It's official: Sean Desai is headed back to the city where he started his coaching career, as he was officially named as the Eagles' new defensive coordinator on Monday afternoon.
Desai, 39, replaces 40-year-old Jonathan Gannon, who spent two seasons as the Eagles' defensive coordinator before being named as Arizona's new head coach earlier this month.
Desai began his coaching career at Temple, serving as a defensive and special teams coach from 2006-10. Moving to the NFL in 2013, he spent his first nine NFL seasons with the Chicago Bears, moving from quality control to safeties coach and then to defensive coordinator in 2021.
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Last season, Desai was hired to be the associate head coach and defensive assistant of the Seattle Seahawks, a team that surprised the league by finishing 9-8 and earning a playoff berth with Geno Smith as their quarterback.
Defensively, Seattle did struggle in 2022, allowing the 7th most yards per game (361.7) and eighth most points per game (23.6) in the NFL.
After a pedestrian first season, Gannon and the revamped Philadelphia defense excelled last season, leading the NFL sacks and finishing second in points and yards allowed per game.
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 was named head coach of the Arizona Cardinals just two days after losing the Super Bowl.
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Former Eagles legendary safety Brian Dawkins endorsed Vance Joseph for the position on February 20th on 94WIP.
"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 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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