Philadelphia Eagles special teams coordinator Michael Clay was given time to grow. Others have not been afforded that same luxury.
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 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 because they were first-year stewards on a team that was thought to be a Super Bowl contender.
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.
All of those statistics, though, were unable to dispel the odor of recency bias, as the Eagles finished the season with a six-game losing streak and an outdated appearance.
Desai was demoted for the Week 14 game at 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 sharp improvements, placing them first in the DVOA for special teams, tenth in Gosselin’s stat rankings, and fifth in the PFF film review.
Who would have thought that a young coach could develop with better players?
The Eagles’ Britain Covey emerged as one of the best punt returners in the league, kicker Jake Elliott had an All-Pro season, punting problems were resolved with the addition of Braden Mann during the season, and the coverage units saw a significant boost in production with the addition of players such as Josh Jobe, Sydney Brown, Ben VanSumeren, and Kelee Ringo.
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.
However, he is also a living example of how Johnson and even Desai may have followed similar paths if they had been given the same amount of patience.