Slay eager to meet Eagles' new DC and help ease his transition

Darius Slay is eager to meet the Eagles’ new defensive coordinator Sean Desai and is hoping to ease Desai’s transition in Philadelphia.

While Slay was a big supporter of Dennard Wilson, the Eagles’ former defensive backs coach who was an internal candidate for a promotion, Slay said he wants to make things easy for Desai.

Speaking on the Big Play Slay podcast on The Volume last week, Slay expressed his desire as one of the incumbent veteran leaders to help Desai to make sure the other players are buying in.

“I can’t wait to meet the new DC, man,” Slay said. “Because I’m gonna tell you, knowing the new DC, it can be tough or it can be easy. You know what I’m saying? And I’m one of them guys that’s going to make it easy for him. I’m going to go in here, willing to learn, willing to figure out how he wants his defense ran. Because me being a leader and a captain on this team, that’s my job to do, make sure everyone is buying into the program.”

Slay, 32, was a first-time captain in the 2022 season and with Fletcher Cox and Brandon Graham set to hit free agency, Slay’s voice as a leader on that side of the football could become even more important in 2023 as he enters the final year of his contract.

We learned this weekend that Wilson will not return to the Eagles this season, which means Slay will have a different defensive backs coach under Desai. That fact wasn’t yet known when Slay recorded this podcast last week.

It also wasn’t known that Slay’s former head coach Matt Patricia is reportedly a candidate to join Desai’s staff in Philly.

 

I’m hearing that Matt Patricia has a shot to land with the Philadelphia Eagles on the defensive staff, presumably as a linebackers coach.

— Karen Guregian (@kguregian) March 5, 2023

 

Slay was traded from the Lions to the Eagles in 2020 after his relationship with Patricia deteriorated to an area of no return. Slay found Patricia to be “disrespectful” and hasn’t been shy about his feelings toward Patricia since.

Responding to a Twitter thread between Hall of Famer Charles Woodson and Seahawks defensive backs Quandre Diggs about the possibility of Patricia’s joining the Eagles staff, Slay tweeted, “Gots to do my job to many guys depend on me!”

But Diggs was in Detroit with Slay and knows how bad things got with Patricia when he was the Lions’ head coach.

Since Diggs left the Lions after the 2019, he ended up in Seattle, where he played under Desai in 2022. Last season, Desai was the Seahawks’ associate head coach and defensive assistant.

Shortly after Desai was named the Eagles’ defensive coordinator, Slay had already reached out to Diggs to get the scoop.

“He’s been telling me a lot about him,” Slay said. “I’m looking forward to working with him. But I’m just ready for the experience, man. I heard he was a smart dude. I love learning. So I’m looking forward to this.”

In 2023, Slay has a base salary of $17 million at a cap hit of over $26 million, both tops on the team. So it might be time for an extension or a restructure of that deal to spread out the cap hit.

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