eagle defensive front

Question
Bill,
Could you give me some incite as to the definition of the eagle allignment and what is the purpose. Thank you  

Answer
The Eagle is a 5-2 defense created by Fritz Shurmer when he was with the LA Rams, and then achieved real success with at Green Bay.  As a 5-2, it means there are 5 linebackers and 2 true defnesive lineman: two down linemen, a big, hybrid-type linebacker at th e nose position, and two more linebackers at end, with two linebackers lined up behind in tradition LB spots.  The specifc purpose of the defense was the counter a kind of run play popularized by Washington in the 80's.  A more traditional 3-4 is used now for teams that want to do this kind of zone defending - no one uses the Eagle-5 a s a base alignment anymore.

A good little piece about the Eagle-5 can be found here (it is from a youth football coach but the writer understands it from an NFL perspective): http://www.infosprts.com/football/arch/2281.htm