How Vic Fangio Changed The Culture Of The Eagles Defense
The Eagles defense was as bad as it gets in 2023. Half of their players completely disappeared down the stretch. It was a talent issue, but it was also a culture issue. The conditioning wasn’t there, the effort wasn’t there, and they were not playing like one unit, they were playing like 11 individuals. Enter Vic Fangio.
The turnaround for this defense has been incredible. From arguably the worst defense, to statistically the best. From a unit that was constantly out of place and missing tackles, to one that is always in the right place, and has the lowest missed tackle rate in the country.
A lot of that is talent. They added Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean, brought back CJ Gardner Johnson, and found a diamond in the rough in Zack Baun. Credit needs to go to Howie Roseman, and it needs to go to the players on the field who are making it happen each and every week. But the presence of Vic Fangio makes a big difference.
Not just because he is a great coordinator who understands how to scheme against NFL offenses. But because he came right into the Eagles locker room and demanded better out of each and every player on his team, and we are seeing that pay off in a big way.
Tim McManus Explains The Impact Vic Fangio Made
Tim McManus joined The Best Show Ever for a full hour this week. One of the things they talked about was the transformation of Jalen Carter. And that led to Tim McManus talking about how Fangio helped influence the transformation of not just Carter, but all of the players on this defense.
“The other part of this is Fangio. I was having a conversation with Milton Williams a couple of weeks ago for a piece that I was doing on Fangio, and he told me that on the first day of OTAs, Fangio goes up to the defensive meeting room to the front, and the first words out of his mouth are, It’s not your fault. You guys don’t work hard. And they’re like what? It’s not your fault. You don’t work hard. But now that I’m here, you’re going to learn.
He set the tone right from the jump. His whole premise as a 40-year veteran in this business is that athletes haven’t changed, it’s the way people are treating athletes that have changed. What you demand out of them they’re going to give back. But he said these so-called adults in the room have got to be the ones to push them.
When we’re talking about coaching, we’re talking about culture change and that quick of a change on defense. And what we’re seeing out of Carter and these other guys that are logging major snaps, Fangio just demanded that out of the gate. And that was the standard.
He pushed Sirianni to have harder practices and longer practices. He made sure the conditioning was up. He helped implement the physicality that you see. These guys are as physical as any team that I’ve seen, and obviously we’ve seen some really physical Philadelphia Eagle defenses over time. And they’re right up there with any of them. A lot of that is because of the tone of Fangio set.”
The Eagles lacked that adult in the room. Sean Desai was not it, and Matt Patricia certainly was not it. Fangio is it. He came in and didn’t blame anyone, didn’t punish anyone, he just demanded better. And the players who did things the right way got rewarded.
Just look at Jalen Carter and you can see the results. He ran out of gas last season. The high snap count caught up to him, and he waned late in the season. This year he has played even more snaps and has gotten better late in the season. He has played nearly every snap in the playoffs, and the level of play hasn’t dropped at all,
Carter deserves credit for that, but as Tim McManus pointed out it is also the Vic Fangio effect. There is a good reason Fangio is up for Assistant Coach of The Year. He did not only take a bottom-level defense and turn it into a Super Bowl contender, he took a broken culture and fixed it in one off-season.
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Zack Baun
Nobody but Vic Fangio saw Baun coming this year. He was mostly a Special Teams player and rotational Edge Rush for the Saints. But Vic saw talent in him right away. In his first Press conference, the Eagles DC shocked everyone by describing Baun as one of the Eagles’ best LBs. People were perplexed at the time, but clearly Fangio knows what he is talking about. Baun has forced 6 fumbles now, leads the league in Run Stops, and has been shut down in coverage for the most part.
There is a real argument to call him the best LB in Football period and he was on no one’s radar before it started. It doesn’t get more underdog than that. I can just imagine Kelce screaming “Zack Baun Can’t play Inside Linebacker.”
