Michael Clay, the coordinator of the Philadelphia Eagles’ special teams, was awarded an
PHILADELPHIA: At the NovaCare Complex, contradiction is nothing new, but it was intriguing to observe the reactions to the announcement that special teams coordinator Michael Clay of the Philadelphia Eagles had been given an extension. Clay would have easily led the field when the 2023 season began in Philadelphia and one of the 97 gambling establishments bombarded my email with the most recent betting odds on everything from the Super Bowl LIX futures to the absurdity of Saquon Barkley signing with the Eagles put numbers on which Philly coordinator was the most likely not to return after the campaign.
And the smart-money crowd would have been observant about that. During a historic 2022 Eagles season, where his special teams groupings were rated in the lowest five in the NFL by Rick Gosselin’s statistical measuring stick or Pro Football Focus’s film-based observations, Clay hobbled into Year 3 as the leader of the lone weakness.
Moreover, none of the coordinators—Brian Johnson and Sean Desai—were projected to be unemployed very soon since they were first-year stewards on a team that was thought to be a Super Bowl contender.
Former offensive coordinator with the Eagles In Washington, Brian Johnson is currently Dan Quinn’s assistant head coach and coordinator of the passing game.John McMullen/Today’s Eagles John McMullen/Today’s Eagles It turns out that despite leading an offense that ranked eighth overall and just slightly better at seventh in terms of points per game, Johnson was completely overwhelmed by the inflated expectations. When you delve deeper into Nick Sirianni’s argument that his team is a master of situational football, you’ll discover that Johnson’s first unit is third in third-down offense, first in fourth-down offense, and ninth in red-zone offense. However, with the Eagles losing six straight to finish the season and becoming stale in their play, none of those statistics could overcome the odor of recency bias.
Desai was dismissed for the Week 14 game against Dallas in favor of Matt Patricia, and the defense collapsed from being ranked No. 2 overall in 2022 to a bottom 10 team. As a result, he didn’t even see out the season. Even though Patricia remained as the senior defensive assistant but was given play-calling responsibilities, Desai hobbled to the finish line as the DC. The titles remained the same. After the season, both of them were fired.
In contrast, Clay assembled teams that saw rapid improvements, placing them first in the DVOA for special teams, tenth in Gosselin’s stat rankings, and fifth in the PFF film review. See also: Eagles Sign Coordinator of Special Teams to Extension: Specifics Who would have thought that a young coach could develop with superior players? United Kingdom Covey became one of the Eagles’ most effective punt returners in the game; kicker Jake Elliott had an All-Pro season; punting problems were resolved by the addition of Braden Mann during the offseason; and a shift in the coverage units toward younger players, such as Josh Jobe, Sydney Brown, Ben VanSumeren, and Kelee Ringo, was crucial.
On the one hand, it’s good to have a success story like Clay, who was hired as the NFL’s youngest coordinator and is currently one of the finest at 32 with an apparent long career ahead of him.