-down defense (48.1%).

» READ MORE: Eagles news: Jalen Hurts, Geno Smith updates; why the Matt Patricia move isn’t a sign of panic

“There is always going to be criticism,” Desai said Wednesday. “Go back every week of this season, there was criticism based on different things that happened in the game. When you play a couple games the way we have, not the performance or the standard we want to, that’s going to magnify and amplify. I get it. That’s OK.

“Everybody — fans, [media], everybody — is entitled to their opinions. What we have to do is just lean into each other and really focus on our process and getting better. At the end of the day, from what we want to what everybody else wants in this city, is to win, right? And we found ways to win to get us to the point we are.

“We’re not where we want to be. We’re still growing to get where we want to be. We feel good about doing that and working together to achieve our goals still.”

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.