Philadelphia Eagles: Addition of DeMeco Ryans Moves Team in Right Direction

March 21, 2012   ·   Aaron Nagler   ·   Jump to comments

With the Philadelphia Eagles trading a fourth-round draft pick and swapping third-round picks with the Houston Texans for middle linebacker DeMeco Ryans, the Eagles have taken a major step in improving their talented but inconsistent defense. Ryans, who signed a six-year extension with the Texans back in 2010, will now count $6 million against the Eagles’ 2012 salary cap.
After watching Casey Matthews bomb at the middle linebacker spot in their 4-3 defense and watching Jamar Chaney play out of position, acquiring Ryans gives the Eagles the perfect veteran player to center their young defense around.
Ill-suited for Wade Philips’ 3-4 defense in Houston, Ryans took a good part of last year getting over a torn Achilles suffered in 2010. He really came on toward the end of the year, though he was pretty clearly playing out of position. Prior to his injury, he averaged 130 tackles over his first four seasons.
Returning to a 4-3 should allow Ryans to get back to the...

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