Last year, the Eagles essentially tried playing Lewis at Free Safety and Dawkins at Strong Safety to start the year even though they labeled it otherwise.  Dawkins was the one playing in the box on passing downs, and Considine would come in and take his place over the top alongside Lewis.  That was a total disaster.  Lewis was near last in the league among defensive backs in preventing successful passing plays (the opposing offense only failed to have success against Lewis about 20% of the time).  He gave up something like 6 touchdowns in 6 games.

When Considine came in to start, the Eagles played him almost purely as a Free Safety, Dawkins played back on passing downs but was otherwise a blitzing/tomahawk chopping terror up close to the line, and Lewis took over the up safety role as a pure Strong Safety/quasi-Linebacker in Nickel and Dime packages.  With that alignment, Considine only gave up 4 passing touchdowns in 12 games, and offenses failed to have success against Considine about 60% of the time when passing.

This year, people have gotten all worked up that Considine gave up 3 passing touchdowns in 8 games.  Folks, get a grip!  That's damn good safety play.  Did you see Considine make any boneheaded mistakes like accidentally blitzing and leaving T.O. WIDE open with the season on the line?  Was he giving up 1 or 2 passing touchdowns every week like Lewis did last year?  He was not committing flagrant pass interference fouls because guys got behind him, or getting burned on double moves.

Considine's main problem is that he was playing out of position.  He is a Free Safety who is good in covering tight ends and slot receivers and providing help over the top (up until last week when Dawkins returned and the defensive backfield was shuffled, the best thing the Eagles were doing vs. the pass was covering slot receivers and tight ends).  When he gets healthy next year, if this does not become a chronic shoulder problem (he had a similar injury in 2005 if you recall), he should be a good Free Safety.