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Harbaugh tackles a new role (phillyBurbs.com) | Philadelphia Eagles

excerpt:

It started years ago. Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson would be running a defensive meeting and see a familiar face peek his head through the doorway, tip-toe into the room, then silently take a seat in the back row.

And sit there and listen.

And then sneak out.

“If I had a few minutes between special teams meetings and practice, I'd pop in and just watch what Jim was doing,” Harbaugh said. “He's one of the best defensive coaches in the game. If I could take 10 minutes just listening to him talk about defense, I knew I could learn something.”

He learned enough to become part of Johnson's staff.

When the Eagles start practicing at Lehigh tomorrow, Harbaugh will be absent from his familiar role as special teams coach. After nine years as one of the most highly regarded special teams coaches in the NFL, Harbaugh this past offseason was granted his wish by Andy Reid to coach defensive backs.

Harbaugh, originally hired after the 1997 season by Ray Rhodes, had the Eagles ranked in the top-10 in the Dallas Morning News special teams rankings every year from 2000 through 2006, including two first-place finishes. From 2000 through 2006, no team had a higher overall ranking.

So this is the end of an era. And maybe the start of a new one.

“When I look at the best coaches around, guys like Jim Johnson and Andy Reid, they're guys who have such a broad knowledge of football,” Harbaugh said. “They know the game, not just offense or defense. I've always wanted to be like that. I want to know all there is to know about the game.

“That might be impossible, but in order to come as close as you can, you can't stay in the same job forever. You'll get stale. I wanted to make sure that didn't happen to me.”

The chain of events that led Harbaugh to change jobs began when the Giants hired Eagles linebackers coach Steve Spagnuolo as their new defensive coordinator in late January. Reid then moved Sean McDermott from secondary coach to linebackers, leaving an opening for a defensive backfield coach.

Harbaugh volunteered.

“A coach is a coach is a coach,” Johnson said. “He's a good coach, and I think he'll make that adjustment. He wants to learn.”

Harbaugh isn't exactly starting from scratch.

He played defensive back at Miami of Ohio and coached the secondary at several stops along the way to the Eagles.

“Coach Harbaugh is just a good coach, period,” cornerback Sheldon Brown said. “I don't think there'll be any transition at all. We all respect him as a coach and know how hard he works.”

With the exception of the rookies, Harbaugh has actually coached every defensive back on the roster while handling special teams. So he knows them, and they know him. And that helps.

“It helps a lot — he's not just coming in from somewhere else, he knows our abilities, what we can each do and what we can't do,” said Joselio Hanson, a backup cornerback and special teamer. “He pushes us to the limit on special teams, and I'm sure it will be the same way as a secondary coach.

“With his knowledge of the game, I honestly think he could coach any position.”

In a way, Harbaugh won't really be doing much differently at all. The fundamentals of special teams are the same as the fundamentals of playing defense.

Tackling, getting off blocks, being aggressive to the ball, playing hard.

But there are also intricacies of playing cornerback and safety in Johnson's incredibly complex scheme that take players years to learn. Now Harbaugh has to teach those techniques after just a few months.

“You've got to learn it so you can teach it,” he said. “Jim's been incredible spending time with me going over things. But it's amazing how complex the system is. There are so many details. There's a way to play everything and it's specific to the formation you're in. You can spend an eternity learning it and still not know it all.

“When last season ended, Jim took me and Sean back through the whole defense from the ground up. It was an incredible experience sitting there with a defensive coach like Jim Johnson going through the whole thing. When we were done, he said, "That was fun. I haven't gone through the defense like that in a long time.'“

Harbaugh, replaced as special teams coach by Rory Segrest, is only 44, but he's already one of the longest-tenured coaches in Eagles history.

But while a lot of people — including Reid — have suggested that moving over to defense will help Harbaugh eventually land a head coaching job either in college or the NFL, Harbaugh said he didn't ask to switch just to make himself more marketable.

“Honestly, I don't look at it that way,” he said. “It's just a chance to do something different and learn more about the game, and that's exciting to me. Maybe it helps me contribute to the team in a different way, maybe it shakes the secondary up a little, maybe it makes the whole thing a little better.

“If it helps me with my career down the line, that's fine. But that's not why I did this. If I spend the next 10 years coaching defensive backs here? That would be great, too.”

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