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The “Blitz More” Portion of the Eagles’ Fan Base will Hate the Vic Fangio Hire

Kevin Kinkead

By Kevin Kinkead

Published:

New Dolphins defensive coordinator Vic Fangio. Img 9609 Syndication Palm Beach Post

Adam Schefter on a Thursday morning:

We all know the story at this point. The Eagles reportedly wanted Fangio last year, but the Jonathan Gannon and Arizona situation compromised the timeline and Fangio had already committed to the Dolphins.

I mapped out the situation in a story from 2023:

  1. the first Fangio/Miami rumor came out a few weeks prior to the Super Bowl, and on January 29th, Tom Pelissero reported that the two sides had agreed to terms on a three-year deal to make him the highest-paid coordinator in the league
  2. AFTER THAT, some rumors started to come out that Fangio had not actually signed the deal or agreed to anything at all, and he was linked to a half dozen other DC jobs
  3. days passed and there was no official announcement from Miami
  4. it was then reported on Super Bowl weekend that Fangio had signed a two-week contract with the Eagles to aid in game prep
  5. Fangio was officially named Dolphins defensive coordinator on February 15th, 2023 one day after Gannon was named Cardinals head coach

Fangio wasn’t officially announced by Miami until AFTER Gannon departed, but it doesn’t matter now. The Eagles got their guy, they just had to wait a year.

The thing about the whole Fangio/Gannon/Desai mess is that I wonder how many people calling for Fangio were Gannon supporters. Reason I ask is because Fangio and Gannon run a similar scheme, split field with the safeties, match quarters stuff. It’s true that Gannon is a Mike Zimmer disciple and what he does is certainly not a carbon copy of Fangio’s scheme, though a lot of the larger-level principles and values are the same.

For instance, I compared 2022 Gannon and 2023 Fangio through mid-December, and found:

The caveat here is that Miami dealt with a lot injuries on the defensive side of the ball. Xavien Howard, Jalen Ramsey, Bradley Chubb, Andrew Van Ginkel, Jerome Baker, etc. So Fangio was trying to make it work while navigating the loss of some key guys. Still, his defense finished top 5 in disallowing big plays, 3rd in sacks (56 total), #1 in defensive pressure percentage (27.1), and tied for 8th in takeaways (27 total).

That was all while blitzing at a 22.4% rate, which was 6th lowest in the league. Jonathan’s Gannon’s 2022 Eagles defense blitzed at a 23.2% rate, so basically a negligible difference.

You see what I’m saying though? Fangio and Gannon are similar. They’ll both sit in nickel for more than 70% of the plays, and get pressure with the front four while protecting themselves on the back end. The Eagles had a pseudo-disciple of the system, now they’ve got the architect of the system, so that’s the thing you should be excited about, even if you don’t like the basic concepts.

Fangio isn’t Bud Carson 2.0, and the portion of Eagles fans that want to see zero blitz will continue to be disappointed, but Fangio still has it and he’ll do a good job here. As long as Howie Roseman can bolster the linebacker and safety position, they should have the personnel Fangio needs to be successful. We’re just not going to see a return to Jim Johnson and Buddy Ryan principles right now. It’s just not what the current NFL is.

Kevin Kinkead
Kevin Kinkead

Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com

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