Eagles Still Searching For A Backup Nose Tackle

Players like Jordan Davis don't grow on trees.

Eagles DC Vic Fangio surprisingly mention Milton Williams as a candidate to get some snaps at nose tackle. / John McMullen/Eagles on SI

PHILADELPHIA - Jordan Davis is one of the more important players on the Eagles as a 6-foot-6, 336-pound placeholder who allows Vic Fangio to play defense the way the veteran coach wants to.

Davis’ presence as a legitimate nose/shade tackle permits Fangio to toggle back and forth between his variable fronts at any moment, something that better allows the DC to keep the plus-one in coverage as much as possible, the main goal of Fangio’s much-copied scheme.

Without Davis in the lineup, that would force Fangio into using more four-man fronts and severely limit reliance on the 50 front that plays so-called gap-and-a-half football with two 4i technique defensive tackles sandwiching the nose tackle. Outside each of those 4i players are bookend overhang players.

The Eagles’ projected base 50 front is Bryce Huff and Josh Sweat on the edges, and Jalen Carter and Milton Williams bookending the man in the middle Davis.

Eagles NT Jordan Davis / John McMullen/Eagles on SI

Fangio was asked about his depth at nose tackle before Sunday's practice and did not mention the players best suited for the role from a physical perspective – Marlon Tuipulotu and P.J. Mustipher – instead, diverting to Williams, an underrated fourth-year player better suited for the 3-technique in a traditional four-man front or perhaps even a 5-tech more than even 4i.

“I think Milt can probably go in there and play it,” Fangio said. “You have to have -- you probably dress five on game day, interior D-Linemen, and somebody has to be a backup nose.”

The only guarantees on game day to dress at DT are Davis, Carter and Williams. At this stage second-year player Moro Ojomo might be No. 4 but he’s way too undersized for the nose.

Physically, only Tuipulotu, Mustipher, and perhaps Thomas Booker could handle at least some snaps among the unmentioned backups.

Williams, meanwhile, seemed a little off guard when the subject was brought up but played the good soldier.

“I feel I can do it all on the D-line,” he said. “Whatever any coach needs me to do, I feel I can do it. I haven’t played a lot at nose, but I got a couple snaps here and there. If we mess up a call, I want to make sure I play my gap and make a play.”

Before the Eagles drafted Davis in 2022, many didn’t even pick up that former DC Jonathan Gannon was trying to replicate the Fangio scheme because the now Arizona Cardinals head coach had to use talented pass rusher Javon Hargrave as a de facto NT to get to the five-man fronts, a card Gannon didn't pull often.

During Davis' rookie season, an ankle injury to the big man forced the Eagles to go outside the organization to get a proven but aging nose in Linval Joseph. 

Down roster the Eagles have tried to develop Noah Elliss and now Mustipher as at least capable backups but the team is evidently still searching for that role according to Fangio.

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