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Fake Outrage: The Eagles Also Lost a Bunch of Starters After the Super Bowl and Regressed from One of the NFL’s Best Defenses to One of the NFL’s Best Defenses
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The Eagles lost Reed Blankenship, Nakobe Dean, and Jaelan Phillips on the first day of free agency. They did not add anybody, not yet at least.
Naturally, this has the knee jerk, fake outrage wheels turning, especially at Eagles Radio 94 WIP:
How far back do our memories go? Two weeks? Three weeks?
The Eagles lost Milton Williams, Josh Sweat, Darius Slay, and Chauncey Gardner-Johnson from the Super Bowl team, and do you know how far they fell in opponent points per game the following season? They fell from 2nd to 5th. The 2024 defense allowed 17.8 points per game and the 2025 defense allowed 19.1 points per game. And the key context here is that the Birds offense was a SHELL of what it was the year prior. They weren’t controlling the clock with the run game and dominating time of possession. This unit in 2025 had to bail out the shitty offense over and over and over again. The fact of the matter is that Vic Fangio’s defense was the only thing keeping the Birds in most of these games, and is probably solely responsible for the wins against Green Bay, Detroit, and Buffalo.
That was with Drew Mukuba, Jihaad Campbell, Adoree Jackson, Jalyx Hunt, and Moro Ojomo playing a lot of snaps, filling in largely for the guys that left after winning a ring.
So what are we really complaining about here? The SAME EXACT THING happened last season and the Birds’ regression was so bad that they went from being one of the NFL’s best defenses to being one of the NFL’s best defenses.
Howie Roseman should have everyone’s trust. He got a Jordan Davis extension done, he’s got Zack Baun locked up. He nailed the draft picks of Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean, Hunt, Jalen Carter, Nolan Smith, Davis, Dean, Ojomo (7th round!), etc. Campbell looks legit and so does Mukuba. He’s got Jeremiah Trotter Jr. in the fold and year two of Ty Robinson and Mac McWilliams. He’s got a stockpile of draft picks to use and plenty of time to work in free agency.
Whether or not these young guys pan out, we’ll see, but the recent personnel track record is excellent, and as long as Fangio is here, you can feel secure about the D.
Anybody complaining about this on March 10th has the attention span of a goldfish.
GO FUCKING BIRDS
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