Today, the Philadelphia Eagles announced that Sean McDermott was given the interim defensive coordinator label.  While the move was widely expected, it still comes as a tremendous blow to the team, especially the defense, and to the city as well.  The Eagles are a team that expect to challenge for the Super Bowl this coming year, and the loss of Jim Johnson is one that cannot easily be overstated.

A hallmark of the Eagles has been Johnson patrolling the sidelines, calling pressure defense after pressure defense.  He devises new wrinkles all of the time, and seems to have an uncanny knack for knowing exactly when to call a pressure scheme, and what scheme to use.  There are usually two or three defensive coordinators that get any substantial press as being the best in the NFL, and Johnson is always, always in that group.  He deserves it; his Eagles have been defensive juggernauts for several years now.  The offense may go up and down, but the one constant in Philadelphia has been a consistently aggressive and challenging defense.  That attribute is entire Johnson's doing, and that's what makes this loss so painful.

As ESPN has said, Sean McDermott has been running the defense since mini-camps.  Johnson's on-going battle with cancerous tumors on his spine has prevented him from coaching.  While McDermott has a near-total comprehension of Johnson's exotic schemes, it remains to be seen whether or not McDermott has the same 'touch' or not.  That's the one element of a defensive coordinator's job that cannot be replicated by anyone else.  That's why this loss is so difficult to swallow.  McDermott may know all the technical elements of the defense, but does he have the touch, the timing?  Can he make the adjustments, and add the same little wrinkles that Johnson did?  Can he get that defense - who to a man loves Johnson - to play the same way for him?  Unless Johnson can build a personal defense against cancer and return to the NFL, McDermott is going to have to adapt very quickly.  I am sure that he is both capable and qualified.  But it's highly unlikely he'll be quite as good as Johnson, or quite as capable.  It's a most challenging task to follow a legend.  McDermott has that task.

As I'm sure every real NFL fan will understand, this also serves as a public "get well soon" message.  The NFL, and the Philadelphia Eagles, are better with Jim Johnson in it.  Get well soon, Jim.