The Eagles Believe in Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio
This was not the way Vic Fangio wanted the 2025 Philadelphia Eagles season to begin.
Before the very first snap of the year, Fangio, the veteran defensive coordinator who led the Eagles to the No. 1 ranking in the NFL on the way to a Super Bowl LIX title, saw his best player, tackle Jalen Carter, disqualified from the game for spitting on Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott.
“It happened so fast,” linebacker Zack Baun said. “Everybody was like, ‘What just happened?’ After that, we didn’t have any time to react. We had to just play football.”
They played football, but the blueprint Fangio and his coaching staff prepared for two weeks didn’t exactly come to fruition. Dallas scored the first four times it had the ball – 20 points in all – and a lot of people wondered just what in the world was happening with Fangio’s defense.
Then, in a matter of four possessions, we were all reminded of the genius of Vic Fangio, an NFL coach now in his 39th season. The Eagles forced a fumble and a takeaway on the next Cowboys possession and then limited Prescott and Co. to three total first downs on the final three drives and the Eagles won, 24-20, and the players raved about Fangio and the way he adjusted and shut out Dallas in the second half of the game.
“We just listened to Coach Vic and whatever he says, we do,” edge player Nolan Smith, Jr. said. “He knows what he’s doing. He knows what we’re going to see, so we trust him to put us in the right position. Then we’re gonna do whatever it takes to make the play.”
Fangio is the legend, portrayed as an old-soul coach who says what he thinks and runs the show the way he wants. He runs the Eagles’ defense, one that emerged as the best in the NFL last season and then opened this year with five new starters among the eleven. The story isn’t as much about Fangio and the processes he employs; rather, it is about the relationship he has with his players. After “mutually parting ways” with the Miami Dolphins following the 2023 season and receiving criticism for not “relating to the young players” on the Miami roster with his “strict coaching style,” Fangio started anew with the Eagles.
And he related. To everyone. The kids, especially, on the youngest defense in the NFL. Rookie cornerbacks Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean were immediate-impact players in the Super Bowl season. In that Week 1 win over Dallas, the Eagles started rookies Jihaad Campbell at linebacker and Andrew Mukuba at safety.
“I don’t know anything about the past, but I love Coach Vic,” DeJean said. “He demands a lot out of you because he sees what you can accomplish. Is he a tough coach? I don’t know about that, but he expects you to do things a certain way, and that’s just the way it is. If you do what he wants and you do it that way and have success, isn’t that what every player wants?”
“He is straight with you, and I like that,” said Mitchell, the first Eagles rookie cornerback to open a season as a starter since Eric Allen in 1988. “He makes sure everyone – the coaches and the players – know what he wants, so it’s our job to go out and do that job. I’m a much better player because of it.”
Fangio loves the challenge of staying a step ahead of the game, something he has done so wonderfully for nearly four decades. He is all about the X’s and the O’s, but he knows the most important part of it all is having the Jimmies and the Joes. One of his greatest success stories is Baun, a fringe roster player in New Orleans for four seasons who joined the Eagles last season and finished as a first-team All-Pro player and finalist for NFL Defensive Player of the Year.
In New Orleans, Baun played as an edge linebacker and special teams’ player. He was nothing special. But Fangio saw something in Baun and after General Manager Howie Roseman signed Baun to a one-year contract in free agency, Fangio experimented with Baun throughout the summer until moving him to an off-ball linebacker position who did it all.
“He made me feel special,” Baun said. “It was the perfect situation for me, and I trusted him to find the right position in his defense for me. That is so important: knowing the coach has your back and sees skills in you that can help the defense. We all want to do our part, and he found the right part for me.”
A new challenge is upon us as the 2025 season heats up. The schedule is a tough one and the Eagles are a marked team. Fangio again has a young group, and he has to find the right faces for the right places.
The locker room has his back because, at the end of the day, the players in there know he has their backs.
“Anything that man wants, we are all jumping to do,” defensive tackle Moro Ojomo said. “In Vic we trust. He’s the leader of the defense and he’s going to make us the best we can be.”
