Are the Eagles Really 'Miles Ahead' On Defense

Considering Zack Baun was the best player on the NFL’s best defense last season, it was eye-opening when the Eagles’ All-Pro linebacker pondered what might be in store for the 2025 campaign. 

“To think that was all of our first year in that scheme. Like, what are we going to do next year? Baun asked rhetorically on “Exciting Mics,” the podcast hosted by his defensive teammates Reed Blankenship and Cooper DeJean. “Already, I feel like we’re miles ahead of where we were last year at this time.”

It makes some sense that the returning Eagles defenders like Baun, Blankenship, DeJean, and Co. are “miles ahead” of where they were when minicamp wrapped up, because it was Vic Fangio’s first as defensive coordinator, and there is always a ramp-up process.

More so, Fangio runs one of the more complicated schemes in the NFL and one that demands a lot of the players.

The veteran DC recently spoke about where he thought the current iteration of his defense was during voluntary OTAs and predictably took a more cautious tone than Baun’s.

“It's too early to say,” Fangio said. “I mean, I look at-- and I told the players this – I look at this year, very similar to last year in that at this time last year, we had a lot of turnover in personnel from the previous year."

“You had Baun, nobody knew what he was at this point last year,” Fangio continued. “You had Nakobe [Dean], who hadn't played any meaningful NFL football in his first two years. You had [LB] Oren Burks, who we had just signed. You had [CB] Isaiah Rodgers, who we had just signed. You had [DT Moro] Ojomo, who didn't play hardly at all his rookie year. We got Nolan [Smith], who didn't play hardly at all his rookie year. We got Chauncey [Gardner-Johnson] back. We drafted Q [Quinyon Mitchell], Cooper, Jalyx [Hunt].

“We had a lot of question marks at that time.”

The odds were against all those names Fangio mentioned “hitting,” but all of them did in some way or another, all the way from the home run of Baun down to significant role players like Burks and Rodgers, to situational singles like Ojomo and Hunt.

With seven key defenders gone, the same thing has to happen again.

“This year, those names are replaced,” Fangio said. [Kelee] Ringo, Adoree' [Jackson], Sydney [Brown], [Tristin] McCollum, [Azeez] Ojulari, [Josh] Uche, Byron Young, Gabe Hall, [Thomas] Booker, Jihaad [Campbell], all the draft picks-- [Drew] Mukuba,  [Ty] Robinson, Smael [Mondon Jr.], and then the rest of the rookies.

“ Some of those guys in that second list have to become like those guys in the first list, and I don't know how that's going to turn out.”

Regarded as one of the better defensive coordinators in NFL history, Fangio is especially adept at teaching, and he’s usually going to get the most out of any player as long as they buy in.

However, Fangio is also very cognizant that you need talent to win, and the starting-level players he lost – Josh Sweat, Milton Williams, Brandon Graham, Darius Slay, and C.J. Gardner-Johnson – as well as top reserves Rodgers and Burks, are daunting.

Penciled in to replace those players are Hunt, Ojomo, Ojulari, Ringo, Mukuba, Jackson, and Jeremiah Trotter Jr. and they all face ,a tall task.

To Baun’s point, those entrenched from last year’s defense likely do feel “miles ahead” from this point last season. The others will be swimming upstream.

“I look at us really basically the same one year to the next,” Fangio said. “The names have changed. Hopefully we'll get the same results from these new guys that we got from a lot of the new guys last year.

“... Until Nakobe comes back, which won't be anytime soon, you've got that to fill. We've got to get guys in our edge rotation, minus the guys we lost last year. You've got to replace Milt [DT Milton Williams] and his snaps, which I think will be done with guys we already had here with the addition of Robinson. Obviously, got to have a starting safety, a starting corner, so it's kind of spread equally.”