Polamalu Thinks A Lot Of The Eagles Possible Defensive Coordinator Candidates

Les Bowen and/or Paul Domowitch of Philly.com talked to NFL Defensive MVP and Pittsburgh safety Troy Polamalu about a couple of coaches who might be candidates for the Eagles defensive coordinator position.   Pittsburgh’s Ray Horton and Green Bay’s Darren Perry have each coached the Steeler safety.

He had some nice things to say about both of them which is what you would expect.  Polamalu is currently playing for Horton and he previously played for Perry.

Concerning Horton:

“first of all, he’s got the toughest job on this team, coaching the secondary,” Polamalu said. “The reason I say that is, we’re always a run-stop defense first. There’s always a lot of pressure for the secondary to tackle, but our responsibility is not to get beat deep. That’s a lot of pressure for the players and the secondary coach.He’s been here a long time and he’s handled that. He has an in-depth understanding of the defense coach (Dick) LeBeau teaches, and he has an in-depth understanding of what the offense is doing, personnel groups, percentages.”

Concerning Perry:

“He’s like a father to me,” Polamalu said. “he taught me so much. We’ve been through a whole lot, because my rookie year wasn’t very good. I had to lean on him a lot, emotionally as well as learning the defense. I don’t know much about this game, but I would think Darren Perry and Ray Horton would be great candidates for defensive coordinator jobs.”

You can see that Polamalu spoke glowingly about Perry but not so warmly about Horton.  He remembers the times under Perry when he was a rookie and he has nothing but warm memories.  He no longer works for him, so they’re able to be closer.

Polamalu talks about Horton and you can tell that there’s a certain distance there which is part of a good player/coach relationship.  Unfortunately a coach can get but so close to his players because he has to chastise the player and push him to get the most out of him.  I’ve seen player/coach relationships get too close and the player’s performance start to fall because the coach wasn’t pushing the player and demanding more out of them.