Eagles defensive players seem to have a sense of confidence about new coordinator Todd Bowles, but they aren’t talking about what he has in store on the field.
Defensive end Jason Babin said talking about Bowles’ first talk to the defense as a whole would be “giving away the game plan,” but that doesn’t slow down the sense of optimism.
“He told us we’ve got the second half of this season and we’ve got a great opportunity to do something great, and it’s up to us,” rookie cornerback Brandon Boykin said, via Les Bowen of the Philadelphia Daily News. “He’s just going to put us in the best position to make plays.
“When preparing for a game, he makes you feel super confident in your abilities . . . we’ll definitely have that confidence that we can get it done - not that we haven’t before - but [Bowles will be] just making it easy for us to play our game and play loose.”
There seemed to be some talk about being less predictable, but Bowles isn’t presenting a wild-man image. The opposite, in fact.
“There’s an equanimity about him,” said cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha. “It doesn’t matter what’s going on, he’s always going to be calm, just relaxed and stuff like that. So that’s good. He always feels like there’s a solution, no matter what we’re going through.”
As impressed as I am with Asomugha tossing the word “equanimity” around, Bowles is in a tricky spot. He’s never been a coordinator, though he’s been an interim head coach.
And he’s taking over a side that wasn’t really the problem, which creates a reasonable doubt about whether any expectations on him will be fair.