There's no quit in Eagles' DeMeco Ryans
The middle linebacker, who had his second Achilles' surgery in offseason, continues to be a defensive leader.
DeMECO RYANS won't be an All-Pro this year. He won't lead the league in any major categories. If you were to make a list of the most productive players on Bill Davis' defense this season, he'd probably rank outside of the top five. But DeMeco Ryans will be on the field on Sunday, and that alone is an achievement to consider.
It was a little over a year ago that Ryans planted on the turf at NRG Stadium after intercepting a pass from Texans quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick and felt his Achilles' tendon ripple up through his right calf. The injury not only sent shock waves through a team that was sitting at 6-2, but it called into question the football future of a player who has served as the figurehead of the defensive turnaround the Eagles have spent the last four seasons attempting to orchestrate. Ryans had already torn his left Achilles', forcing him to miss the last 10 games of the 2010 season before an underwhelming 2011 campaign that prompted Houston to trade him away for draft picks in the third and fourth round.
At 30 years old, and facing major surgery for the second time in four years, it was fair to wonder how much the Eagles could expect from their middle linebacker. In the offseason, they acquired Kiko Alonso from the Bills for All-Pro running back LeSean McCoy, re-signed Brandon Graham to a healthy contract extension, and drafted Texas linebacker Jordan Hicks in the third round. Along with the presence of Mychal Kendricks and Connor Barwin, the team seemed to have an abundance of talent for a finite number of snaps.
Through it all, Ryans said he did not doubt he would remain an important component of Davis' scheme, and the coaching staff echoed the confidence. When you watched him throughout training camp, you couldn't help but wonder how well that confidence was placed. But as you watched him working with the trainers on the sidelines, backpedaling with resistance bands and diligently working on the strength and range of motion in his injured leg, you also realized that if anybody could get where a starting linebacker needed to be, it was this guy.
Well, look who's here.
He played just 26 snaps in the season opener in Atlanta, struggling in pass coverage in the Eagles' frustrating, 26-24 loss. He has battled a variety of core injuries that Ryans yesterday acknowledged could have something to do with the way a body's biomechanics compensate when the person inside of pushes it past his limits. But he is here, and with the Eagles sitting at 4-5 and Hicks (pectoral injury) gone for the season and Alonso playing through a left knee sprain, his team needs him now more than ever.
"If it bothers him," Graham said of the injury, "he doesn't let it show."
Chances are, he knows that he can't. Because any hope of salvaging the season requires No. 59 to play a central role.
When the Panthers gashed the Eagles for 204 yards rushing in a 27-16 loss in Week 7, Ryans wasn't in there because of a hamstring strain. Overall, though, he has played just over half of the defensive snaps this season, more than Alonso and Kendricks, both of whom were expected to diminish the importance of his role.
On Sunday, the Eagles will face a Buccaneers team that is far more dangerous than recent years suggest. After a 1-3 start, Tampa Bay has won three out of five, with wins over the Falcons and the Cowboys in their last three. The Bucs enter Week 11 averaging 4.4 yards per carry, tied for 10th in the league.
That the Bucs could finish Sunday with a better record than the Eagles is not only a testament to the latter's underwhelming play, but to their own improvement under second-year coach Lovie Smith and rookie quarterback Jameis Winston. Ryans, you may have heard, is somewhat familiar with the player the Bucs selected at No. 1 overall in April. Growing up in Bessemer, Ala., Ryans heard plenty of stories about the little kid who was always hanging around the sidelines at Lanier High. He was the nephew of assistant coach Harry Winston, and his name was Jameis.
"He could really throw it," Ryans said yesterday as he talked about his memories of the Bucs quarterback, who was then just 7 or 8 years old.
Sunday will mark the first times their paths will cross while both are in uniform, but Ryans maintained close contact with Winston throughout his storied - and troubled - collegiate career. Regardless of how you feel about Winston, who was accused but never charged in a high-profile sexual-assault case and disciplined for a handful of far-less-serious incidents, the fact that he includes Ryans in his support network has to bolster Tampa Bay's confidence in its investment.
"I told him to understand that his name will always be out in front and he had to stay positive and if he continued to do the right things, then the right things will follow you," Ryans said.
There are few better examples of that philosophy than Ryans himself.