Bills coach Rex Ryan raised some eyebrows after the Eagles-Bills game Sunday when he said Fletcher Cox compares favorably with Jerome Brown, whom his father drafted out of Miami 28 years ago.
Crazy, right? Maybe not.
Seth Joyner played alongside Brown for four years, and now, as an analyst with Comcast SportsNet, he studies every move that Cox makes.
And he says the comparison is a fair one.
“It’s very fair because I think when you look at defensive tackles, you’re either going to get a guy who’s a run stopper or a guy who’s a pass rusher,” Joyner said.
“It’s very rare that you find a defensive tackle — and call him a defensive end, call him whatever you want, Fletcher Cox is a defensive tackle — that has the ability to dominate the line of scrimmage from a run standpoint and then when he knows it’s a passing situation he’s almost unblockable.
“In all my years I’ve only seen one defensive tackle play that way, and that is Jerome Brown and you’re seeing a lot of those qualities in Fletcher Cox.
“When he doesn’t want to be blocked, you cannot block him. The guy’s incredible.”
Joyner’s credentials are impeccable. He piled up 52 sacks, 27 interceptions and forced 26 fumbles in his brilliant 13-year career, the first eight with the Eagles.
On top of being a world-class run defender, he’s the only player in NFL history with 50 sacks and 25 interceptions, credentials that should make him a Hall of Fame no-brainer.
Buddy Ryan inherited Reggie White when he replaced Marion Campbell as head coach of the Eagles after the 1985 season. He drafted Joyner out of UTEP and Clyde Simmons out of Western Carolina in the eighth and ninth rounds in 1986, then selected Brown in the first round out of Miami one year later. Then in 1988 he took Eric Allen in the second round out of Arizona State.
After the 1991 season, Brown was killed along with his young nephew in a one-car accident in Brown’s native Brooksville, Florida.
He was a two-time first-team all-pro and two-time Pro Bowler in his brief five-year career.
Joyner never saw anybody like him.
Until now.
Cox, now in his fourth year out of Mississippi State, enjoyed maybe the most dominating game of his career Sunday, when the Eagles beat the Bills at the Linc.
He had eight tackles, a sack, two tackles for loss and a quarterback hurry. But the stats don’t even begin to describe this performance.
“I watched that game three times,” said Joyner, who now co-hosts Eagles Extra every Monday evening on Comcast SportsNet.
“There’s one play where he’s actually playing the five technique (defensive end) and the tackle fires out on him and the tight end fires out on him, so he’s got one hand on the tackle and one hand on the tight end, and he’s stringing the play down the line,” Joyner said.
“And once it’s time to make the tackle, he grabs the tight end and throws him to the side and makes the tackle. I ran it back like 10 times. I’m like that is unheard of. That’s the kind of stuff Reggie White did. Jerome was good but he didn’t do that kind of stuff. To dominate two guys?
“He’s strong. When he wants to make a move, his first step is lightning-quick for a guy who’s three hundred pounds. He’s got moves, he’s got counter moves. He’s just relentless.
“That guy, he’s special. We’re watching a guy right now who’s special."
Another play that caught Joyner’s eye Sunday was Cox’s tackle of LeSean McCoy for a 10-yard loss in the fourth quarter.
That was the biggest loss on a running play against the Eagles since Akeem Jordan stopped DeMarco Murray for minus-11 yards in 2012. And it helped flip field position and set up Caleb Sturgis’ game-winning field goal minutes later.
“You watch that play, Cox looks at the formation and sees what’s going on and he knows what the heck they’re going to run,” Joyner said. “When he slanted and caught Shady in the backfield, I mean, how many guys make that play?
“Richie (Incognito, Bills guard) over-reached him, but he had to over-reach him because he’s thinking, ‘Hey, we’re running that way, I’ve got to stretch that way, I’ve got to reach to get him.’ And Fletcher shot past him like somebody shot him out of a cannon and he runs in the backfield and makes the play for a 10-yard loss.
“I don’t know if any other defensive tackle in the game can make a play like that. He’s a guy that teams are going to have to game plan for. If he’s playing like that, I don’t see an offensive lineman that can handle him.”
The Eagles ranked No. 7, No. 2, No. 2, No. 1, No. 8, No. 8 and No. 5 in defense from 1987 through 1992.
With White, Simmons and Brown, they had the NFL’s most dominating defensive line. White was a first-ballot Hall of Famer, Brown was headed in that direction before he passed, and Simmons recorded 121 sacks — 10th–most in NFL history when he retired.
The other defensive tackle was either Mike Golic or Mike Pitts. But imagine a defensive line with White, Simmons, Brown and Cox?
Joyner considers it and laughs.
“That would be great, but I’m not sure Jerome and Fletch could play together,” he said. “Both of them like to jump gaps. Jerome would turn to me and be like, ‘Hey man, I’m gone, cover me.’
“'What do you mean you’re gone.’ But I knew what he was talkng about. So I’d cover my responsibility and also his, but 85 percent of the time he made the play for a loss in the backfield, so you don’t mind guys doing that as long as they know something and know they can make a play.
“But it would be hard. Mike Pitts and Mike Golic, they played three technique across the board to the letter, so you always knew where you fit. If you got two guys doing it, for a linebacker that’s hell.”
Simmons once had 15½ sacks in a season and didn’t make the Pro Bowl. Joyner once had 6½ sacks, three interceptions, three forced fumbles and two touchdowns and didn’t make a Pro Bowl.
Cox? Hasn’t made a Pro Bowl. Yet.
Pro Bowl balloting concludes today, and this year’s team will be announced next Tuesday.
“I can relate with him,” Joyner said Monday. “I can relate. But I think he’ll get picked. He has to get picked. I just think he’s that dominant.
“If he doesn’t go, it’s a travesty. If he doesn’t go, then there shouldn’t even be a Pro Bowl.”