Vic Fangio has earned his influence over Eagles GM Howie Roseman. Can the Don of Defense back it up?
With great power comes great responsibility. Fangio has molded the Birds' defensive draft picks into champions. Now he is tasked with doing it again.
For better or worse, second-year defensive coordinator Vic Fangio has become the Eagles’ Bryce Harper.
Harper campaigned to re-sign catcher J.T. Realmuto and to sign Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos, and Trea Turner. Phillies president Dave Dombrowski agreed to each of Harper’s suggestions.
The result: Three straight trips to the playoffs, an NL East title, and a World Series appearance.
Fangio endorsed the selections of the Eagles’ last five picks in the first two days of the NFL draft. Last year, he advocated to take cornerback Quinyon Mitchell out of Toledo 22nd overall, in the first round. He advocated to trade up 10 spots to take cornerback Cooper DeJean 40th overall, in the second round. He advocated to take edge rusher Jalyx Hunt 94th overall, in the third round.
The result: Mitchell finished second in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting. DeJean returned an interception for a touchdown in Super Bowl LIX, a game in which Hunt collected a half-sack. All three earned Super Bowl rings on the league’s No. 1 defense.
Little wonder, then, the Don of Defense influenced general manager Howie Roseman in last week’s NFL draft.
The Birds traded up one slot to take hybrid edge/linebacker Jihaad Campbell with the 31st pick. Campbell had shoulder surgery in March. Neither he nor the team will reveal his expected return date.
They stayed at No. 64 on Day 2 of the draft and, with the last pick of the second round, took Andrew Mukuba, a 5-foot-11, 186-pound safety with nickel corner size. (They traded out of the third round).
Both of their picks come with risk.
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Both come with Fangio’s blessing.
The question:
Can Fangio do it again?
“Tremendous respect for Coach Fangio and the accomplishments he has and what he sees in defensive players,” Roseman said. “Obviously, Vic, with the success that he’s had, those conversations go deep. And so, understanding that he’s got a vision for the player, but we’ve seen what he can do with guys with this kind of skill set.”
Roseman doesn’t usually reveal specifics regarding the Eagles’ processes, so it was remarkable that he admitted how much he is leaning on Fangio to make the biggest decisions in the organization. Because high draft picks are always the biggest decision in any organization.
Think about it. Roseman never spoke this way about head coaches Doug Pederson or Nick Sirianni, even after they won a Super Bowl. But then, neither of them has the track record Fangio compiled as a coordinator in San Francisco and Chicago from 2011 to 2018. His dominant Bears defense in 2018 featured safety Eddie Jackson and linebacker Roquan Smith, future Pro Bowl players who started for Fangio as rookies.
Fangio’s single-season bona fides in Philly go further than last year’s marquee rookies. He turned special teamer Zack Baun into an All-Pro, $51 million linebacker. He got 102 playoff snaps out of Moro Ojomo, a second-year, seventh-round defensive tackle. Undrafted third-year safety Reed Blankenship intercepted four passes last season.
Now all Fangio has to do is prove himself right again. No small task, that.
The schedule will be harder.
He won’t have the playmaking that he got in the first three-quarters of the season from Brandon Graham, he won’t have the leadership the defensive end provided for 100% of the season, after Graham was injured.
He’s going to have to figure out something at linebacker, where Nakobe Dean will be coming off injury and free agent Oren Burks will be missed as a depth and leadership piece. He won’t have the consistent play and strong voice of Darius Slay, a salary-cap casualty. And he won’t have the ball-hawking skills of safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson, who provided 12 interceptions in his two seasons as an Eagle, 2022 and 2024, when he twice helped them to the Super Bowl.
Fangio, entering his 40th season as a pro football coach, enjoys, for a coordinator, a power the likes of which has never been seen in the Eagles organization.
With great power comes great responsibility.