The Philadelphia Eagles Are the NFL's Man Coverage Champions — On Both Sides of the Ball

When it comes to why the Eagles are so great against man coverage in their own passing game, we can certainly start with the fact that it gives Hurts (and McKee) quicker and less complicated reads, which is important.

And when you have a Number 1 receiver like A.J. Brown, who can beat most defenders through his routes in free space, and can then Godzilla his way through contested catches, that also helps. This season against man coverage, Brown has 36 catches on 52 man targets this season for 613 yards, 396 air yards, five touchdowns, and the NFL’s highest Receiving EPA at +34.77. To put that in perspective, Cortland Sutton of the Denver Broncos ranks second at +26.11, Basically, it’s A.J. Brown and everybody else this season.

DeVonta Smith isn’t far behind, though. The “Slim Reaper” isn’t reliant on size or physicality against man coverage; he’s more about blistering foot fakes off the line of scrimmage to beat aggressive press coverage, speed and quickness in open space, and a great sense of how to find coverage voids in the timing of the play. This season vs. man, Smith has 27 catches on 37 targets for 294 yards, 150 air yards, five touchdowns, and a Receiving EPA of +15.18, which is 16th-best in the league. And of course, when Brown and Smith are on the field at the same time against anybody’s man coverage, anybody’s man coverage is going to get hurt.

The hidden force here is tight end Dallas Goedert. He has 13 catches on 16 targets against man for 228 yards, 74 air yards, one touchdown, and a Receiving EPA per Target of +1.12, which is the NFL’s highest for any target at any position for any NFL team. 

_{Philly's man defenders have mastered Vic Fangio's system}

The Eagles’ defensive numbers may surprise you, as Vic Fangio is generally known as the ultimate purveyor of all things Cover-4 and Cover-6. Yes, Philadelphia has the NFL’s highest Cover-6 rate at 21%, but they’ve played more Cover-1 (23%) and Cover-3 (35%) this season than Quarters (18%). Fangio is smart enough to know when to play man coverage. When he had Patrick Surtain II as his primary cornerback in Denver, where Fangio was the Broncos’ head coach from 2019 through 2021, he called more man coverages because he knew that Surtain was great in those particular schemes.

With this iteration of Fangio’s man coverages, it all starts with the safeties. Reed Blakenship has allowed nine catches on 12 targets in man this season for 49 yards, no touchdowns, three interceptions, one pass defensed, and an opponent passer rating of 81.6. And C.J. Gardner-Johnson can be streaky in man coverage – he has given up three touchdowns, but four of his six interceptions have come that way, as well.

Rookie defensive back Cooper DeJean has been a revelation in man coverage as well, allowing eight catches on 19 targets for 73 yards, no touchdowns, no interceptions, four pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 13.6.

And it should not surprise anyone that cornerback Darius Slay has been great in man coverage this season, because that’s been a thing for years. This season, Slay has allowed just six catches on 21 man targets for 149 yards, no touchdowns, no interceptions, six pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 36.8.

_{What will it mean in the postseason?} 

These Eagles begin their playoff run by welcoming the Green Bay Packers to Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday. This season, Packers quarterback Jordan Love has completed just 63 passes on 120 attempts for 924 yards, 586 air yards, four touchdowns, four interceptions, and a passer rating of 69.5 – which is not exactly legendary.

And when the Packers line up in man coverage this season, they’ve allowed 60 catches on 109 attempts for 735 yards, six interceptions, three touchdowns, nine pass defensed, and an opponent passer rating of 82.9, which resides in the middle of the NFL pack.

We’ll see how it all plays out for the Eagles, but when you can exploit and erase an opponent against and with one of the two primary coverage types, it tends to bode well for your postseason chances.