Eagles' Sean McDermott Is Prepared to Succeed a Legendary Coach

BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- On the side of a hill at the corner of the practice fields at Eagles training camp, "JJ" is painted in white letters on a green oval in honor of Sean McDermott's beloved predecessor. A fair-skinned redhead, McDermott wears a wide-brimmed hat and long white sleeves in deference to the hot August sun and the skin cancer that claimed former Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson two weeks ago. When he goes to work out in the morning, McDermott still half-expects to see Johnson there, having beaten him to the gym once again. When he jogs out to the fields for the morning session, he's still surprised that Johnson isn't next to him.

There is no escaping who he is not. Johnson was a friend, mentor, boss and second father. McDermott cannot be Jim Johnson, and he wouldn't want to try. But it doesn't bother him, the size of the shoes he's assigned to fill. He's not worried or humbled or freaked out. He's the Eagles' new defensive coordinator. He's been preparing for this role his whole life, and he's fitting into it just fine.

"There's a plan in place, and it's being put into action," the 35-year-old McDermott said in an interview with FanHouse on Saturday morning. "I was prepared. Whether it happened here or somewhere else, I was prepared for this opportunity. And when you're prepared, it's just about putting your plan in motion."

Sean McDermott has always had a plan, has always pursued it seriously and intensely, and has always succeeded. Wrestling at 171 pounds at LaSalle (Pa.) High School, he went 61-0 over his junior and senior seasons. On the football team he played quarterback, safety, kicker, punter, kick returner and punt returner. He walked onto the team at FCS William and Mary, made All-Conference as a senior safety and got a job as a graduate assistant in 1998, the year he graduated.

One year later, he joined the Eagles as assistant to the head coach. In 2004, Andy Reid put him in charge of the secondary. At age 30, he was the youngest assistant coach in the NFL. So the fact that he looks impossibly young for his position ... well, that doesn't bother him.

"It's not something I think about, quite frankly, because it's been the case for several years," McDermott said. "We had Brian Dawkins here the past few years while I was secondary coach, and Brian is a couple of months older than I am. So I'm used to that."

Still, he doesn't seem like a football coach. Central Casting wouldn't let him through the door. He lacks the protruding belly and the booming voice. He has no accent, and is in no way gruff or grizzled. He is engaging and accommodating where others are intimidating and closed-off. An interview waits not because he has chosen to make it wait, but because he has stopped first to sign autographs, then to hug his father, who has come to visit him at practice.

"Same guy," Eagles safety Quintin Mikell said when asked how his former position coach had changed since becoming coordinator. "He has different responsibilities now, and he's definitely more focused and just really wanting to succeed. He looks young, but we know who he is, how smart he is and all the work he's put in. We know he's slept in the offices for years, that he knows defense inside and out. That definitely helps, that familiarity."

Saturday morning, McDermott moved around the practice fields with a determined stride, a laser-beam stare and a constant, even-toned instructional conversation in progress. After each play he observed, he offered immediate feedback. What he never did was raise his voice. Not even once.

When this last fact was point out to him, he laughed out loud and repeated it to an Eagles staffer, who rolled his eyes.

"I think people who know me know that I'm fairly intense," McDermott said.

Intensely focused, intensely prepared. Mikell and a couple of other defensive players said McDermott has already introduced some of his own ideas into the very successful base schemes that the defense ran under Johnson.

"He had a file of some things and ideas he kept over the years, for when he got his shot," Mikell said. "And we're seeing them now."

But lest his charges think he's trying to shake things up for the sake of shaking things up, McDermott comes armed with data.

"The things we're doing differently have been researched and thought out," McDermott said. "That's the way we present them to the players, and when you do that, it gets their attention. There's been a buy-in by the players and the coaching staff, and that's an important part of this. A lot of times, when you find yourself in a new situation, the first 30 days are about getting to know what you're working with. Here, that was all already in place."

They're all in this together, McDermott, his coaches and his players. They all loved and miss Jim Johnson. They all know how to make each other laugh, how to make each other mad, which buttons to push to make things work together. When the horn sounded to end Saturday morning's practice, cornerback Asante Samuel gave McDermott a hearty whack on the backside, congratulating him for another session well and efficiently done. This is not a unit that's going to have a hard time functioning as one.

Will McDermott have Johnson's in-game feel? His famous knack for playing the hunches and winning? We won't and can't know that until September or beyond. All we know now is that McDermott is as prepared as he can be. And that his players believe in him. When things get rough, that's not a bad way to be armed.

"There's nothing that's ever going to replace what Jim has done here," Mikell said. "But Sean can honor Jim by taking what he put in place and make it his own, applying that work ethic, building on the success Jim had. I'm pretty sure that's how he looks at it."

That's a pretty good way for all of them to look at it.