Eagles are considering an internal promotion at defensive line coach

The Philadelphia Eagles are considering promoting defensive special assistant Matt Burke to defensive line coach, according to a report from ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler. The Eagles have a vacancy at the position after seemingly Phillip Daniels on Friday.

The Eagles hired Burke to their coaching staff last offseason after spending two years as the Miami Dolphins’ defensive coordinator. It was reported at the time of the hire that Burke was being brought on as a “top aide” to Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz. Burke and Schwartz previously overlapped during stints with both the Tennessee Titans and the Detroit Lions.

Here’s what Jim Schwartz had to say about the value of adding Burke to the Eagles’ staff during the 2019 training camp:

“Another guy that’s been a coordinator. Gives me another set of eyes. He’ll be up in the box during games. Just gives us a different perspective. We’ve been three years in the same defense. We’re in the fourth. Getting some new blood is never a bad thing. I got a background with him. We also parted for a ways. So appreciate new insights and stuff like that. He’s not coaching a position. He’s sort of over the top. But it helps me because I’m sort of over the top, too, but there’s only so much you can see at one time. Gives me a trusted coach that I’ve been with that can help me with that stuff.”

It’s unclear what the Eagles are going to do with Burke at this time, as Burke has never coached the position since his coaching career began back in 1998. The only position he has coached is linebacker, which he did for three NFL teams between 2009 and 2016, so the Eagles may be better off looking elsewhere for a defensive line coach and keeping Burke as a Defensive special assistant. The weird thing about this situation is the Eagles hired Burke before officially promoting Daniels last year. The team could’ve easily put him at defensive line coach in the first place.

Whether the Eagles do go through with this or not, it’ll be a different appointment, but nothing the Eagles coaching team can’t handle – even though Philly would be wise to consider more options at defensive line coach than merely promoting Matt Burke.