Before Matt Patricia held his introductory press conference on Thursday as the Eagles’ new de facto defensive coordinator, he hugged Darius Slay.
Those two have come a long way. Bird Cage
Patricia on Thursday explained how he and Slay were able to mend their relationship after it had soured when they were together in Detroit. And on his podcast, Big Play Slay, the Eagles’ veteran cornerback reacted to the news of Patricia’s promotion.
Before the Eagles hired Patricia this offseason, Nick Sirianni and the Eagles’ brass told Slay about their interest in his former head coach.
“I told them I don’t have a problem with Matty P as a coach,” Slay said. “He’s an amazing coach. When I say amazing coach, he is a smart dude, he knows the game, he’s been under Bill Belichick and he knows defense. He just knows football very well. Me and him had an issue just how, the communication part, us as a man. But they asked me. I said, ‘I’m cool with it.’
“Because I know the kind of guy he is because of the fact that he loves to win, I know he can help the defense. A lot of younger guys and myself can still continue to learn from him as a player. So I knew he knew a lot about football so I said I’m cool with it man. Wasn’t no big issue for me at all.”
But when Patricia and Slay were finally in the same room in Philly, they had to mend their relationship. They had to talk it out, Slay said.
“We had a good serious talk,” Slay said. “Shared our thoughts about how we felt and we both acknowledged that you’re a great coach, I’m a great player and we just got off on a bad foot.”
Slay commended Patricia for apologizing and Slay apologized for how he handled the situation in Detroit as well. Things have been fine between them this season.
“We have a great understanding,” Slay said. “We talk every day at work. So yes, me and Matty P are not beefing.”
As for the switch at defensive coordinator, Slay he feels bad for defensive coordinator Sean Desai, who was stripped of his power. Slay thinks the group is responsible for his demotion.
Aside from their previous beef, Slay at least has a better understanding of Patricia as a coach than most Eagles.
“And now man he’s the DC and I know what kind of DC he’s going to be,” Slay said. “He’s going to be a guy that will go out here detailed, going to tell the guys what the job description is and what he needs to get this dub. I know he’s going to do an amazing job at it, man.”
Meanwhile, the veteran cornerback is out for a while after having arthroscopic knee surgery last week. But the Eagles didn’t put him on IR and Slay is expected to return before the end of the regular season.
On his podcast, Slay said his knee has been bothering him since the 2019 season and he and the team finally decided to get it done. Slay admitted he tried to push through the toughest part of the schedule.
“I wanted to do the gauntlet schedule with the team, man, because I felt like I could be an impact to the team,” Slay said. “I tried to fight through the tough part of the schedule. We had (Patrick) Mahomes, Dallas, San Fran, Buffalo and we had Dallas again. I was trying to go through the tough part of the stage, man, to try to fight through and give us the win because these was important games.”
Slay missed his first game against the Seahawks on Monday night and was not practicing to begin the week of prep for the Giants.
While talking about this recovery, Slay said, “I’m a great healer.”
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