One of the most important parts, if not the most important part, of the Philadelphia Eagles’ early 2025 season is going to be how the new players deal with Vic Fangio's defense. Right now, it’s shaping up to look like there will be at least three, maybe four, starting jobs that are going to be filled by guys who were either drafted or signed this offseason. We’re going to just focus on the new safety, corner, and linebacker.
Fangio is going into his 46th season of coaching, his 25th as an NFL coach, his 21st as an NFL defensive coordinator, and his 10th as the sole coach in charge of the defense. That’s to say, the man has seen it all. That means we can see how new players have done in the Fangio scheme and how they compare to what the Eagles have going on.
The upside of being new to the Vic Fangio scheme
I’m completely aware that last season was the Eagles' first experience with the real Fangio scheme. Sure, Jonathan Gannon and Sean Desai ran a version of the Fangio scheme, but it was a bastardization. Clearly, it’s an ‘often imitated, never replicated’ type of thing.
Regardless, I’m not going to compare the new players this year to the new players from last year, purely because we have so many other players to look at over Fangio’s career.
Safety:
The best safety Vic Fangio ever coached was Eddie Jackson when they were both with the Bears in 2017 and 2018. Jackson was drafted in the fourth round of the 2017 draft (13th safety overall), so by no means was he a guy who was projected to be the stud that he was. The same can (kind of) be said for Drew Mukuba.
Mukuba was the Eagles' second-round draft pick this year, and that’s the highest Vic Fangio has ever had a safety drafted in his professional career. That has to mean that he sees something in him.
Jackson immediately came in for the Bears' 2017 defense, played 100% of the snaps, and was an absolute force. He then went on to be a pro bowler and first-team All-Pro safety in year two.
I’m not saying that Mukuba is or will be Eddie Jackson, I’m saying that Fangio has an eye for defensive talent, and if he likes Mukuba as much as where he was drafted indicates, then Mukuba can take the starting job and be a wagon.
Cornerback:
Fangio’s had awesome results with high-caliber rookies. The best one that he’s had was Patrick Surtain II, and behind that are Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean. All three of those guys were drafted in the first and second rounds. It’s been a little different when it comes to guys who aren’t rookies and taking starting jobs.
Right now, the new starting cornerback is more than likely going to be DeJean, Kelee Ringo, or Adoree’ Jackson. We know DeJean rocks, but Ringo and Jackson have different things going on. Ringo is a relative unknown, and Jackson is almost too well-known.
It’s not Ringo’s first season with Fangio, but it would be his first season as a starter. The only other time Fangio has had something like that happen was with the 49ers in 2014 with Chris Culliver.
The difference is that Culliver missed the entire 2013 season with a torn ACL. So while 2014 was his third season of playing in the NFL (like Ringo), it was his fourth season as a pro. Also, Culliver was the starting nickel in his second season. It’s kind of similar to Ringo, but not the same.
Culliver ended up being good in his first year of starting on the outside. He ended up playing almost 90% of the defensive snaps, and according to PFF, he only allowed a 50.7% completion rate. That’s just about where Darius Slay was last season.
If it’s Adoree’ Jackson at the starting spot, you can compare his situation to Carlos Rogers with the 49ers in 2011. Rogers was going into his seventh season in the NFL, and Jackson is going into his 10th, so they’re both veterans. On top of that, they were both first-round draft picks by their original teams.
The biggest difference is that Rogers was decent when the 49ers signed him, whereas Jackson feels more like a veteran who is kind of just there as competition during the offseason. Still, maybe he’ll gel, and Fangio will change his life like he did with Carlos Rogers.
Rogers went from being kind of a middle-of-the-road schlub in 2010 to the first-team All-Pro cornerback. By no means does Adoree’ Jackson have a first-team All-Pro season left in him, but this defense could allow him to be an above-average cornerback, and that’d be good for what he is at this point in his career.
Linebacker:
Roquan Smith, Patrick Willis, NaVorro Bowman, and now Zack Baun have all had some of the best linebacker seasons in recent history under Vic Fangio. The new Eagles starting linebacker alongside Baun is shaping up to be Jihaad Campbell (once he’s healthy) and Jeremiah Trotter Jr.
Let’s assume the worst: Campbell doesn’t get practice time until late in training camp. If that’s the case, he’ll probably follow the Cooper DeJean route, where he’ll come in on some special packages, but he won’t be the full-time starter until a handful of weeks into the season. In that time, it’ll be Trot Jr.
Maybe, just maybe, there’s a chance that Trot is playing so well that we get a ‘T.J. Edwards/Kyzir White over Nakobe Dean’ situation, where the starting linebackers are playing so well that the rookie never gets a chance to see the field. It seems unlikely, but hey… Zack Baun went from being a depth Edge guy to an All-Pro Linebacker last year, so who knows?
If that’s the case, Trot would match up almost perfectly with NaVorro Bowman’s 2011 season with the 49ers. He was a third-round pick in 2010, and in that season, he only started one game, and it was the last game of the season when the 49ers were eliminated from playoff contention.
Then, he came back in 2011 and started his four-year streak of being a first-team All-Pro linebacker — three of which were under Vic Fangio. Again, something crazy has to happen for Trotter to jump the athletic freak that is Jihaad Campbell, but something crazy happened with Bowman.
For Campbell, there's a very clear comparison, and that’s Roquan Smith, who the Bears picked in the first round of the 2018 draft. He started his career as a monster and has almost never looked back. If Campbell can come in and play at the level Smith did for the Bears, it’s going to be an absolute win.
Unfortunately for the Bears, Fangio, and Smith, and fortunately for everyone else, that season ended on January 6th, 2019, with one of the most electric and sphincter-puckering plays in the history of football.
All in all, there is some huge upside as to what the new starters on the Eagles' defense have going for them. Sure, there have been just as many, if not more, duds (read: Bryce Huffs) in Fangio’s career, but as long as the young core stays awesome, the new guys will be set up to also be young and awesome.