Johnson, 67, is walking with a cane because of a back problem. He was cagey yesterday when asked where he will do his coaching Sunday.
"Game-time decision," he said. Asked how he injured himself, Johnson said he did it swinging a golf club. Then, asked when he last had time to play golf, Johnson acknowledged he had not done so lately.
"There's plus and minus" to coaching from upstairs, Johnson said. When Brad Childress was the Eagles' offensive coordinator, he often abandoned the sideline for the box, to get a more complete view. "The concentration, sometimes, might be better up there. You see some things. Sometimes, the hardest thing is just wanting to get at them right away, adjustments or stuff like that."
Difference-maker
The Cardinals upgraded their punt coverage recently by making some changes to get quicker on the coverage unit, Eagles special-teams coordinator Rory Segrest said. But he noted they did something else, as well: They jettisoned former Eagles punter Dirk Johnson for veteran Ben Graham, the Australian who blazed the trail Sav Rocca followed. (Rocca, of course, replaced Johnson before last season for the Eagles.)
"He's a very effective punter," Segrest said of Graham, the former Jet who joined the Cards Dec. 1. Arizona ranked 30th in the NFL in both punt and kick coverage. "He can punt the ball way down the field. He has great leg strength and can get the ball hung up there very well. At the same time, they've also moved some guys around and gotten more speed on the field," most notably former Eagle Sean Morey, who made the Pro Bowl as the NFC special-teams player.
