Domowitch: Jordan Hicks fits well in new defense

JORDAN HICKS goes through defensive coordinators like Taylor Swift goes through boyfriends. Though, unlike Swift, Hicks has been an innocent bystander in the parade of coaches who have come and gone in his football life since he enrolled at the University of Texas in 2010.

He had four different defensive coordinators in five years at Texas, and already is on his second defensive boss with the Eagles since they selected the 6-1, 236-pound linebacker in the third round of the 2015 draft.

The good news is Hicks has gotten really, really good at learning and mastering new defensive schemes.

"At this point, it is easier for me," Hicks said Monday after a two-hour training camp practice at the NovaCare Complex. "The first two, three, four times, it was difficult. But you learn to adapt.

"You learn to take things from one coach and apply it to the next. Kind of accumulate it all together. But at this point, you're able to pick it up pretty fast."

Last year, he picked up Bill Davis' two-gap 3-4 quickly enough to step in and start five games at inside linebacker before a torn pectoral tendon abruptly ended his season. He didn't just start five games; he was one of the defense's top players in those games. Not bad for a guy who was expected to spend the season earning his keep on special teams.

The Eagles won four of his five starts. Held opponents to 19.0 points and 352.6 yards per game. Gave up only nine touchdown passes and had 15 takeaways.

In the Eagles' eight games after Hicks went down, they gave up 33.3 points and 436.5 yards per game and 23 touchdown passes, and had only six takeaways.

Davis, who was a casualty of the Chip Kelly firing, has been replaced by Jim Schwartz, who has junked the 3-4 and replaced it with a Wide 9 4-3.

Hicks, who has been penciled in as the starting middle linebacker, said he has picked up Schwartz's scheme pretty well.

"Difficulty-wise, it's not too bad," he said. "The degree of difficulty (of learning a defense) comes with your understanding of what they're trying to get accomplished.

"At this point, I'm able to understand (what Schwartz is trying to do). I've been in a 4-3 before. I never played in a true Over Wide 9. But I've played in an Under front (a 4-3 where the defense shifts its strength to the weak side of the offense). I've played SAM, MIKE and WILL . I understand the concepts that we're trying to get accomplished, no matter who is doing it."

What Schwartz really needs Hicks to do this year is stay healthy. You can make a pretty good argument that he's the most indispensable player on the defense.

There is very little depth at linebacker beyond starters Hicks, Nigel Bradham and Mychal Kendricks. Veteran Najee Goode is their one and only backup with more than one year of NFL experience.

They have some young players with promise, including Deontae Skinner, who spent last year on their practice squad, and rookies Joe Walker, Myke Tavarres and Quentin Gause. But the jury still is very much out on them.

At Texas, Hicks twice suffered season-ending injuries. He was KO'd three games into the 2012 season with a hip injury, and ruptured his Achilles' tendon after four starts in 2013.

Last year, he suffered the pec injury in the fourth quarter of the Eagles' 33-27 Week 9 overtime win over the Cowboys. With Hicks on injured reserve, everything pretty much went to hell defensively after that.

"It was very frustrating," Hicks said of the injury. "Playing that well (and then getting injured), that's what hurts. You want to help your team. You don't want to be on the sideline.

"You just want to freakin' play. This is your dream. I've dreamed of being on this level my whole life. I finally got here, was playing great, then I get hurt. But I've been through it. It made me better. I'm a better person for it."

As the Wide 9 name suggests, the defensive ends often line up wide in Schwartz's defense, which leaves bigger gap responsibilities inside for the linebackers.

Schwartz's defense is first and foremost about getting pressure on the quarterback. In the 14 years he has been a defensive coordinator or head coach, his defense has finished in the top 10 in the league in sacks eight times, but has held opponents to 4.0 yards per rush attempt just five times, and only twice since '03.

"When you play an attack front up front like we do, the linebackers have to go downhill," Schwartz said. "They have to plug those holes.

"If we're going to play attack up front, the linebackers have to be tied in and the safeties have to be tied in. They have to be able to play off the guys in front of them. And when they see a hole, they need to step up and fill. Because if you don't, if you're lateral, you can create some gaps in there."

Hicks said he loves the attack mentality of Schwartz's defense.

"I love it; I love it, man," he said. "Come downhill. Go make a play. It's disruptive. Offenses don't want to go against disruptive defenses. That's what we are."

The Eagles added three players in the offseason who played for Schwartz in Buffalo in 2014 when he was the Bills' defensive coordinator - Bradham and cornerbacks Leodis McKelvin and Ron Brooks. They were brought in because of their knowledge of the defense almost as much as for their ability. They've helped speed up the Wide 9 learning process for the rest of the defense.

"When I have a question about something, I ask Nigel," Hicks said. "He's played in it. He knows what to expect, what to do. He calls different techniques on stuff and how to help each other out in certain situations. It's great having him around."

@Pdomo Blog: philly.com/Eaglesblog