PHILADELPHIA (94WIP Sportsradio) — Brian Dawkins shared his criticism of former Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon during an interview Monday on the 94WIP Midday Show with Joe Giglio and Dawkins' ex-teammate Hugh Douglas.
"As for me, playing under this defensive coordinator — me personally? I would've hated it," Dawkins said. "Because none of the things that I was blessed to do blitzing ... would have been added to this defense under Gannon."
The Hall Of Fame safety, who spent 13 of his 16 NFL seasons in Philadelphia and had 26 career sacks, said Gannon's lack of blitzing philosophy eventually came back to bite the Eagles in their biggest moment.
"He took advantage of the personnel that the front office gave him. Got a lot of dudes that can win one-on-one battles and so he put those guys in position to have that success through the year," Dawkins said. "The only thing that I kept saying all year is that when your fastball is not working, you have to have a changeup and you have to be used to throwing that changeup.
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"[When we were playing], we're going to blitz, we're going to disguise, we're going to move around," he continued. "For a team that does not blitz and when you ask them to blitz, it's a foreign subject for them. People were getting on me, 'Well they're getting sacks.' Well, I love the sacks. Continue to get the sacks, but also mix in the blitz so that those guys know what to do when plan A is not working and you have to go to plan B.
"Plan B happens this past Sunday [in the Super Bowl] because you weren't winning your one-on-one battles. Why? Because the field was jacked up. That was a sloppy field, so you have to do other things. And [Gannon] did not do a good job of adjusting to that, to getting away from his fastball, going to changeups or different blitz packages."
The Eagles, of course, lost Super Bowl LVII 38-35, accounting for zero sacks on Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes after leading the NFL in sacks during the regular season.
Gannon, 40, was named head coach of the Arizona Cardinals just two days after losing the Super Bowl.