Philadelphia Eagles Hall Of Fame safety Brian Dawkins would like to see Vance Joseph named as the team's new defensive coordinator.
"Me personally? I would love it to be Vance because I know that he's aggressive, I know that he's elaborate, I know he blitzes, I know he mixes things up in different situations," Dawkins said Monday on the all inaugural 94WIP Midday Show with Joe Giglio and Dawkins' former Eagles teammate Hugh Douglas. So I would love that hire."
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Joseph, as Dawkins pointed out, is one of the NFL's most aggressive blitzers, which would be a complete philosophy change for the Eagles.
The Eagles lost both of their coordinator, Shane Steichen on offense and Jonathan Gannon on defense, and Dawkins believes the defensive coordinator hire is the most important one this offseason for the franchise.
"When you need that one play to be made in that crunch time situation, we saw what could happen," Dawkins said. "To me, you have to have a strong defense. It's Philadelphia man. I could almost guarantee that the fans did not like a shootout. I know, usually fans love all the points being scored. I could guarantee you Philadelphia, they hated that. All the points being points on the board. You have to get a defensive coordinator, someone that once again—when they come into Philadelphia it's a feared place."
The Eagles have reportedly interviewed Joseph, who spent the last three seasons as the Cardinals' d-coordinator. The Eagles also reportedly interviewed Wisconsin's' Jim Leonhard and Seahawks defensive assistant and associate head coach Sean Desai.
Dawkins was very critical of Gannon, who was named the new head coach of the Arizona Cardinals just two days after losing the Super Bowl as Eagles' d-coordinator.
"You know for us [when we were playing] we're going to blitz, we're going to disguise, we're going to move around…For a team that does not blitz and when you ask them to blitz, it's a foreign subject for them," Dawkins said. "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."
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