Eagles’ Jim Johnson dies from cancer

The Eagles’ longtime defensive coordinator Jim Johnson died Tuesday afternoon after a six-month battle with melanoma skin cancer. Mr. Johnson was 68.

At the time of Johnson’s cancer diagnosis in January, it was hoped that he could return to the sidelines after radiation treatments and rest. However, Johnson suffered a setback in May and announced he was taking a leave of absence with secondary coach Sean McDermott taking the reins on an interim basis.

“For ten years, Jim Johnson was an exceptional coach for the Philadelphia Eagles, but more importantly, he was an outstanding human being,” Eagles Chairman Jeffrey Lurie said in a statement released by the team.

Johnson coached the Eagles defense through January’s NFC title game. On Saturday, coach Andy Reid announced – with Johnson’s blessing, he said – that Sean McDermott was replacing Johnson while he battled cancer.

During his 10 seasons as the Eagles’ defensive coordinator, the team played in five NFC championship games and one Super Bowl, and won five NFC East titles. Mr. Johnson’s zone blitz packages became one of the team’s trademarks of success.

The Eagles were an awful team with a no-pressure defense when Reid became the head coach and hired Mr. Johnson as his defensive coordinator in 1999. They remained an awful team that season, winning just five games, but the defense sprung to life. After forcing a league-low 17 turnovers in 1998, Ray Rhodes’ final season as head coach, the Eagles led the league with 48 takeaways, including 28 interceptions, during Mr. Johnson’s first season as defensive coordinator.

By 2001, when the Eagles went to their first of four straight NFC championship games, the defense was ranked among the best in the NFL in almost every category. With few exceptions, the Eagles’ defense remained an elite unit, including last season, when the team had the NFC’s top-ranked defense.

“As a defense, we knew we could play,” former Eagles linebacker Ike Reese said. “What we needed was direction and structure. We needed somebody to tap into our potential. He was old-school to the core. He had his beliefs about how the game should be played with toughness. The first three or four years Andy was here, that was Jim’s message. He’d walk past you in the training room down in the dungeon at the Vet and he’d start talking about downhill, aggressive football. That’s what he wanted from his linebackers and safeties.”

Born in 1941 in Maywood, Ill., Mr. Johnson played quarterback for coach Dan Devine at the University of Missouri.

Mr. Johnson first coached professionally in the U.S. Football League before landing a job with the Phoenix Cardinals as a defensive line and defensive backs coach in 1986. He moved from there to the Indianapolis Colts in 1994, which is where he caught the eye of a young quarterbacks coach from the Green Bay Packers during a 1997 game.

Mr. Johnson is survived by his wife, Vicky, two children, Scott and Michelle, and four grandchildren, Katie, Justin, Brandon, and Jax.

The entire article can be read here at Philly.com.