Eagles

Vic Fangio Says He Isn’t Worried About the Eagles Pass Rush, but Maybe He Should Be

By Matt Schultz

Published: Oct 7th, 2026 · 1:25 PM EDT

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The Eagles have 4 sacks this season. That ranks 28th in the NFL. Not good.

They have a 2.8% sack rate. That ranks 30th in the NFL. Not good.

But as concerning as those numbers sound, Vic Fangio didn’t seem too worried when asked about the pass rush during the team’s midweek press availability:

Q. Are you confident that the pass rush will get to the point where you like to see it? (Reuben Frank)

Vic Fangio: I am. I am.

Q. What gives you that confidence? (Reuben Frank)

Vic Fangio: I just believe in the guys. A lot of times too, we’ve lost two sacks the last two games due to penalties. Sometimes the ball’s coming out quick, like previous some games. I know you guys have a love affair with the sack stat, but the ball’s coming out quick a lot.

On one hand, he’s right. Sacks are overrated as a measure of a good pass rush, and relying solely on them to tell you whether you’re affecting the quarterback is a mistake. There are a bunch of other numbers to take into consideration: QB pressures, QB hurries, QB hits, time to pressure, pass rush win rate (percentage of plays where a defender beats their blocker within 2.5 seconds), etc., etc. All of these stats and more can tell you plenty. Sometimes the pass rush is doing its job even without racking up sacks. I agree with Vic on this.

The problem I’m having here, though, is that the Eagles’ pass rush is mediocre-to-bad in every other category:

• Pressures: 23 (31st)
• Pressure Rate: 16.1% (31st)
• QB Hits / Knockdowns: 9 (29th)
• Hurries: 10 (T-16th)
• Avg. Time to Pressure: 2.65 seconds (T-23rd)
• Quick Pressure Rate (< 2.5s): 16.9% (26th)
• Opponent Avg. Time to Throw: 2.86 seconds (16th)
• Overall Play Pressure Rate: 33.7% (18th)

Not good. But maybe it’s because of how fast opposing quarterbacks are getting the ball out. Vic mentioned that, and it does sound right. Remember the Bears game? Remember how quickly Case Keenum was throwing? It was infuriating. There was no time to make him uncomfortable because the ball was already gone. So maybe Vic’s right. Maybe the Eagles have just seen a ton of QBs who aren’t holding the ball long enough for the pass rush to get home. I could get on board with that. That’s a reasonable excuse…

Unfortunately, the numbers don’t back that up. Putting the Bears game aside, the Eagles opponents’ time to throw has actually been very slow or around average:

Against the Eagles, Jayden Daniels’ TTT (time to throw) was 3.48 seconds, which was the slowest in the league in Week 1. Cam Ward’s TTT was 3.22 seconds, which was the 4th slowest in Week 2. Case Keenum was slinging the ball out in 2.31 seconds on average, the 2nd fastest TTT in Week 3, which checks out. That’s how it felt. I excuse this one. But then Matthew Stafford had a 2.78 TTT, which was ranked 12th in the NFL in Week 4.

So taking all of that into account, Eagles opponents have an average time to throw of 2.86 seconds, which ranks right around league average (16th-longest / 17th-fastest among all 32 NFL defenses).

All of that to say, Fangio is wrong there. The ball isn’t coming out quick a lot. It’s coming out quick an average amount of the time.

In conclusion, I’m concerned about the Birds’ pass rush, and it’s not because I have a love affair with the sack stat. It’s because all the stats are pretty bad, which means the pass rush is pretty bad.