Zack Baun's Secret To Catching and Keeping Vic Fangio's Eye

Eagles' Defensive Coordinator is convinced Zack Baun can play off-ball LB for him.

Eagles LB Zack Baun / John McMullen/Eagles on SI

PHILADELPHIA - The presumption is growing that the surging Nakobe Dean will ultimately overtake Zack Baun by Sept. 6 and be one of the Eagles’ two starting linebackers against the Green Bay Packers in the season opener.

Lauded for his physicality by head coach Nick Sirianni and earmarked early by defensive coordinator Vic Fangio as a potential answer as a stacked LB, Baun will have a significant role in the defense either way.

It’s just a matter of what it looks like.

Back in the spring when Howie Roseman targeted Baun as an early under-the-radar signing in free agency, the thought was that the Eagles’ GM was trying to find a potential fit for the role Andrew Van Ginkel successfully handled in Miami under Fangio.

Van Ginkel. Ironically a close friend and former college teammate of Baun’s at Wisconsin was a hybrid edge player/off-ball LB who seemed just as comfortable in coverage as rushing the passer for Fangio in Miami last season.

When Fangio got the DC job in Philly and started to get immersed into the Eagles’ personnel he saw off-ball traits in Baun.

“I mean I played inside in New Orleans, let's not get that wrong,” Baun reminded reporters. “... [Playing off-ball] has been going really well, just taking all these reps, it's what I needed. To be off the ball and taking the reps, and learning from my mistakes. 

“And learning from D White [Devin White] and 'Kobe and [linebackers coach] Bobby King is real focused on technique and stuff that I wasn't really taught before. So it's good, and I'm really developing."

For 13 of 14 summer practices to date, the Eagles’ have used White and Baun as their default setting at the second level. There’s been plenty of mixing and matching, however, when it comes to first-team reps as a whole with Dean, rookie Jeremiah Trotter Jr., and second-year prospect Ben VanSumeren rotating in.

The competition has been fierce.

“We got a lot of good guys in this linebacker room,” Baun said. “There's really not a weak spot. I mean, everyone can play and we're really thriving and learning from each other's mistakes and the things we do well, and we're there to help each other out and we're pushing each other. We just want to be the best group of linebackers."

Over the past week or so Dean has taken the bull by its horns and looked like the Eagles’ best LB but Sunday’s practice still defaulted to White and Baun.

In red-zone situations, the duo was Dean and Baun with the first team.

Meanwhile, the days continue to be checked off the calendar with just over a week to the initial cut to 53 and 18 days to the season opener with Baun still standing.

Van Ginkel, who signed a big-money deal with Minnesota in the offseason, might be Baun’s secret weapon when it comes to catching and keeping Fangio’s eye.

"He really attacks offenses from a lot of different angles with different blitzes and different coverages and pattern matches so just understanding the overall coverages,” Baun said of Fangio. “And that's something that my buddy Andrew Van Ginkel told me, that was his number one piece of advice, understand the coverage as a whole.”

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