How Good Can Eagles Defense Be With Youth And So Many New Faces?

Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said it's too early to ask that question, but some players answered it, and one of the keys to just how good it can be may be tied to the ability to blitz.

Eagles defenders from left to right: Tarron Jackson, Brandon Graham, Darius Slay, and Jordan Davis / Ed Kracz/Eagles on SI

PHILADELPHIA – The growth of the Eagles’ defense from Day 1 of training camp to Sunday morning’s Day 14 has been evident. The offense is no longer having its way like it did in late July, early August.

The defense appeared to sweep the weekend, winning both Saturday and Sunday practices. The Eagles will head into a closed Monday walkthrough before returning to practice on Tuesday through Thursday.

So, just how good can this unit be? Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio was asked that very question before Sunday’s practice which ran for nearly two hours.

“Well, I like our guys,” he said. “I like our guys as individuals. They're all good guys. I like the unit. I love working with them. Time will tell on that. We haven't played real games yet, and that opener against that offense is going to be very challenging. I think that's a better question to ask midway through the season.”

That opener of course will be against the Green Bay Packers in Brazil on Sept. 6. The Eagles have only one more preseason game to tinker before having to chop the roster to 53 players on Aug. 29.

It’s a young group the old-school Fangio has been tasked with molding. There are some veterans, such as cornerback Darius Slay, defensive ends Josh Sweat and Brandon Graham, but it’s also a lot of new faces with rookie corners Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean, newcomer Isaiah Rodgers, and linebackers Devin White, Zack Baun, and Jeremiah Trotter, Jr.

Eagles CB Quinyon Mitchell / John McMullen/Eagles on SI

“I feel the sky’s the limit for us as you can see, a lot of talent,” said second-year cornerback Kelee Ringo. “Those guys being able to implement their talents in the scheme the right way will help our outcome. I’ve been seeing it the whole time throughout camp, but we’ll see.”

Tight end Dallas Goedert has gone against the defense since camp began, and he echoed Ringo’s sentiment about it the sky being the limit.

“We have some vets on the outside, people like Slay who’s going to teach the DBs the whole time,” he said. “We got two interior guys, Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis, that the sky’s the limit for them. It’s really up to them how good they want to be. But I can see both of them being a really big problem in the NFL for a long time.

“The linebackers have been flying around. We have four or five of those guys that are battling and look really good every day. I have all the confidence in the world in the defense. I think they can really help us out a lot this year.”

Fangio is continuing to do a lot of mixing and matching with his personnel at the second and third levels of the defense, and that may very well continue into the season as he seeks mismatches against others teams’ offenses and plays to his personnel’s strengths.

He has shown a lot of blitzes, something he has not been typically known for in his 40-plus years of coaching. There was a thought that he was doing it a lot in camp, with some particular heavy usage on Saturday, to test Kellen Moore’s offense, which was terrible at picking up and blocking it last year when Nick Sirianni and Brian Johnson ran the offense.

That’s not the case.

“There was no consideration for the offense,” said Fangio. “It was just time that we installed some stuff, and (Saturday) we worked on it. We installed it prior to (Saturday’s) practice and worked on it and called it a few times…Kellen did tell me afterwards that it was good for them to see that. They need that.”

The Eagles' defense needs it, too, if they want to jell under Fangio, and the DC believes he does have the right personnel to win with the blitz.

“I think some of (the linebackers) have good blitz abilities,” he said. “It's always hard to tell until you get in real games, because in practice we're supposed to back off as we get close to the quarterback so you don't finish and finishing is the big thing in pass rush.

“So that's why we fight for a lot of pass rush drills because it's the one time we can finish and not worry about getting too close to the quarterback. So, yeah, but I do think we have some guys that can do it.”

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